Sydney to Hobart Report

Home

News

Sydney to Hobart Report

03-Feb-2009

SYDNEY-HOBART RACE 2008

You always wonder how good your crew is. How they are going to deal with something from left field. You never really know how good a team is.

In the 2008 Hobart I had the opportunity to be pleasantly surprised.

We are banging down the NSW coast when somebody said “that’s a flare isn’t it?”

I looked out to the starboard bow and saw a bright red light. A couple of crew members reported it. Craig Simpson took a bearing 20 degrees magnetic. We set up to jibe the boat. Our navigator reported that the boat was Georgia and it was sinking. Merit had acknowledged their Mayday and so had another boat and ourselves. We were asked to attend at this stage.

We made a jibe and set a course of 200 magnetic. By now the flare had extinguished and it was a black night again. Although Venus was doing her best to impersonate a helicopter it was a very black night. About 10 minutes later we started seeing navigation lights of 2 maybe 3 boats. We are coming in quite quickly with spinnaker up. Coming in about 15 knots plus. A radio call to Race Control confirmed that Merit had the situation in hand and we were not needed. We jibed back to the port jibe and away we went back into the darkness leaving our best wishes with team Georgia and the Merit team.

I believe Merit did and excellent job of transferring everyone on board to the police launch by daylight. To my mind Merit displayed great seamanship and more importantly demonstrated the first law of the sea – “always, always render assistance”. It is not negotiable for us mariners.

With the boat back to port jibe and heading south at about 170deg I had time to review my crew’s performance. It all happened very smoothly and I must admit I felt very proud and confident of this team. I remember thinking it was not always the case …

We started getting ready at the beginning of the winter series At the end of the winter series I had what I thought was a real team. We crashed in the Southport and I was reminded that harbour racing doesn’t prepare an ocean racing team, so a rebuild was in order.

When Bill Sylvester’s team returned the boat back from the Northern Youth Programme where he had some 600 kids and carers at some five ports. I am not sure about gin count but I believe it was not excessive anyway, I must mention Sharon Bond’s effort as well as Gordon Reid, Pat Breese and lots of volunteers. Well done guys, you put a smile on lots of kids faces. We also had great media – television, radio and press – thanks Evonne.

But I digress …

Heading south …. It is going to be fun.

We have started talking to Bruce Buckley our weatherman but he tells me 6 weeks out is too soon to give us a weather forecast. Cut (Tim Cutfield) has joined the team, George Johnstone, Kirk Watson – good to have Kirky back on board,, Mark Thompson – all round good sailor and delivery skipper. Still having trouble sorting out the bow. Missing Jo of Jo and Josh fame. Bridget Canham. With Al in the sewer we knew everything down there would be alright. Frank Walker came on board for navigator. So you can see I really had a strong team.

It is funny about Hobart there is months of preparation then all of a sudden you are on the starting line a couple of boats jostle for line the gun goes bang I think the main thought was to keep out of trouble and get out of the Heads.

That evening saw is down the NSW coast at speeds of about 25 knots. The first 24 hours of the race saw Kayle (SWD) break her best ever run doing some 275 miles 1pm to 1pm. So we are fairly honking it and sailing pointed into Bass Strait We are 151°30min East and starting to make that inevitable decision of when to jibe back. A couple of short jibes to test it and then there we go on a starboard jibe to line up the Tasman light and away we go.

A very fast race. We moved all the sails back out of the bow. Everything of any weight is now in the back of the boat. Drivers are doing a great job. The next question is do we go in close to the Tasman light or stand off? Unfortunately we go in a bit close, dropped off the wave at 15 knots, hit the bottom of it at zero. Spend the next three hours getting back into the breeze.

A weak South Easter took us around the light and bang into a fresh WSW across Storm Bay and up the Derwent with our bow problems long behind us. Alan, Tim and Tony had turned into a very strong bow team. I handed the wheel to Kirk Watson just after the Iron Pot and Kirkie took us across the line.

And so ended the 2008 Sydney-Hobart. I thought it was 18 or maybe even 17 times I have lost count. Anyway it is way too many. We ended up with a 3^rd, 4^th or 5^th – I think it was a 4^thin the wash up not 1^st like the previous year.

It is not really about winning. You see the big motor sailors taking line honours. They have to have their engines running to drive their winches. It is about camaraderie. It is about friendship. It is about why men and women have been going to sea. Like somebody said “we came off a wave at a best speed of 28 knots”. Somebody said “It is the best fun you can have out of bed.” Somebody else said “It is the best fun you can have.”

It is interesting that long before the dinosaurs, before there was anything on land the sea was there. We are part of it. It is amazing.

I must admit a little part inside me says next year we can do better.