Victoire announced Tattersall Cup winner in the Rolex Sydney Hobart
by Jim Gale, RSHYR Media 30 Dec 2013 08:04 GMT
30 December 2013
Sydney plastic surgeon Darryl Hodgkinson's 50-foot Cookson/Farr design yacht Victoire is the overall winner of the 69th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) named her the winner this morning of the Tattersall's Cup after the only remaining yacht at sea that could beat her, Roger Hickman's Wild Rose ran out of time this morning, still 26 miles from the finish at 7.00am.
However, the CYCA had to run the numbers and be very sure before announcing its member Darryl Hodgkinson and his Victoire had been successful,
Victoire crossed the finish line at 0800 yesterday and became the boat to beat. As time ticked, it came down to Hickman and his Wild Rose, and it was a matter of waiting to see whether he could make enough ground to win the race, but, with the south-westerly conditions, was unable capitalise.
Due to slow going, Wild Rose is not expected to finish until lunchtime today.
It means that Hodgkinson has won at his first attempt in the 50-foot fibreglass canting keeled boat he bought from her previous British owner, Chris Bull. Bull also sailed the yacht with great success, having finished second overall in the 2010 Rolex Sydney Hobart and fourth in 2011 and again last year.
"It's an amazing achievement – and the people you gather around you – you believe in them and they believe in you. It's also having the right equipment. Crossing the line in one piece – we did have a rather nasty Chinese gybe – I had a personal taste of the water," an overjoyed Hodgkinson said this morning.
"This morning Katherine (his wife) was recounting how I came home and said I wanted to win this race. It can be a dangerous race, but the boat is so solid – and my crew – they are so good. I thought it would be a two-year program before I had a serious chance to win."
"My philosophy was to buy something tried and tested. It's a real machine, this boat. Cooksons knew what they were doing when they built it."
Hodgkinson had nothing but high praise for his crew: "Sean Kirkjian is the best helmsman around – and the way Danny (McConville) prepares the boat – he's meticulous. The whole crew is fantastic. It's a good win for the Club (CYCA) too," he said.
Generous as ever, Hodgkinson praised his opposition. "Wild Rose, it was a waiting game – Roger is always a good competitor. Sam Haynes (who finished third overall) was always going to be hot competition."
Asked how he thought the boat's previous owner, Chris Bull might feel, 'Dr Darryl' said: "Chris is a gentleman and has been so helpful. He said he would be very happy for me to win."
Just two years ago, in December 2011, Hodgkinson was named the CYCA's 2011 Ocean Racing Rookie of the Year. Unusually, just a year later, he was named Ocean Racer of the Year following many successes, including winning the Club's Blue Water Point Score with his previous Victoire, a Beneteau 45.
The latest Victoire, built in New Zealand by Cookson's and known as a Cookson 50, but designed by Bruce Farr, wins the race from Phil Simpfendorfer's Victorian yacht Veloce and Celestial (Sam Haynes, NSW)
So, Victoire not only wins the Tattersall's trophy as overall winner of the race after Wild Oats XI took line honours. Victoire also wins the ORCi class.
The remaining 11 in the Clipper fleet are all about to finish, as are the five Sydney 38s, both divisions having enjoyed close competition throughout the race.
No more yachts retired overnight as conditions around the Tasmanian coast abated and the south-west winds began to give way to lighter and more favourable westerlies.
www.rolexsydneyhobart.com
Victoire operation went oh so well
It was a long wait in Hobart wondering if Wild Rose would snatch a last minute win, but at last Victoire skipper Darryl Hodgkinson has his surgeon's hands on the Tattersall's Cup - literally.
This morning, shortly after Victoire was officially declared the overall winner of the 2013 Rolex Sydney Hobart, Rolex Australia General Manager Patrick Boutellier presented Hodgkinson with a Rolex timepiece and Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Commodore Howard Piggott handed him the most coveted prize in Australian yachting.
A 65th birthday present to himself has paid off for 'Dr Darryl', as he is known.
"Nine months ago I came home and I said 'Honey, I'm going to buy this boat which I think has a good chance of winning the Hobart'," Hodgkinson recounted.
"I said it would be a two-year project. That was for my 65th birthday, so she couldn't say 'no' I guess."
He was full of praise for his crew.
"I choose very good people, whom I trust. We don't fly in a lot of expensive people. We sail weekends, Friday nights together. We started off in 2007 on Sydney 38s, then moved up to a 45-footer - and now this," he said of the canting keeled Cookson 50, formerly known as Jazz.
"Sean Kirkjian, our tactician and helmsman, plays chess - ocean chess - so all the time he wants to know exactly where this boat and that boat is, and what they're doing.
"The black boat Varuna (Jen's Kellinghusen's Ker 51 from Germany) was the one we watched most closely, because she's fast, so we knew if we could keep matching her we knew we were doing OK in the fleet."
By ocean racing standards, these days Hodgkinson and his mates have done it all on a very modest budget.
"We're the least funded in this group. In IRC you've got $5 million boats that you're racing against, so, yes, it does give you a special boost to be able to compete against better financed boats.
"We race within our means, but I never do anything that would compromise the boat. Some think 'It's probably alright, we'll repair that next year', but we don't do that. When you come to a Hobart you don't do that, you want it perfect.
If there was a weakness in Victoire's preparation for the Hobart it was for heavy weather. They took her to races up and down the coast searching for big winds to test themselves and the new boat, and found none.
Perhaps that accounts for the spectacular Chinese gybe they performed about 100 miles into the race.
"Our one dumb decision was not to take the big 'chute down earlier. We talked about it for two or three hours," he said.
But the boat was flying, Hodginson and his crew were at the back of the boat, perched on the rail, having a ball, high above the rushing water, right up to the moment the spinnaker took control and the boat broached beneath the big sail.
Suddenly, Hodgkinson wasn't above the water, he was in it as the windward rail became the leeward rail.
"Once the boat tipped over and we had the Chinese the decision was made," he joked.
"Fortunately we had some smart people who knew what to do with the (canting) keel, because, with it out to one side, it's actually holding you over instead of righting the boat like a fixed keel," he said.
"There's nothing to bring you back up. They pressed the button, the keel went over to the other side, it brought us up, someone dragged me into the centre of the boat, the 'chute came down and then bang, we just snapped out the spinnaker staysail and we were off again."
It wasn't all so hectic, though.
"Coming across Bass Strait it was crystal clear and there was a light breeze. We were looking up at the stars and saying,'this is heaven', knowing it would turn into hell soon."
Sure enough, the wind and seas kicked in as they rocketed down the Tasmanian coast towards Hobart and eventual victory.
"Chris Bull (Victoire's former owner, who raced her as Jazz) has been so supportive. He said to me that she'd come second twice and this was her year.
"She should have won a couple of times, but the wind dropped out. This time it held."