Balance in the box seat in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
by Di Pearson, RSHYR media 30 Dec 2015 07:09 GMT
27 December 2015
The Money Man or the boat bought on a credit card?
Paul Clitheroe is one of just a dozen yachts to have finished the 2015 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, and since doing so, has been in the box seat to claim overall honours in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's 628 nautical mile race.
Now Clitheroe, known to the public as the 'Money Man', has to sit and wait for the smallest and second oldest boat in the fleet to finish to discover whether his TP52 Balance has won the race – or not. Will the 'Balance' be tipped in his favour remains to be seen.
Shane Kearns has sailed his 34 year-old Quikpoint Azzurro into the lead, but at 12.30pm today, was 12 nautical miles east of Cape Sonnerat, 99 miles from the finish line in Hobart. The S&S34 was powering in a building nor' easter, getting up to 8.8 knots out of the old yacht he found sinking and purchased on a credit card for $23,000 last year.
Kearns needs to finish the race by 4.43am tomorrow morning to take the Tattersall's Cup from Balance, and at the moment, based on conditions and his boat speed, should finish by dusk this evening. However, this is the time when the River Derwent likes to shut down – the wind gods depriving the river, and therefore sailing boats, of breeze.
Quikpoint Azzurro is likely to round Tasman Island late this afternoon, but what awaits her around the corner will decide who wins.
Kearns has a dream. He won the Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race in August, his first ever major race win. Even more importantly to the Sydneysider, he beat 'Hicko' – Roger Hickman and Wild Rose and dubbed his boat 'the little boat that could'.
Meanwhile, one would expect Paul Clitheroe and crew to be pacing the docks, waiting to see if 'the little boat that could will take the prize from him. But you would be wrong. Clitheroe is not like other owners – nothing like them.
"No, I'm not pacing like an expectant father. There's nothing I can do about it. Obviously it would be an enormous honour to win this wonderful race," the CYCA Director said, "but hey, I've won Division 1 and nobody can take that from me. How cool is that?"
So what is Clitheroe doing to while away the hours – he will probably not know his fate until very late tonight or into the early hours of tomorrow morning. "We had a small diesel spill and it's made the boat stink. Me and the crew are here scrubbing the boat, trying to get rid of the smell," he said.
"We want to take it from smelling like a diesel swamp to smelling like a boat again," he said laughing.
Back on the subject of Quikpoint Azzurro, Clitheroe says: "Hey, if the little boat can knock us off, good luck to them. I'll be the first one on the dock congratulating them."
The Derwent can be cruel or kind
Teasing Machine, who looked to be in the box seat to claim the Rolex Sydney Hobart on IRC, and Celestial were both defeated by the Derwent this morning as they drifted to the finish well over five hours beyond what was first estimated.
Quickpoint Azzuro meanwhile around the Cape has blistering pace, basically at or above hull speed of 9 knots and has moved to number one on the IRC leader board over "club house" leaders Balance. Will they be able to maintain their pace? Who knows, but what I do know is that we will know who the winner IRC is come 0400 tomorrow morning!
For now, we have covered well over the top ten on line honours, and will continue to cover the overall IRC. A big thanks to our "friends", Zhik for bringing you our broadcasts, SailingLog by BoatBook and Optical Solutions Australia for all of the assistance with our Rolex Sydney Hobart broadcast and beyond, and to GAC Pindar for support over the past year.
If you would like to see more, we are looking for "Friends" to join the adventure, and we will open up a crowd-funding site as well, so stay tuned for that.
Thanks to all for the support, and the amazing comments - and most importantly for sharing the adventures...
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Eric's dream (by Bruce Montgomery, RSHYR media)
French sailor Eric de Turckheim dominated racing in Cowes Week off the English coast this year in his 40ft Archambault, Teasing Machine. Although De Turckheim welcomed the success, he still wished to fulfil a dream he held since he was 18, a few moons ago. He dreamed of doing a Hobart.
So, having won the Channel Race this year, won its class in Cowes Week and having finished second overall in the Rolex Fastnet Race, Teasing Machine was put aboard a container ship in France and shipped to Sydney for the start of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race on Boxing Day.
With a reputation like that, particularly in heavy weather, everyone in the race kept their eye on Teasing Machine for overall honours in the Hobart race and for most of the race, she was the gun boat.
Then the Frenchmen encountered the River Derwent for the first time and she decided to shut the gate on them, until the breeze filled after sunrise this morning.
Teasing Machine was the 11th yacht to cross the line, sailing in at 0918, robbed of overall honours by the winds of the former colony that French navigators had once charted.
"When you are sailing you cannot be disappointed," de Turckheim said, leaning over the rail of the boat at King's marina.
"A race is a race. You know that, especially with the overall, you can have different conditions.
"I always say that in sailing you cannot be arrogant. You cannot think you can win, whatever.
"We arrived in a very good time; we had a great race overall, very varied conditions, we had a tough time at the beginning but we know how to deal with that. We have a very fast boat, especially in heavy conditions.
"That first night it was very manageable; we have two reefs and a heavy jib; we managed very well, no problem at all.
"We went out to sea. We saw it coming on. It was very brutal and then that was it; we just went down south as much as we could. We had to deal with the next transition.
"Then 10 miles from the finish, you are stuck with no wind at all for four or five hours. You know what the result is; there is no question.
"It is a great race anyway. For me it was always a dream when I was a kid, offshore racing when I was 18, to do the Hobart race. To be here is such a great pleasure. There is nothing to describe it. When you have fulfilled your dreams, it is great.
"It has been a very good year for us, overall a very good season."
Teasing Machine's next race is the Caribbean 600, starting on February 22, so the boat will sail back to Sydney to be put aboard a container ship for the second time this year. She'll be sent to Panama, before a skeleton crew sails her to Antigua ahead of racing.
Having realised his dream of competing in the Hobart, Eric hopes to be back again one day in an attempt to win the blue water classic.
"I will certainly consider to do it again because, you know, I say, dreams are dreams. Once, yes, good. You have to come back."
www.rolexsydneyhobart.com