Cable finishes his 47th Rolex Sydney Hobart
by Danielle McKay 30 Dec 2012 06:29 GMT
30 December 2012
Race veteran Tony Cable's record 47th Rolex Sydney Hobart was his chance to make amends after being forced to retire from last's year race - and it was a success.
The 70-year-old Sydney yachtsman crossed the finish line on board Damien Parkes' Duende just after 1100hours AEDT, after three days, 22 hours, nine minutes at sea.
"It wasn't one of the easiest ones, but it wasn't one of the hardest by far," he said.
"We were working very hard - the conditions were over 30 knots - which makes it hard work, but everyone was more than capable."
Reaching Hobart is what has kept Cable returning to the race since he first competed as a 19-year-old in 1961 on board 33-foot yacht Tarni, racing bare-foot, under the steam of cotton sails.
When Cable was forced to retire to Eden last year when Duende had engine trouble, he booked a ticket to Tasmania so he wouldn't miss out on the revelry.
"I've definitely made amends now," said the man they call 'Glarke Cable', a play on famous actor Clark Gable. "You hate having to pull out. With all the work you put into doing a Hobart race, to pull out after half a day, a day, it's so disappointing."
While most are quick to say "never again" when they're docking at Hobart's Constitution Dock, with battle-wounds still raw from the 628 nautical mile ocean challenge, Cable says he'll likely be back.
Drying off dockside, after falling in to the harbour while unloading the yacht, he said he's leaving it in the lap of the gods.
"We'll see what Huey (the weather God) has in store," he said. "There's a year to go, so who know what will happen. It will be hard to give up Hobart."
Paralympian even more addicted after second Rolex Sydney Hobart
Liesl Tesch and her life partner Mark Thomson - photo © CYCA Staff
Just minutes after completing her second Rolex Sydney Hobart, one of Australia's most successful athletes, Liesl Tesch, has confirmed her sights are set on her seventh Paralympic Games.
It's the speed that did it in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's race this year though. Racing in excess of 25 knots on board the TP52, Sailors with DisABILITIES, in the 628 nautical mile southern dash has well and truly affirmed Tesch's addiction to the sport of sailing.
In a move that many would consider certifiable, she'll be back on board the yacht in less than 48 hours to take her back to Sydney - after a couple of rums and scallop pies, of course.
"Getting 41 knots from behind and going 25.1 knots downhill as the full moon rose and a rainbow broke from the moonlight; how magical is that,'' she said.
It was a much tougher Sydney Hobart for Tesch, who is an incomplete paraplegic as a result of a bike accident in 1988, compared to her debut race in 2009.
First, there was a bout of sea sickness coming out of Sydney Harbour that not even her tried and tested cure-all of miso soup could help.
Then there were the violent conditions, brewed by a sou'wester off Tasmania's east coast, which added to the challenge of racing the notoriously temperamental TP52. Though the only sign of any physical toll is Tesch's chipped nail. Even they're sailing inspired - her left hand is painted red for the port side, and her right is green for starboard.
"We got smashed harder and in different ways than what we did last time," she said.
"It makes finishing that little bit sweeter. It's an overwhelming feeling; you just feel these bursts of joy coming out of you."
The crew crossed the finish line at Hobart's Castray Esplanade just after 0900hours AEDT, after three days, 20 hours, four minutes and two seconds at sea.
It's a far cry from racing the two-person SKUD dinghy at the London Paralympic Games, where Tesch won gold with her skipper Dan Fitzgibbon. It was her sixth Paralympics, having scored two silvers and a bronze as a member of the wheelchair basketball team, the Gliders.
"In the Paralympics I was a perfectly trained monkey," she said laughing. "There were just six pieces of string to pull; one tiny little boat. This thing is so big and so complex, it's really challenging to take in all the things going on."
Now, she's turning her sights to the Rio Games in 2016. "Rio's always been on my mind, I'll get back to that now," she said.
It just wasn't mean to be for Taylor (from Bruce Montgomery)
Drew and Bruce Taylor have completed their 21st Sydney Hobart together - photo © Bruce Montgomery
It was not to be - perhaps it is never meant to be - Victorian yachtsman Bruce Taylor has won everything in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, except line honours and the Tattersall's Cup for the overall winner on corrected time.
Taylor has now sailed the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's 628 nautical mile course 32 times and the big ones have eluded him again. His son Drew has sailed 21, all with his father. They have 10 divisional wins across their six Chutzpahs.
This morning, after pulling into Hobart's Kings Pier, Bruce, a dentist from Victoria, leapt ashore to bemoan his lot, cheerfully, with the press.
"There you go; there's another one. This was one with the lot," he said. "If there were holes out there we found them.
"Our biggest blue was to go into the Tasmanian coast so close that we sailed inside Maria Island. We'd been expecting a south-westerly to get out; we got a south-easterly."
Taylor Snr. said their advance weather routing led them to expect 70 per cent downhill sailing, but they only got about 20 per cent.
Then, of course, there were the eyes of the crew the day before, when, one-third of the way across Bass Strait, they had the spinnaker up and wind gusted to 42 knots.
"I'll never forget the look on their faces," Taylor said.
Will there be a 33rd Hobart race?
"If they (the crew) want to do it again, I'll do it again. You don't want to be out there going round Tasman in a howling gale without a crew like this," he said.
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