Veterans' day in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race
by Jim Gale, RSHYR Media 29 Dec 2014 07:42 GMT
28 December 2014
Have a look at the IRC standings, the list of boats leading the Rolex Sydney Hobart overall on handicap; it's a long time since such venerable names have graced the top of the list en masse as they do today.
Leading on handicap is Roger Hickman's Wild Rose, a 29 year old Farr 43. In second place Simon Kurts' Love & War, the beautiful S&S 47 that first graced the ocean racing scene in late 1973. And then there is Sean Langman's 82-year-old Maluka of Kermandie, the oldest and smallest boat in the fleet, in third place.
In these days of modern lightweight carbon fibre flyers it is a trio to savour.
In fact all three have been hovering at the top of the leader board for the past 36 hours, testimony to the unusual nature of this 70th Hobart. Normally the bigger, faster boats race away from the smaller and heavier displacement yachts, and then when the big guys are safely tucked up in port, Huey is just as likely to throw a monster southerly front through the back half of the fleet for good measure.
This year, though, when southerlies made an equal fleet, light weather plagued the big guys in Bass Strait while further back fresh northerlies whipped the little fellas along.
Love & War has won the Hobart three times already, in 1974, 1978 and 2006. She also won the Veterans division in 1994 and 2004. She is a heavy, powerful IOR boat, in her element on Friday when the fleet bashed its way into a strong southerly and spiteful seas.
Kurts leads a crew with huge experience, including the legendary Lindsay May as navigator. Sailing his 41st Hobart, nobody knows the east Australian currents better than May, who exploited them to perfection to skipper Love and War to victory in 2006.
Sean Langman is one of the great characters of the Rolex Sydney Hobart. He first came to fame in the so called skiff on steroids, the 66 foot Zena, later known as AAPT that seemed to set new standards of daredevilry each year.
AAPT never managed to run down the big maxis, but it was always fun. He moved up to the maxis for a time, but found them staid after the thrills of AAPT and surprised everyone when he began racing the little timber Maluka of Kermandie to Hobart in 2006. After all that big-boat glamour he had found his love in a little 30-foot gaffer.
Roger Hickman has been in love with Wild Rose since she was first raced by Bob Oatley of Wild Oats fame. There may be no fiercer or cannier competitor in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. He is famous for driving his boat and crew to the limit.
All three boats are displacement boats. They go through the water, not over it. In big winds they can be a little too exciting though, as the bow digs in and the mast suddenly lies parallel to the water.
"We had a massive broach in 30 knots this morning with the spinnaker up," Jenifer Wells, Wild Rose's navigator reported. "We laid her over a couple of times, broke the steering cable and it was looking very dicey.
"We got out the emergency tiller and pulled the kite down, repaired the cable and we were back racing in 12 minutes."
Wells admits that dark memories of two previous dismastings in similar conditions were going through their minds, "but we're trucking again and getting bursts of 20 knots over the ground."
Everyone on board is excited about the position Wild Rose is in as she closes in on Tasman Island. "It is absolutely fabulous," Wells said. "We got a message from someone in France saying this is an example everyone should follow – a 29-year-old boat and still competitive in one of the world's most famous races," she said.
"To have Wild Rose, Love & War and Maluka fighting it out is fabulous."
Of course all three have a way to go, and the famous Derwent River evening shut-down still has to be avoided. There are big storms today in the region and it is threatening to get light in Storm Bay.
And broaching isn't the only danger the crew of Wild Rose faces. They came close to a crisis on Friday night in that lumpy, testing southerly.
"Hicko was absolutely in his element," Wells said. "He was enjoying the conditions so much we thought he would break out into song." If they win, he will.
Giacomo limps into dock (by Di Pearson, RSHYR media)
The New Zealand Volvo 70 Giacomo limped into Kings Street Pier in Hobart at midday today, minus her towering rig, her crew dejected but determined to come back and do the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race again.
Owner, Jim Delegat, was visibly disappointed, as he might be; having taken measures to make sure their boat would be up to beating sistership, Black Jack (Peter Harburg) over the line this year, after the reverse happened last year.
Instead, Delegat, owner of Delegat Wines, is facing a bill of around $400,000, should he have to buy a new rig and replace the sails lost, after dismasting while sailing under spinnaker in hard north-easterly winds 21 nautical miles north-east of Cape Sonnerat at around 5.00pm yesterday.
Although he may opt to purchase an existing V70 rig; there are plenty of spares lying idle from the last VOR. Even that would cost him $50,000 plus sails and transport. It would leave no change from $100,000.
"We are yet to reflect on why the rig came down," Delegat said aboard his yacht today. "We've made some improvements and have been very happy with boat and its speed.
"We were sailing on port tack and the mast just bent forward when the breeze stiffened up. We had the rig cut away within an hour. I have a very good crew and we were very prepared for this Hobart – prepared even for a catastrophe.
Delegat is left wondering how they survived the harsh southerlies at the beginning of the race, only to lose the mast in conditions the boat was suited to later on.
"It was a nasty start and the first 24 hours," said Delegat whose 18 year-old son Nikolas was undertaking his first Hobart aboard the yacht.
"Nikolas has done a lot of sailing with me, long passages, so he handled it well," Delegat said.
"Of course there was disappointment, but it was mixed with reality as well – it's part of sailing. We have the right people on board, there was a great sense of calm and we are comfortable with the decisions we made," the New Zealander said.
Will he be back? "I've got other plans for the next year, but I would like to try it again," he said.
Don't tell the wife... (by Di Pearson, RSHYR media)
Ever wondered about the cost of breaking and damaging gear – and the repercussions of it in a long race such as the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race? Well wonder no longer. Three boat owners confidentially whispered this morning "Don't tell the wife, but...."
Robert Date, owner of the RP52, Scarlet Runner's year got more expensive than expected when a big Chinese gybe flattened the boat a couple of times, pushing his helmsman, 'Disco', through one of the carbon fibre wheels, cracking it. "Two to three grand," quipped Jono Morris of McConaghy boat builders.
A couple of spinnakers and other sails later; "another 20 to 30 grand each," says Morris who saw the bills adding up on Anthony Bell's Perpetual Loyal, which he was sailing aboard in this year's race.
Date's wife was aboard the docked Scarlet Runner in Hobart this morning - and he could not bear to tell of the damage in front of her. It might end with some costly jewellery, or a new kitchen, as is often the case. Many a wife has said: "Well you spent such and such on the boat, I want a new kitchen".
Same story aboard last year's overall winner, Victoire, where owner Darryl Hodgkinson made the comment: "Well, we won't be eating meat for a while; we tore a couple of costly sails. I'll have to find a way to tell Katherine... (his wife)."
However, Dr Darryl is among the luckier ones. Katherine full supports his hobby, inclusive of buying him new sails for Christmas on a regular basis, knowing full well the weather could tear them up in a fit of pique.
Katherine was, as usual, waiting to greet him at the end of Victoire's race this morning, a big smile on her face.
On Balance, a TP52, Paul Clitheroe had a similar tale of woe. "Where do I start...? First the generator wouldn't go, we eventually fixed that, but we broke gear like everyone else."
Clitheroe is in the fortunate position of being a financial whizz, so will figure a way to make the money back quickly – life is, after all, all about balance, according to him.
Ray Roberts, the owner of the Farr 55, OneSails Racing, was grateful his boat has twin rudders. Tackling a sunfish, half of the port rudder sheared off on the Tasmanian Coast yesterday. "It's not easy steering a boat when one of the rudders is gone – it's quite unbalanced – thank God we had two," he said smiling, more concerned about daughter Sam's new light pink hair than he was about the rudder.
Roberts is also fortunate that any torn sails will be repaired by his on board Sailmaker, Bruce Anson from OneSails – a company Roberts has a shareholding in.
The bigger boats were not immune either. CYCA director, Andrew Wenham tore up a few thousand dollars when he watched his sails rip in front of his eyes.
No matter, they are all happy when they reach the Hobart finish line, escorted by the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania (the finishing partner of the CYCA's race) to their berths. There is nothing like the warm welcome Tasmanians offer and a cold beer, delivered to the boat by local volunteers. You can't beat it.
This morning at 9.30am, 21 yachts had crossed the Castray Esplanade finish line of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Twelve retirements have been noted, the latest this morning when the Victorian yacht, A Cunning Plan (Jon Lechte) reported rig damage. All on board are fine.
The hard running conditions of yesterday continue to prevail, continuing to bring the yachts home one after one in quick succession.
Victoire's daring crab-pot adventure (by Jim Gale, RSHYR media)
As the boats dock in Hobart so do the stories. Everyone has a tale to tell, some funny, some of outright terror, some apocryphal to tell about the Rolex Sydney Hobart. This morning Daryl Hodgkinson jumped off his Cookson 50 Victoire with a yarn about crabs, pots and British pluck under fire.
Looking more like a teenager than a respected Sydney plastic surgeon, Hodgkinson bounds up from the depths of his boat clutching a scrappy bit of green rope attached to two deflated rubber buoys.
"Look at this. I've got to show you my new trophy. It will go in my trophy room alongside the Tattersalls Cup.
"We were going so slowly and Pretty Fly III went right past us, and we couldn't work out what was going wrong. We'd had problems with our speed all night, and there had been a funny noise. Then the boys saw we had this crab pot around the keel.
"And my bowman, Micky Slinn, an ex-British military guy says lower me over the side on a halyard and I'll get it. It's one of the bravest things I have ever seen in my life. I was scared stiff. We're going at 11 or 12 knots and he's dangling down the side, head down, dripping wet, and we pull him back up - and there's our trophy - Incredible."
The nuggetty Slinn would have nothing of Hodgkinson's praise this morning, dodging past the media with a grin and a "nothing to say: name, rank and serial number only." However, for his skipper, the whole thing said volumes about the quality of Victoire's crew.
"It was a magic moment. He didn't have to do that. My attitude would have been that we would have been okay on handicap but no, they had to get this thing sorted," he beamed, in talking about the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's 70th edition race.
Victoire's wasn't the only fishy story to wash ashore in Hobart this morning, with a shark reportedly struck and those damn sunfish getting in the way again too.
Onesails Racing was clocking about 22 knots in a belting northerly and looking set for a strong divisional finish when the boat shuddered to a screeching halt off the Tasmanian coast.
The terrifying sound of shredding carbon had the off-watch crew jumping from their bunks in their thermals to inspect for damage. With the hull OK, they looked to the appendages.
"I'm pretty sure we hit a sunfish and that brought the boat to a shuddering stop,'' owner/skipper Ray Roberts said. "She went into a wild gybe; we laid her flat in the ocean, got a lot of water on board.
"The good thing was none of the crew was hurt, and fortunately we still had one rudder, though it was hard to steer."
The yacht was forced to limp at about 8 knots, well shy of the 20 plus she'd hoped to maintain until the finish. "But at least we made it," Roberts said.
While all this was happening Patrice skipper Tony Kirby was having flashbacks to last year, when his then brand new Ker 46 broke in rough seas off Tasmania's coast and retired.
This time, just near Maria Island, the boat hit a bump, her steering became impossible and she felt oddly heavy.
"We got this shark caught around the rudder and went from 18 knots to not much," Kirby said. "Losing steering in 35 knots at night is pretty scary. We dropped the spinnaker and spun her around.
"While this was going on, Pretty Fly III was racing towards us at about 22 knots, so we were pretty quick to radio them and warn of our position.
"Luckily, and I don't know how, we didn't break the rudder. We saw the shark just flop off, and swim away. So, we were both ok.
"But my worst thought the whole time was that it had happened again, we might not finish. But the crew was great."
Balance skipper Paul Clitheroe served up some squid with a shake of skepticism
"The only fishy story, which is true, is because the waves tend to break down the full length of the boat here, we did end up with some decent sized squid," he said.
"We tend to get fish and stuff caught in our life rafts.
"Impaling sharks? Yeah, right, and I saw a Martian."
The winners of last year's race, the crew on Victoire knew their title defence was over early on Saturday morning, before they even got to Bass Strait. They could see that this was to be the year of the small boats, and there was nothing the 50 and 60 footers could do about it.
"We could see that they had a breeze to bring them down the New South Wales coast, while there was a hole in Bass Strait we couldn't avoid," Hodgkinson said. "Fortunately the other boats in or division were in the same hole too."
With their hopes of an outright win dashed, the mid-sized boats settled down for some serious divisional racing. Victoire and Pretty Fly III engaged in a close-fought match race that would see them cross the line 400 miles later just a minute and a half apart after an engrossing duel up the Derwent River in a light breeze.
"Who would have thought you could match race up to the very last after 628 miles," a delighted Hodgkinson said. He thinks he has won the match race and the division, Division 0.
The Victoire crew has a remarkable Hobart record. "We've done the race four times in the last five years and won our division each time, as well as winning the race overall last year.
"I'm proud of the boat, our crew, the record of our team, and I've forgotten already all the terrible things that happen."
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