News Around the World
Behind the maxis saw a relentless battle between Alive, URM
Group and Moneypenny, all from the Reichel/Pugh design office. With Anthony Johnston’s RP72 URM Group finishing third over the line to take second overall, Alive was fourth over the line followed by Moneypenny, who secured third place overall on IRC for a delighted Sean Langman, who pulled together a last-minute entry with a bunch of mates who made a late call to head south on Boxing Day. Then came the sixty-footers, with David Gotze’s R/P 63 No Limit
the seventh boat to cross the line followed by David Griffiths JV62 Whisper two hours later. For the large TP52 fleet first home was New Zealand entry Max Klink’s Caro – winner of the 2023 Fastnet – in a time of 3d 2h 30m, just ahead of Smuggler and last year’s winner Celestial. Caro’s sailing master Justin Ferris couldn’t hide his dis- appointment at not taking the overall prize here: ‘It is nice to win the battle of the TP52s but we wanted a better end to our year. But it is bloody hard to win the Hobart… a lot have tried for a long time.’ By 9am on 30 December only 35 of the 103 starters had finished
but impressively one of them was the two-handed Lombard 34 Mistral, co-skippered by Rupert Henry and Jack Bouttell, first two- handers to finish and the division winners in IRC. Reflecting on their final night at sea, Henry said, ‘It was freezing,
43kt in Storm Bay with pelting rain that hurt your eyes!’ Bouttell summed up their victory in his usual quiet manner: ‘This really was a super-technical racecourse, with big areas to get it wrong and not many areas to get it right. It was just about staying consistent and not creating any race-ending issues… meaning it was important to really talk through the strategy and tactics throughout the race.’ The overall IRC win for Phil Turner’s R/P 66 Alive caps an extra-
ordinary year for a boat that was launched in 2006 – overall honours at Hamilton Island Race Week, plus the Brisbane to Hamilton Island Race and now the Hobart. This is the second Hobart win for Alive after claiming overall honours in 2018, and is a testament to the talent and effort from a 14-strong crew that included Gavin Brady, Stu Bannatyne and navigator Adrienne Cahalan… who in 31 races south counts six line-honours wins, which also includes two triples
30 SEAHORSE
of line honours, overall win and a new race record. This year’s race was undoubtedly tough, and with no heavy running
conditions for the fleet the smaller boats struggled in the light patches and then later the strong southerlies. Arriving in Hobart after 4d 18h at sea, Chris O’Neill, co-skipper
of the doublehanded J99 Blue Planet, spoke of their final night at sea. ‘It was relentless, and I am pretty sure I have never been so cold in my life. With every scrap of clothing on I was still freezing. ‘This really is a tiny little boat without much freeboard, and there
was a lot of water coming over the boat. With that wind against current the waves were around 5m and at least four times one of us was washed off the stern… held onto the boat by a harness and shortened lifeline we then had to drag ourselves back onboard.’ Adjusting their watch schedule onboard their J99, the two crew
altered it from one hour on watch to just 10 minutes, all of this to enable five-minute naps, with O’Neill exclaiming that ‘it is remarkable how refreshing a five-minute sleep can be!’ Young round-the-world record-breaker Jessica Watson stepped
ashore after five days and almost three hours of a bruising race onboard Azurro, an S&S 34, and was asked if they broke anything on the boat – to which she replied, ‘Just the six people onboard…’ With the final boat Sylph VI arriving after eight days at sea the
crew – and ship’s cat Oli – received a rousing welcome into Hobart. The 78th edition of this race was a complex and brutal one as
the images clearly show, with a multitude of emotions and plenty to reflect on, both during and after the journey south, some connected to the results, many not. However, two particularly special moments happened onboard
Andoo Comanche and Moneypenny. It is 25 years since the tragic 1998 Hobart Race, and brothers Nathan and Peter Dean onboard Comanche paid tribute to their father John Dean, who was lost on Winston Churchillon 28 December 1998, by dropping a wreath onto the waves and taking time to reflect on those difficult, empty years. And onboard Moneypenny, two miles west of Tasman soon after the front roared through, Sean Langman released Kanga Birtles’
GSB/ALAMY
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114
