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Another 52-fest… the top places in the latest Sydney Hobart were again taken by 52s, the TP52s Celestial and Gweilo followed by the IRC 52 Caro (left) in third. Like previous three-time Hobart winner Ichi Ban, the Botín-designed Caro was built using TP52 tooling. In 4th place came US entry Warrior Won (above), a Judel/Vrolijk design built in 2019 to California’s Pac52 ‘rule’, so a TP52 design tweaked for offshore racing with extra freeboard, added structure and greater focus on keeping out the water. The Pac52 is a fine all-round ocean-racing solution, but if enough TP52s stay in one piece they will always be very tough to dislodge for the top prizes
consistently strong results are down to the owners and crews, whether during preparation or when actually racing. Checking the Australian 52 crews in the top 20, Celestial’s crew between them have raced 102 Hobarts excluding the latest one, Gweilo’s crew 167, Quest’s 130, of which 42 were raced by sailing master Mike Green alone! Then Patrice’s crew 150, Smuggler’s 120, Zen’s 128 and the
crew of Crush 27. And although I have never been in Australia for this race I know – and so will a lot of Seahorse readers – many of the names from meeting them at other venues around the world, in magazines and ‘online’… Thank you for making these boats tick and look so good!
Result also is that TP52s are sought after and hard to find. Certainly with age, condition and price in reasonable balance. In the end the price is not that critical, if racing regularly and somewhat seriously the running costs will be the major expense. The majority of the 100 or so boats in the TP/IRC52 fleet are really well looked after, with a few of the first examples saved by some- times near-heroic restoration projects.
It was particularly great to see the Alan Andrews-designed J-Bird
III, one of the three TP52s that started off the class in 2001, in this year’s double-handed Sydney Hobart start sailed by Ian and Annika Thomson from Queensland. Thomson found J-Bird III (now renamed J-Bird Ocean Crusaders) rotting on a mooring and spent three years restoring her. They replaced the old diesel engine with an electric drive and lithium batteries to power prop, winches and other equipment, creating, in their words, ‘a zero emissions elite racing machine, and the first of its kind in Australia. ‘Our mission is to break down barriers so electric engines become the norm, while having a vessel capable of sailing the world and competing at the front of the serious classic and coastal races.’ Thomson founded Ocean Crusaders in 2010 after smashing the record for a solo circumnavigation of Australia by 26 days, using this to launch an environmental movement focusing on clean oceans while raising his own profile so he could speak with more authority to others around the world about these issues. I know, we should follow his lead: maybe start with the support RIBs? Not compulsory and maybe not (only) electric, but hybrid or hydrogen? Why go green… If one still needs a reason, maybe just because it makes sense to ‘play the (climate) shift’. Playing the (wind) shifts right during the 2022 Sydney Hobart could have won you that race. So, finally, a deep bow to our TP52 2022 Tattersall Cup winners, Sam Haynes and team Celestial. To beat the fleet they first had to win the rather hot ‘52 Class’. Rob Weiland, TP52 Class Manager
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