On A Wind And A Prayer
THE SUNDAY AGE
Sunday December 26, 1993
AT 1PM today, Robert de Castella will fire an antique cannon on the official starting boat, moored off Shark Island in Sydney Harbor, to signal the start of the 49th Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race.
One hundred and six of Australia's top ocean racers, many of them new, will charge across the starting line jockeying for positions as they head down the harbor and out past Sydney Heads for the 630-nautical- mile journey to Hobart.
The start of the race is unlike any other, and it's no place for the faint-hearted. Most boats aim to get out on the harbor about an hour before the start to find the best end of the line to start from and to sail up to the heads to test the wind and sea conditions.
The mood on board is sober, and at times strained with the tension of the moment. Crews contemplate what is in store for them in the days ahead. The old hands remember the storms of 1977 and 1984 that caused havoc with the fleet. The younger and less experienced are apprehensive.
In 1984, only 46 of the 157 starters finished the race after a 40-knot south-easterly wind and punishing seas battered the fleet on the first day.
Will Bass Strait live up to its notorious reputation? This dangerous piece of water can produce knife-edge waves that come at the boat from three different directions to catch the unwary helmsman. Yachts fall off the back of these waves into the trough behind, landing with a sickening bang that sends gear below flying across the cabin as the mast shakes alarmingly.
Freezing waves break over the bow and pour down the deck, saturating the crew sitting on the rail. The wind can blow more than 50knots, flinging up stinging spray so strong that helmsmen have to wear goggles to protect their eyes as they fight to control the boat.
The crews will be cold and wet, they will be hungry, they will be tired, they will be bruised, some will be seasick and others will be simply frightened by the conditions. They will wonder what the hell they are doing there.
All this will be going through the minds of more than 1000 men and women as the clock counts down to the start.
With 10 minutes to go, a warning gun is fired. This is the signal for the boats to start manoeuvring for position on the starting line.
In the past few years, the Cruising Yacht Club has started the race from two lines 100 metres apart. The bigger and faster yachts start on the front one, with the smaller boats on the second line.
With five minutes to go, another gun is fired. The tension rises and the adrenalin flows as helmsmen throw large ocean racers around like dinghies and crews strain at winches to wind in sails as yachts tack, only metres apart, trying to gain an advantage so they can cross the line the second the starting gun is fired.
These are heart-stopping moments as helmsmen find impossibly small gaps to put their boats through. The cacophony of sound is almost deafening as bowmen call for right-of-way or give some very explicit advice to the helmsman of another yacht that does not respond quickly enough. The tacticians are calling the moves and the navigators are calling down the seconds to go.
HEARTS thump, pulses rise and stomachs churn as the seconds run down to the starting gun. Then comes the charge down the harbor to the turning mark at the heads. Crews work feverishly to keep the sails trimmed and the boat moving at maximum speed, all the time conscious of the solid wall of boats around them, all trying to gain that extra boat length over each other. The bigger boats battle for the prestige of being the first out of Sydney Heads.
It is only when the boats have cleared the heads that the tension drops away and the crews settle down to a routine of watches, usually four hours on and fours hours off, for the next three to four days as they pace themselves for the long haul south.
For some _ like 16-year-old Andrew Macintosh, who is sailing on one of the oldest boats in the fleet, Boomaroo, a 21-year-old S&S 34 from Queensland, skippered by his father _ it will be his first race and a great adventure. For others, it will be all very familiar.
Some of the old hands have sailed in more than 25 races. This year, Victoria's Lou Abrahams will line up for his 31st trip to Hobart, 28 of them as owner/skipper of a boat _ a record.
The Sydney-to-Hobart is recognised as being the toughest middle- distance race in the world. A sailor who has done a Hobart race commands considerable respect in yachting circles worldwide.
The race has come a long way since just nine boats turned right at Sydney Heads on Boxing Day 1945. Despite dismastings, damaged rudders, rigging failures, shredded sails, bent keels, damaged hulls, encounters with giant sunfish and whales and the odd grounding over the years, not one boat has been lost.
OF THE thousands of yachtsmen and women who have sailed in the race, only four lives have been lost. Two sailors died of heart attacks during the race, one was never recovered when he was pitched out of a hatchway into the sea during the 1984 storm and another died as a runner-block he was sitting next to exploded.
What attracts so many people to such a physically demanding and, at times, soul-destroying event? Some do the race for the prestige of it, some want the challenge, others want the glory of winning, others want to beat their rivals, and others sail in it because it is the race to do.
It's all summed up by the laconic Syd Fischer, 65, who this year sails his 25th race: ``What else would you do between Christmas and New Year?" To win a Sydney-to-Hobart race takes planning and a lot of luck. Last year's International Measurement System (IMS) winner, Robin Crawford, started planning the campaign for his Farr 40, Assassin, in February.
He mounted a project management exercise but admits that it was more luck than management that won the race for him.
Crawford described the final stages of last year's race as very unpleasant. ``We were all seasick, and at times cold, wet and generally bashed about," he said.
``Assassin weighs only five tonnes and is a very powerful boat, with little weight in the bow and stern. Given 35 knots of sou'westerlies, a steep sea, with two reefs in the main and a storm jib up, the boat still jumped off the waves with great gusto whilst maintaining 9-10 knots of boat speed, flicking crew members up and down, back and forth at every opportunity.
``Our Hobart became an exercise in hanging in there and avoiding mistakes and breakages and not pushing any harder than necessary to maintain our handicap lead."
Probably the unluckiest competitor is the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria's vice-commodore, Bruce Taylor. Four times Taylor has been leading the race on handicap in his Davidson 34, JLW Chutzpah, only to have it snatched from him by broken gear or fickle wind conditions in Storm Bay and the Derwent River.
The closest he came to winning was in 1987, when he had to average only 2.5 knots to the finish to win on handicap. His victory looked so certain that a Hobart newspaper announced on its front page that he had won. But it wasn't to be. Taylor sat ``parked" in windless conditions off the Tasmanian coast watching the time ticking away and robbing him of the win.
A general revival of ocean racing in Australia and an upsurge in boat- building has increased the size of this year's fleet by about 20per cent. There are entries from the United States, Germany, Fiji, France, New Zealand and all states of Australia.
Twenty-two yachts have entered from Victoria, headed by Alf Neate's Farr 50, Morning Mist III, winner of the gold cup in last year's race.
Neate also took second place overall behind Assassin in the IMS division and this year has been chartered by Fiji's Southern Cross Cup team.
As the fleet gets closer to Bass Strait there will be a number of crewmen wishing they had not started in the first place. Even some of the old hands will wonder what they are doing as they stand a watch in the early hours of the morning. Some will never return, or as has happened in a past race, a crew refused to go on even before they had reached Gabo Island at the northern end of Bass Strait. The owner was forced to pull out of the race and put into Eden.
For most, the constant motion, the cold, the lack of sleep and the battle with the sea is soon forgotten as they cross the finishing line and motor into Hobart's Constitution Dock. No matter what time of the day or night, there is always a crowd of locals warmly applauding the crews as they pass under the raised bridge and into the dock.
They know what it has taken to have challenged their notorious Bass Strait and won.
Kevan Wolfe has sailed in five Sydney/Hobart races, twice in his own boat, including the 1977 and 1984 storms.
A LANDLUBBER'S GLOSSARY Rhumb Line The straight line plotted on a chart (map) between two points.
Tack To change the direction of boat by moving the sails from one side to the other as the boat turns into the wind.
Port Left side of the boat.
Starboard Right side of the boat.
Stern Back of the boat.
Bow Front of the boat.
Spinnaker A large sail for use when the wind is behind the boat.
Jibe A manoeuvre to change the direction of boat quickly by turning away from the wind.
Grinder Crewman who works a sail winch.
Sheet The rope used to control a sail.
Halyard Rope or wire used to hoist a sail up the mast.
Block Pulley to run ropes through.
Reef To reduce area of mainsail by dropping sail down the mast and tying it to the boom.
Boom The horizontal spar to which the bottom of the mainsail is attached.
Leeward The opposite side from which the wind is blowing.
Windward The side the wind is coming from.
Layline A position from which a yacht can safely sail to and round a mark or buoy.
International Measurement System A handicap system recently introduced.
International Offshore Rule An old handicap system being replaced by IMS.
On the nose When the wind is coming from the direction the boat is sailing.
Downwind Sailing with the wind behind the boat.
Harden up To wind on the sails so that they set towards the centre line of the boat.
Ease away To ease the sails out as the boat sails with the wind behind it.
RACE FACTS Fastest race 1975: 2 days 14 hours 36 minutes 56 seconds.
Boat: Kialoa Owner: Jim Kilroy (USA) Slowest race 1945: 11 days 6 hours 20 minutes 56 seconds Boat: Wayfarer Owner: Peter Luke (NSW) Closest finish 1982: Condor of Bermuda beat Apollo by just seven seconds Record fleets 1985: 179 starters Starters this year 106 Most races sailed 35: Peter Green (NSW) Most races sailed as owner and skipper 28: Lou Abrahams (Vic) Largest yacht this year Brindabella _ 22.9metres Smallest yacht Katinka and Zeus II _ both 9.2metres Oldest yacht this year Anitra V: (Won in 1957) Oldest skipper this year Doug Stewart, 72, Anitra V Youngest crewman this year Andrew Macintosh, 16, Boomaroo and Michael Paget, 16, Rising Sun
© 1993 THE SUNDAY AGE