THE 50TH SYDNEY HOBART RACE

John Maddox, Rear Commodore Australia

The first Sydney Hobart Race started on 26 December 1945. World War II had just ended and a few yachts planned to cruise to Hobart for Christmas. Captain John Illingworth RN suggested that they should make a race of it. There were nine starters and only one retirement, Illingworth winning line honours and on handicap in the 35ft Rani with an elapsed time of 6 days 14 hours and 22 minutes. He suggested that the race be run annually, in contrast to the Fastnet which takes place in alternate years to the Bermuda Race.

The `greatest ever Sydney Hobart' is what one of Australia's leading yachting magazines called this year's event -- certainly so far as the numbers were concerned: 371 starters and only sixty-three retirements in the 630 mile race. The previous record number of starters was 171 in 1983. A south-westerly hit the second half of the fleet in Bass Strait with winds of up to 60 knots and 5 metre seas which caused most of the retirements. The race record of 2 days 14 hours 36 minutes set by the US maxi Kialoa in 1975 remained unbroken, despite the $A 100,000 prize money. In 1992 the Tasmanian ketch Tasmania (ex New Zealand Endeavour) was two hours outside the record, and won line honours and second on handicap, going on to win the Whitbread Round-the-World Race. Tasmania is unusual in that, although a ketch, she has the appearance of two sloops in line -- the mainmast is set well forward and the mizzen mast is nearly as tall as the main. The main boom is short enough to allow a variety of spinnaker-like mizzen staysails.

There were Twenty and Thirty Year Old veteran divisions as well as the IMS and TPHS sections. Among the Thirty Year veteran yachts was Kurura, which competed in the 1952 and 1953 races, and was subsequently owned by the late Walter Burke OCC, former Port Officer for Sydney. Kurura fell off a wave in the Bass Strait and openedup a few planks, causing the crew to pump by hand for twenty minutes in every hour for the last two days, arriving just before midnight on New Year's Eve. I asked one of the crew, who was still pumping by hand after midnight, "Why not get an electric pump now you're alongside?". He answered, "One of the crew went off to get a powered pump, but I think he's succumbed to the festivities!".

OCC Members who competed were:

John Solomon, Port Officer for Hobart, sailed aboard the Doug Peterson Two Tonner Natelle II, of which he is a previous part-owner. She was on her twelfth Sydney Hobart and had the owner's two sons, aged eight and eleven, aboard (the youngest crewmembers in the race). John was on his twenty-third race.

Robert Segaert sailed in Chiara, an Oceanis 430, with Philip Mack and Maurie Kerr, who along with Ray Dawkins OCC sailed from Sydney to Noumea, New Caledonia, aboard Robert's Helmsman on their qualifying voyage.

Michael Delaney, a former Rear Commodore Australia, was taking part in his eighth race aboard Ruthless, a Doug Peterson One Tonner named after her original owner's wife, Ruth. I saw Mike shortly after they docked, all salt-encrusted and still in his wet weather gear. He said, "I'm pleased to have done the fiftieth Hobart, but never again! I'm too old and rusty for this, having just passed fifty!". Ruthless is a hard boat on her crew, with no dodger or cockpit combing, and is very basic below. Kate Delaney said that she "would exercise a woman's privilege to change her mind" and not sail back to Sydney.

John Maddox, Rear Commodore Australia and Port Officer for Sydney, sailed aboard Marara. It was my eleventh race.

Marara is an S&S 34, first brought to Australia when Edward Heath won the Hobart Race in 1969 with his first Morning Cloud. The design is well known for its strength and windward ability -- Mike Taylor-Jones in Deerstalker won the 1992 Round Britain and Ireland Race and Australian Jon Sanders twice circumnavigated solo in Perie Banou.

I first sailed in Marara in 1975 when she was known as Zilvergeest. One of the then co-owners had a heart attack at the Iron Pot, the entrance to the Derwent River, just before reaching Hobart -- still, it could have happened when mowing the lawn or driving to work. Marara's present owner Bill Ratcliff was facing up to his thirtieth Hobart and had Luke, one of his two sons, in the crew as well as Barry Simpson, Jens Rasmussen, Andrew Dalley and myself. The only gear failure was the gooseneck pin which sheered a few hours before south-westerly front came through. The stitching on the mainsail tack tore for a short distance, so the main was removed and sewn up and the boom taken down below (or at least, its forward end) so that a replacement pin could be devised. Two headsails were set in the twin foils that are more normally used when changing headsails (there are also two halyards). Our speed dropped from 8 to 6 knots while we were repairing the gooseneck. When the south-westerly front came through we were down to three reefs in the main and a spitfire jib, still doing 6-7 knots to windward.

Marara finished fourth in the Twenty Year Old veteran division, the first and second in that division also being taken by S&S yachts -- the 48ft Love & War which won overall in 1974 and 1978, and Margaret Rintoul II, which as Ragamuffin was chosen for the Australian Admiral's Cup team and went on to win the Fastnet. In the 1993 Hobart, when only thirty-eight of the 104 starters completed the race, Marara was third overall and won her division.

On arrival in Hobart there was the yachting party to end all parties -- the Fiftieth Hobart New Year's Eve bash. Hugh Garnham OCC (awarded the 1994 OCC Australian Trophy for his circumnavigation of Australia) kindly repaired the gooseneck for us.

The cruise back to Sydney

The crew for the return trip was Luke, Jens and myself, three being an ideal number for cruising a yacht of that size. After traversing the Dunalley Canal in convoy with twenty other yachts (a bit different from our passage through in Simarjon in February 1993, when we were the only yacht -- see Flying Fish 1993/2) Marara overnighted in Triabunna and Schouten Passage before heading north across the Banks and Bass Straits to Eden. We decided to stand two hour watches, giving four hours off between. The wind came in from the south-west gusting 35 to 40 knots but with a confused sea.

We were running at 6 knots with now main and the headsail furled past halfway and poled out to starboard. At the end of Luke's watch, near midnight on a dark night with no moon, a rogue wave came up on the starboard quarter and pushed the boat over until the top of the mast hit the water. Luke heard the wave coming up like a freight train behind him but there was no way to avoid it. The wave hit Luke with such force that as his body was pushed to leeward the tiller went down and Marara rounded up broadside to the wave. Luke held his breath while the water went over him and embraced the mainsheet, the rudder came out of the water and the tiller was useless. Luke's harness and lifeline held (unlike that of John Quinn in the 1993 Hobart -- see Flying Fish 1994/1) because the full harness went around the body and was not just sewn to the front of the jacket.

Deck damage -- S&S 34s are strongly built and the hull and rigging escaped damaged, but on deck the liferaft and life-rings were gone, the dodger torn, the gooseneck bent and the winch handle gone from its vertical holder. The vang holding the boom out to port straightened the stainless snap hook attaching the block and tackle to the gunwhale.

Damage below -- What was impressive was the damage that could be done in the few seconds that Marara was knocked down. She was upright before Jens and I knew what had happened. We were in a state of momentary shock until we both realised that Luke might not still be on deck. He was there, like a drowned rat and the only problem was that the wave had temporarilty jammed the hatch and stormboards so there was a lot of banging and pushing before he could get down below.

Mamara has a `grab pole' below, half way between the mast and the companionway, which is great to hold ontoin a seaway. Being on the windward side I shot out of my bunk, over the leecloth and round the pole. Jens woke to see me slide down the pole as the boat came upright (my chest was sore where it hit the pole, but I was surprised when an X-ray later showed that I had broken a rib).

The little water that was in the bilge reached up behind the HF radio and GPS. When we realised that the liferaft and life-rings had gone we attempted to transmit to Penta Comstat, a coastal radio station which was running a twice-daily schedule for the yachts returning from Hobart to Sydney and Melbourne, but there was no acknowledgement. We could hear other yachts talking to the station and were concerned that people might think the worst if they found an inflated liferaft or rings with no sign of the crew. On reaching Eden we were told that our message was heard by the base and other yachts but we could not receive their calls. The GPS came to life again after half an hour. As is the case with knockdowns or rollovers, all sorts of equipment is thrown dangerously around, in our case a dry locker hatch and inspection hatches for the bilge and the engine (sited behind the mast for boat stability).

In the same blow David Graham was washed overboard from Impetuous, a Holland 42 which had been a member of the victorious Australian Admiral's Cup team in the year of the wild 1979 Fastnet. David had unclipped his safety harness momentarily in order to move aft in the cockpit when Impetuous was swept by a wave from stern to bow. A two day search by the crew of Impetuous, who immediately threw over life-rings and danbuoy, other yachts, a cargo ship and five helicopters failed to find any trace of David.

Conclusions -- The knockdown might have been avoided if Marara had still had a wheel. When I sailed with the previous owner she had wheel steering, but Bill had changed to a tiller for racing, for two good reasons -- first, the wheel, quadrant and beam supporting the binnacle and wheel weighed more than the wooden tiller; and second, the helmsman's weight was brought forward to see the compass on the bulkhead. When the wave hit Luke his whole body involuntarily pushed the helm down, causing Marara to round up at right-angles to the wave. I suspect that there would not have been the movement in a wheel to make the boat broach.

The liferaft should be securely lashed to the yacht with a knife permanently at hand to cut the ties. The design of a new yacht could well contain a dedicated locker for the liferaft.

Gear below should be well secured, particularly hatches and locker doors. From personal experience at least two straps should go across each saloon bunk to stop the occupant being thrown out over the leecloth.

Warren Brown OCC says that on yachts with a large crew, one person should be steering, harnessed on, and another looking aft warning the person of oncoming breakers. This system was used by Hogsbreath Witchdoctor, who had eight of her ten racing crew aboard for the passage home to Sydney after the race.

Man overboard -- David Graham was hit by a breaking wave just at his most vulnerable time, when the lifeline was detached. Our lifelines had clips at both ends and spare lifelines in the cockpit so one could clip the new line on before letting go the old. The other method is a series ofjacklines, again clipping onto the new line before unclipping from the old.

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