THE 1993 SYDNEY HOBART RACE

John Maddox, Rear Commodore Australia

The 49th Hobart Race started with southerly winds forecast right down the New South Wales coast to Tasmania. By the time the race leaders reached Gabo Island (almost 38S) the field was reduced from 105 to 85 following 20-30 knot headwinds and seas of over 5 metres.

The first yacht ever to sink during a Hobart Race was Clwyd, which lost its keel and turned turtle. The egg-shaped hole where the keel had been made dramatic footage for the nightly TV news. Deciding that the yacht was a danger to the rest of the fleet and shipping in general Clwyd was sunk by the naval crew of the Young Endeavour, a 44m brigantine designed by Colin Mudie OCC which was Britain's 1988 Bicentennial gift to Australia.

The headwinds increased to 50 knots in the Bass Strait with swells of up to 10 metres. Adjuster also sunk and the crews of both Clwyd and Adjuster were picked up from their liferafts by other yachts and transferred to Young Endeavour.

John Quinn, the owner/skipper of Mem, a J35, went overboard when a big wave hit. He was under the water for a few seconds, his safety line broke and he was no longer with the yacht. A veteran of thirteen Sydney Hobart Races, Quinn spent 5 1/2 hours in the cold water without a lifejacket, though he did have a buoyancy vest - see Conclusion). Mem came within 200 metres of Quinn in the darkness without seeing him or hearing his shouts.

Young Endeavour received a May Day called from Mem at 2330 and passed the message to all ships in the vicinity. The tanker Ampol Sarel, which was steaming north, turned 180and reached Mem's position at 0500 next morning. The ship's engines were shut down and an able seaman heard Quinn shouting, then picked him out with a powerful searchlight before he vanished down the back of a wave. Ten minutes later the reflective tape on his clothing shone as the searchlight swept the water and Ampol Sarel broadcast Quinn's position to any yacht nearby -- even though it might have been possible to launch a boat from the tanker it could not have been recovered in those seas.

The Irish yacht Atara, which had been dismasted and was motoring back to Eden, responded and hauled Quinn from the water. Being unable to use the boom to swing Quinn on board two crewmen jumped in with their harnesses safely attached and put a line around Quinn, who by that time was not talking much but still had a strong heartbeat. Once on board his clothes were removed and one of Atara's crew transferred his body heat so that Quinn gradually warmed up enough to ask for some food.

Atara had lost her mast when a wave filled the trysail and snapped the spar, which punched into the lightweight carbon fibre hull causing it to bulge inwards. The bunks were pulled out and six of the twelve crew pressed their back against sailbags to hold out the hull. Joking, one of Atara's crew said `Quinnie, you didn't realise that you would have to be rescued twice'. `No' he replied, `If I'd known the ambulance was sinking I wouldn't have got aboard!'.

The weather was comparable to the notorious 1979 Fastnet Race, being the toughest Hobart since 1984 with a total of sixty-seven yachts retiring before they entered the Bass Strait. Three intense lows and fronts from the south gave 40-50 knots, and one short front came through at 70 knots. The worst element was the `square waves' produced by the gale force southerly winds against the north-going East Australian current. In February 1993 in Simarjon we encountered confused seas off Gabo Island where the East Australian current meets the northern part of the Bass Strait, but the southerly was nowhere near the strength of the winds in the Hobart Race.

Eight yachts were dismasted and twice that number had structural problems with chainplates and keels working loose. Brindabella, the line honours favourite launched just before the start and costing A $2,500,000, had delamination of the hull near the bow. A number of modern light displacement yachts suffered hull damage and their skippers said that even with only storm jib and trysail they were unable to slow down.

CONCLUSIONS

Yacht construction -- John Quinn said that a lot of modern yachts -- especially those designed for racing and fast passage-making -- are so lightly constructed that they cannot be slowed down.

Life jackets -- should be inflatable to control buoyancy. Breaking waves dumped Quinn so that he was dragged down and swallowed lots of water. He said it was like the surf at Bondi Beach in Sydney on a rough day! In order to float on his back and duck his head under the breaking crests he abandoned his lifejacket and relied on his flotation vest. He said that would have preferred to have had control over inflation and thereby buoyancy.

GPS -- allowed immediate accurate positioning of the yacht and calculation of drift, but all on board must be able to use it. The expert may be the one who goes overboard!

Clothing -- Quinn was wearing thermal underwear, mid-layer Polarplus, buoyancy vest and seaboots. (He said that it must be possible to kick off the latter immediately).

Safety lines -- the line itself did not break, neither did the clips or the deck fittings. In Quinn's case the safety line was part of the lifejacket and the stitching went, so the line remained attached to the yacht and the jacket went with the man overboard.

Body-weight -- Quinn is of heavy build, doubtless partly why the shock against the safety line tore it from the jacket. However his build helped insulate him once in the water.