smallest yacht sydney to hobart

Published on December 25th, 2018 | by Editor

Small but mighty for Sydney Hobart Race

Published on December 25th, 2018 by Editor -->

She is the smallest boat with the smallest budget and crew in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race fleet this year, but according to her skipper, Reece Young, Gun Runner has a lot to offer in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s 628 nautical mile race.

Gun Runner is a 9.2 metre Jarkan 925 with a crew of six and an annual budget of $4,000. She is the smallest yacht for the start on December 26, but during the year, 200 soldiers sail on her. She is well-used and has a lot of heart.

“It has to stretch a long way,” skipper Young says of the budget. “A large part goes to taking the yacht in the Sydney Gold Coast race and others up north. And five day passages – taking soldiers out for offshore experience and getting them to dig deep.”

Their $4000 is a long way from the major budgets of the bulk of the fleet – it wouldn’t pay to fix a sail on any of the high-tech yachts, but Young is philosophical and is ‘at ease’ with his lot in life – including a new crew this year. He is the lone one to have done the famous race.

The Army, Young says, principally uses Gun Runner to teach its values of courage, initiative, respect and teamwork. They also use Tasars and Elliotts for training and racing.

“Under normal circumstances the Sydney Hobart can be difficult; getting the team together and getting them to work as a team. Those characteristics are already imbued in soldiers – working under duress, responding to directions, and when to offer suggestions. They work together to make sure the team gets there – no superstars.

“To get them ready, we teach a lot in CYCA twilights – we are all taught a certain way and teach a certain way to give and respond to orders.”

On such a small boat – all 30 feet of it, Young says: “It takes us five days to get to Hobart. It’s very close quarters, very uncomfortable, that for me is the real challenge. You go on Gun Runner, you know what lack of sleep and comfort is about – it’s uncomfortable. But if it wasn’t like that, we wouldn’t do it – nor would the Army.”

Young acknowledges his personal challenge in regards to the Rolex Sydney Hobart is “the administration that goes into it beforehand. We spend the whole year making sure the yacht is up to spec – you go into it knowing you are going to spend five days out there.” And, he says, “I genuinely believe in the race as a challenge and the values we represent.”

As to his return to skipper a Sydney Hobart novice crew, he says: “You do the race once and walk away – it’s a great thing. But if you can turn around the next year and do it again with a different crew, it cements the fact that it is achievable, you can do it. You just have to believe in yourself.

“It’s not restricted to the super maxis, multi-millionaires etc. – anyone can do it.”

The father of nearly four children (one on the way) says that two boat owners, Shane Kearns and Sean Langman are mentors. “Sean’s father, Major Langman, was a part of the Army Sailing Club when Gun Runner was purchased. Both Sean and Shane sail and have sailed small boats to Hobart – they give me something to aim for.”

Kearns is going again this year on his S&S 34, Komatsu Azzurro, while Sean has swapped his 9 metre Maluka (the smallest in last year’s race) for a Reichel/Pugh 65, Naval Group.

“Small boats like Maluka and Komatsu are our inspiration,” says Young.

Finally, Young says, “I really appreciate how we’ve been accepted into the yachting community – we came into sailing with trepidation – but it’s been great.”

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Event Details – Entry List – Facebook

Background : Eight-nine yachts will be chasing line honours and the overall Tattersall Cup win in the 628nm Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race which starts December 26, 2018. From Sydney Harbour, the fleet sails out into the Tasman Sea, down the south-east coast of mainland Australia, across Bass Strait (which divides the mainland from the island State of Tasmania), then down the east coast of Tasmania. At Tasman Island the fleet turns right into Storm Bay for the final sail up the Derwent River to the historic port city of Hobart.

Source: RSHYR media

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Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2023

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• 2020 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - List of Entries

As the then Governor of Tasmania, Sir Guy Green, observed at the prizegiving for the 2001 race, it is indeed an egalitarian event, attracting yachts as small as 30-footers and as big as 100-footers, sailed by crews who range from weekend club sailors to professionals from the America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race circuits.

The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is a classic long ocean race open to anyone who owns a yacht that qualifies for this challenging event and which meets all the safety requirements of a Category 1 safety race.

In the earliest years of the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, all the yachts were built from timber - heavy displacement cutters, sloops, yawls, schooners and ketches designed more for cruising than racing.

The increasing popularity of the 628 nautical Christmas-New Year sail south to Hobart quickly began to attract new designs and innovative ideas in boat-building, sails and rigs…dacron sails and aluminium masts and in the early 1950s, the first boats built of GRP (glass reinforced plastic) or fibreglass as is the more common phrase.  Then came aluminium, steel (mostly home-built) and even one maxi yacht built of ferro cement.

Innovative Australian yacht designers such as the Halvorsen brothers, Trygve and Magnus, and the late Allan Payne and Bob Miller (Ben Lexcen) produced faster boats and the race was on to create line and overall handicap winners. Prof. Peter Joubert, a part-time designer of stout cruiser/racers, and John King were other Australians who produced winning boats.

Following in their wake are currently successful designers such as Iain Murray and his partners, Andy Dovell and Ian "Fresh" Burns, along with Scott Jutson, David Lyons and Robert Hick.

New Zealander Bruce Farr, now based on the US, led the move towards light displacement yachts and is by far the most successful designer of Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race overall winners under different international handicap systems, first IOR (International Offshore Rule), then IMS (International Measurement System), and now IRC.

The space age has had a significant spin-off for yacht racing, first in the America's Cup and then in the design and construction of ocean racing yachts, introducing composite construction of boat hulls, using Kelvar and other manmade fibres in moulding the hulls in high-tech ovens.

In the past few years carbon fibre has been used successfully to build yacht hulls, masts and spars and in the construction of working sails (mainsails and genoas/jibs). The multiple line honours winner Wild Oats XI is the latest example of almost total use of carbon fibre in its hull, mast, boom and working sails.

The fleet in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is virtually all sloops (mainsail and one foresail genoa or jibs) but several of the maxi yachts with a big fore-triangle (between the foredeck, the forestay and the mast) are successfully using two headsails on close reaching races, theoretically making them cutters.

At the small end of the 2016 fleet, Sean Langman's Maluka of Kermandie was the oldest and smallest yacht to compete, and Michael Strong’s pretty wood S&S design No. 54, Landfall, the second oldest. Landfall is the first S&S built outside the USA - by Percy Coverdale at Battery Point in Tasmania. In her other Hobarts, she finished seventh in 1952, retired in 1954, and at age 40, finished 52 nd  in 1976. Landfall returned to the race after a long absence to celebrate her 80 th  birthday in the 70 th  Hobart in 2014, but retired with sail damage, and again in 2015 retired with hull damage. 

2016 Overall Winner, Giacomo (NZL), is a true to form Volvo 70. Formerly Groupama 4, winner of the 2011-2012 VOR, Jim Delegat bought her in 2013. Delegat and his crew spent the 2016 summer season away in Sydney in an attempt to top the board in the Rolex Sydney Hobart, following his 2013 and 2014 campaigns, in which he finished sixth on line and 22 nd  overall to Black Jack’s fourth, and 36 th  overall - and dismasting off the Tasmanian coast in 2014. 

One of the most innovative and uniquely designed yachts the race has ever seen is Ludde Ingvall’s old 90ft maxi Nicorette, made over as a 100ft super maxi, CQS, which was launched in November 2016 in New Zealand where she was rebuilt. Working with a top technical team including yacht designers, engineers, yacht builders, rig designers and sail makers, he produced a boat that pushes the boundaries. The distinctive new hull shape features a reverse bow, an outsized bowsprit, ‘wings’ to spread the shroud base supporting the mast and a wide platform across the cockpit area. With such a short lead time to the 2016 Rolex Sydney Hobart, the capabilities of the boat weren't able to be reached in the race, including some damage to the hydrofoils, resulting in seventh on line. 

100ft super maxi Perpetual LOYAL, smashed the race record set by Wild Oats XI in 2012 by almost five hours, to stand at one day 13 hours 31 minutes and 20 seconds. Perpetual LOYAL is the former Speedboat and Rambler, and was slated ‘the fastest super maxi in the world’, and has now proved it in Australia. After retiring from both the 2014 and 2015 Rolex Sydney Hobarts, she underwent some technical developments, which paid off in the return of line honours and race record. 

The wide downwind racer, Jim Cooney & Samantha Grant's LDV Comanche  then came back in 2017 to show her prowess and carve nearly seven hours off the previous record. This set the new record to 1 day 9 hours 15 minutes and 24 seconds.

Divisions in the Rolex Sydney Hobart

There are many divisions in the race, which are dependent on a variety of factors; boat measurements such as weight, length and age, rig size, sail area, and any performance modifications on the boat. Here's a run down:

IRC is a time correction rating system used extensively in yacht racing around the world. Under this system, a yacht’s finishing time (elapsed time from start to finish) is multiplied by its IRC rating number to determine a corrected time. A boat’s rating is calculated by an independent body (RORC), using measurements of the boat; the length, weight, draft, rig size, sail area, and specific characteristics and features.

The resulting time corrector, or the boat’s ‘TCC’, is her handicap. The higher the TCC figure, the faster the boat's potential speed. When the last boat arrives in Hobart, the corrected times of every boat in IRC fleet will be compared and the one with the lowest time after correction will be declared the overall winner. In theory at least, this system ensures that any well-sailed boat, regardless of its age or level of technology, can win. 

Seen by its advocates among grand prix yacht owners as a more transparent rule and a truer reflection of a boat’s performance based on the old IMS system, ORCi is the other rating handicap system used in the Rolex Sydney Hobart. 

ORC Rating Systems use science and technology to develop its handicap systems. With a complete set of measurements of the hull, stability, rig and sails, it is then possible to use computer software, known as Velocity Prediction Program, to calculate the theoretical speeds for the boat in various wind conditions. This way, ORCi can tell you the performance differences between different boats in different wind conditions and course geometries.

Results for ORCi are decided by the application of the Time-on-Time Simplified Scoring System as a multiplier of elapsed time. The boat with the lowest corrected time (after application of scoring penalties, if any) will be scored first in each division.

PHS is a performance-based handicap system, with yachts being allocated a performance or arbitrary handicap. PHS division strives to give all entrants a chance of winning, provided they sail reasonably well. This is not a boat measurement based handicap, but is based on the "performance" of a particular boat. The Handicap for each race is mathematically calculated using data from all previous races. 

Results will be calculated by the application of Time Correction Factors (TCFs) as a multiplier of elapsed time. Yachts entering the IRC or ORCi handicap categories may not enter the PHS category.

A Verteran entrant is a yacht which is competing under the IRC rating system and was build prior to 1994. These entrants can also be entered in to the Overall IRC category to compete against all other yachts.

Grand Veteran

A Grand Verteran entrant is a yacht which is competing under the IRC rating system and was build prior to 1976. These entrants can also be entered in to the Overall IRC category and the Veterans category.

Corinthian Division

A Corinthian is an amatuer sailor, a Group 1, non-professional as classified by World Sailing. It states: A competitor who takes part in racing, only as a pastime, is a Group 1 competitor.

Results for the Corinthian division, are calculated by the application of PHS Time Correction Factors (TCF's) as a multiplier of elapsed time. A boat's TCF will be determined by the Race Committee or its nominee. The boat with the lowest corrected time (after application of scoring penalties, if any) will be scored first.

Cruising Division

The Cruising Division is scored on a points system. 

Prior to 9am on Race Day, a boat in the Cruising Division may nominate their predicted dates and times at which they will pass through the latitudes 36°S, 38°S, 40°S and 42°S, and when they will finish.

For example, a boat receives 20 points for first passing through the specified latitude or finishing within 1 hour of its nominated date and time, 10 points for doing so between one and two hours of its nominated date and time etc.

Points will also be awarded or deducted based on engine and autopilot usage during the race. The boat with the highest number of points (after application of scoring penalties, if any) shall be scored first.

• Line Honours

Full Standings available approximately three hours after the start.

OFFICIAL ROLEX SYDNEY HOBART MERCHANDISE

Shop the official clothing range of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in person at the Club in New South Head Road, Darling Point or online below.  

From casual to technical clothing, there is something for all occasions. Be quick as stock is limited!

Sydney to Hobart's smallest yacht owner has eyes on prize

Super-maxi wild oats xi is already the favourite to take out the line honours in 2015's sydney to hobart, and international entries are rising, but one yacht owner is staying focused on winning..

Wild Oats XI skipper Mark Richards and reigning Rolex Sydney to Hobart yacht race champion Roger Hickman at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

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Comment: Sailing by starlight on the Sydney to Hobart

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At the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, a Female Crew of Two

Kathy Veel and Bridget Canham, competing in the two-handed division, will also be on the race’s second-smallest boat.

By John Clarke

Kathy Veel has come a long way since 1989, when she first sailed in the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race with an all-female crew on the Belles Long Ranger.

“It started off with four of us women — we figured, let’s give it a shot,” said Veel, 70, a retired teacher who lives in Bullaburra, about 60 miles west of Sydney, Australia. “We didn’t have a boat. We didn’t have any money. It was a real start from scratch. No one took us seriously.”

Not anymore. Veel is now back for her third Sydney Hobart, which starts on Monday, this time also breaking ground. She will be part of the only all-female crew competing in the race’s two-handed division on the Currawong , at 30 feet long the second smallest boat in the fleet. She will be sailing with Bridget Canham, 62, of Sydney, a veteran of several Sydney Hobart races.

Veel said that in 1989, there were doubts the crew of women could handle the grueling conditions of the race.

“We were kind of a token gesture,” she said. “There were a lot of people who didn’t think we were up to it. They would ask, what we were going to do when it’s blowing 30 knots and the boat is swamped? We’ll be doing pretty much what they’ll be doing — putting up sails and racing the boat.”

Their goal was to simply finish the race, which they did. “It opened the door for us,” Veel said.

“Women in sailing have come so far,” she said. “Most boats these days have got women on them. And that’s great.”

Canham, a retired nurse who volunteers as an emergency boat pilot, said sailing had indeed changed.

“Sailing is more of an integrated sport now,” she said. “Now, it’s just by coincidence that we are just two women on a boat. We’re just sailors. We don’t think of ourselves as anything different.”

The two-handed division, where a boat is raced by two sailors — as opposed to a large crew ranging from 6 to 25 — is now in its second year at the Sydney Hobart. For Veel and Canham, the draw of two-handed racing is access.

“Having a fully crewed racing yacht was way outside of my resources,” Veel said. “I’m retired. But now that they have the two-handed, we can do the race. It gives people the opportunity to sail in the race who aren’t on a fully crewed yacht.” Yearly maintenance on two-handed boats might be $10,000, while much larger yachts require millions of dollars to maintain.

Canham also said the sailors in the two-handed division were a tightknit group. “The two-handed community is just so supportive; it’s like we are all on the same team,” she said.

Veel and Canham generally split duties on the boat, taking turns on the sails and at the wheel, with Canham focusing on sails and Veel on navigation and race tactics.

“Bridget knows the wind and is good at getting the best out of the boat,” Veel said. “She’ll have every sail tweaked and tuned. She never takes her eye off the ball. She’s also extremely gutsy and strong-minded and determined.”

Veel and Canham have prepared for the event by sailing in four other races this year. Over that time, they realized the boat, a Currawong 30, built in 1974 with beaten 20-year-old sails, needed upgrades, but they’ve accepted its limits.

“We’ve been able to test out our boat in these previous races, but it really has felt that 90 percent of this race has been just getting to the start line,” Veel said. “We’ve just been focused on getting the boat ready. Now that we are there, and there are no more obstacles between us and the race, that’s when I’m starting to wonder what have I got myself into. Now it’s real.”

Canham heads into the race committed, but knows their limitations.

“No one is expecting us to do anything,” she said. “But I don’t think they realize just how determined we are.”

Oli the cat completes Sydney to Hobart yacht race to fanfare at dock, after a week at sea

The first Sydney to Hobart yacht came in days ago and the fanfare on Hobart's waterfront has died down, but that hasn't dampened the welcome for feline entrant and fan favourite Oli.

Oli the cat completed the bluewater classic with his owner Bob Williams on Sylph VI just before 8:30am.

It was the last yacht across the finish line in a time of seven days, 19 hours, 26 minutes and 15 seconds, after a torturously slow trip up the River Derwent.

Mr Williams was emotional upon his arrival in Hobart.

"I don't know why, I think it's about the cat, actually," he said.

"I think it's quite amazing how people have taken a shine to Oli, it's not something I expected.

"For me, Oli is part of my crew, part of the boat."

Oli, Bob and crew were greeted by about 40 wellwishers, and a banner declaring them the winners of the "feline division".

Among them was Del Smith, who travelled from Margate, 30 minutes south of Hobart, to reward Oli with treats, toys and a letter from her own cat, Miffy.

"Obviously he was at sea for Christmas and I just wanted to give him a little gift," she said.

"Well done Oli."

And the crew of another Sydney to Hobart yacht, Showdown, left Oli a personalised cat carrier so he could join in the traditional post-race beer at Customs House pub.

Co-skipper Chris Warren said it was a fantastic way to arrive on his birthday.

"The welcome this morning's been particularly special, with people singing Oli a song as we crossed the finish line after having a pretty long, slow trip up the river," he said.

From 'ordinary little moggie' to 'international celebrity'

Oli is a seasoned sailor who has called the yacht home for about five years.

Mr Williams said the cat was just an "ordinary little moggie" who was his friend and mate, but the international attention was nice.

"We'd heard on the grapevine that Oli had attracted a bit of attention and so, I guess, crossed a few lines in terms of who's interested in the Sydney to Hobart," he said.

"But I really didn't expect him to have such a big fanbase when we got here and it was really quite overwhelming."

He believes Oli made the race feel accessible to the wider community.

"Me and the cat are just a couple of ordinary people."

Mr Warren has a simpler theory.

"I think cats win the internet, that's all I can come up with."

Photographs and videos show Oli luxuriating on a green couch, helping Mr Williams navigate and soaking up some love and cuddles.

While light winds and sloppy seas made for a frustrating journey for the human crew, for Oli, it was damage caused to his litter tray.

"A kind lady has offered to go and buy him a new cat tray," Mr Williams said.

Mr Warren said it was an eye-opener to sail through four or five-metre waves and have Mr Williams declare that they were not that big.

"That and having Oli jump on me and wake me up while I was in my bunk — scared the life out of me!"

Is Oli the first cat in the Sydney to Hobart?

While it's an impressive achievement for a small cat, Oli is by no means the first feline sailor in the race.

There are media records of at least one other cat taking part, as far back as 1947, in the second Sydney to Hobart race.

The article, from the Pittsworth Sentinel on January 10, 1947, reported "the cat in the crew belonged to Mr and Mrs Brian O'Brien, of the gaff ketch, Connella".

The O'Briens mentioned were husband and wife duo Brian (Mick) O'Brien and Dagmar O'Brien.

The O'Briens, along with their cat, were forced to retire in Bass Strait and did not complete the race.

If Dagmar O'Brien had finished the race she would have done so in the same year as Jane Tate — who is remembered as the first female competitor to finish the race.

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• Human Interest

Scallywag retires, Rum Rebellion skipper thrown overboard in Sydney to Hobart chaos

There's been plenty of carnage during the Sydney to Hobart, with wild weather on the course leading to a number of early retirements in the iconic sailing event.

After a dramatic start on Tuesday that saw supermaxis Andoo Comanche and Scallywag avoid a massive collision, the latter vessel has since withdrawn from the race overnight.

Elsewhere, the skipper of another premature retiree - Rum Rebellion - was thrown overboard on the first night after high winds caused a knockdown of the two-man boat between Cronulla and Wollongong.

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Shane Connelly was able to return to the boat after attaching his tether and lifting himself back on board, but the pair opted to retire due to a potential concussion suffered by the captain.

"The safety drills and systems all worked, and we could sort ourselves out," Connelly said upon his return to Sydney.

The crew of the aforementioned Scallywag also opted to withdraw from the course, with their social media account revealing the damage caused by the treacherous conditions.

At this stage, Sticky, Maritimo and Arcadia are the other notable retirees, while the smallest boat in the race - Currawong - has also turned back to Sydney on Wednesday afternoon.

Last year's winner Andoo Comanche and the highly-rated LawConnect are in the lead heading towards Tasmania in the bid to claim line honours. 

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