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Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race: Alive wins overall for a second time in five years

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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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The race is on again… Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

Boat Folk – Britannia and A Flinders Island Journey

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Since 1945 the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race has been the most significant yacht race in Australia, and now one of the most significant yacht races in the world. The weather, the waves, the winds have never put a stop to it, so who would have thought a pandemic would.

As we edge closer to Boxing Day, 2021, we are super excited to welcome back the yachts competing in this year’s Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race with 112 yachts entered (two of which are wooden). It has now become an annual gathering of boats of all shapes and sizes, as they get together some 48+ hours after the start of the race to watch the yachts come around the Iron Pot, sometimes at all hours of the night.

This year’s entrants include two special boats (we may be biased), Love & War and Solveig.

Love & War

Love & War is a stunning classic vessel. It has won the Sydney to Hobart 3 times, in 1974, 1978 and 2006. She is a Sparkman and Stephens design, cold moulded with Oregan timber. The 47ft vessel was launched in 1973 for Peter Kurts, in NSW after the build was completed by Ces Quilkey. Ces also built Mercedes III, Ragamuffin and Koomooloo. Love & War is still in the Kurts family, with Simon Kurts as owner and skipper for this year’s Sydney to Hobart. Love & War has participated in the Australian Wooden Boat Festival before and we wish her and the crew luck.

Solveig is a 36ft timber sloop, designed and built by the famous Halvorsen family. The small carvel planked vessel was built in 1950 and entered the Sydney to Hobart race just two months after being launched. She has competed in many Trans-Pac races and Trans-Tasman races and spent most of her life in Hawaii, until Bob Allan brought her back to Sydney in 2016. Bob was looking for a new owner for her, when friends Anne Lawrence and John Whitfield stepped in. Anne and John are now the current owners and between them have extensive Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race experience, competing in several previous races.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania have been integral in the creation and management of the 628 nautical mile race. We congratulate them on their organisational efforts to ensure the race goes ahead this year. We wish all the yachts competing good luck, especially the wooden yachts. See you all on the docks!

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Sydney to Hobart yacht race: How two days of sailing came down to just 51 seconds

Topic: Sailing

LawConnect crossed the finish line first, followed seconds later by Andoo Comanche. ( Supplied: CYCA )

The skipper of the line honours-winning yacht in this year's Sydney to Hobart race says the victory is all the more remarkable because his boat, LawConnect, is a "shitbox" compared to second-place getter and race favourite Andoo Comanche.

"I know it looks good on TV but if you go up close to that boat, it's rough as anything and Comanche is a beautiful boat, it's better in every way, four tonnes lighter etc.," Christian Beck said.

"Shitbox" or not, LawConnect overtook Andoo Comanche in the River Derwent in the final moments of the 2023 race to take out its first line honours in a sensational daylight finish, just 51 seconds ahead of its rival.

There were happy faces all around as the LawConnect crew celebrated with their trophy. ( ABC News: Maren Preuss )

"The lead changed several times, they took the lead pretty close to the line, we thought there's no way we can get it back," Beck said.

"There were guys [on board] that couldn't watch, it was very nerve-racking."

In a race that took the two leaders almost two days to finish, the turning point began just a couple of nautical miles from the finish line.

As Andoo Comanche tried to build speed off the Hobart suburb of Sandy Bay and seemed to stall in very little wind, Law Connect made its move.

This was the moment LawConnect first overtook Andoo Comanche on the River Derwent. ( Supplied: CYCA )

'"They seem to be accelerating out of the jibes a lot quicker than Andoo Comanche, so I don't think Andoo have a lot of options here, I think they're going to get rolled … really aggressive moves by LawConnect," said Lisa Darmanin, a commentator for the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. 

But, not long after Andoo Comanche snatched it back again.

Then, in the second-closest finish in race history, LawConnect came back about 100 metres from the finish line. 

After being runner-up three times in a row, the sweetest moment arrived for Christian Beck as LawConnect crossed the finish line in a time of 1 day, 19 hours, 3 minutes and 58 seconds.

"I can't believe that result. Honestly it's a dream come true," he said.

How did they pull it off?

LawConnect manouvering its way to the finish line. ( ABC News: Maren Preuss )

So just how did the "underdog" manage to snatch the win away from Andoo Comanche after it held the lead comfortably while rounding the Tasman Peninsula and entering the River Derwent?

As we've heard, a lack of wind was a big factor.

"Our boat is big and wide and heavy and it's fast offshore but it is terribly slow when it is bumpy and no wind," the disappointed skipper of Andoo Comanche, John Winning said. 

"[As the finish line neared] we sent a guy up the rig and he said 'There's no wind at the finish, zero wind at the finish.'" 

But sailors are used to dealing with changes in wind so strategy was obviously a major factor at play too.

As well as the "aggressive jibing" from LawConnect, the winners were focused on learning from Andoo's "mistakes".

"Broadly, the strategy is to watch them and if they get into a bad spot, we avoid that bad spot," Beck said.

Spectator craft another factor

Then there were all the spectator boats to contend with.

In the final moments, a catamaran passed closely to Andoo Comanche and the crew was seen yelling and gesturing.

"We had all the spectator boats and we're trying to clear them out and they were like 'You've won', and we were like 'No! We have not won yet. Stop making waves everything is going to make a difference,'" Winning said.

Tasmania Police said action would be taken against a 57-year-old man for "allegedly breaching" marine and safety regulations.

"The man was skippering a private vessel when it reportedly encroached into the exclusion zone set by Marine and Safety Tasmania," it said in a statement.

The offence carries a fine of up to $3,900.

LawConnect and Andoo Comanche nearing the finish line. ( ABC News: Maren Preuss )

Winning said he didn't blame spectators for the result.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, I wish there were 500 of them," he said.

"It's even, everyone gets the same thing if they were ahead of us they would have had the wash but unfortunately we got the wash.

"Makes a little difference but that didn't cost us the race, we cost us the race."

The LawConnect crew celebrate their victory at Constitution Dock. ( ABC News: Maren Preuss )

And as the bubbly flows for the LawConnect crew, Beck is joking about now being able to offload the "shitbox".

"It's probably a good afternoon to sell it, the afternoon it beats Comanche, probably its highlight of its career, I'm sure."

Crowds lined Constitution Dock to welcome LawConnect and Andoo Comanche after an epic but slow final  battle to the finish line. ( ABC News: Maren Preuss )

LawConnect approaches the finish line to snatch victory from Andoo Comanche, which led most of the race. ( ABC News: Maren Preuss )

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At the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, Women Are Making Their Mark

The event is attracting more female skippers than in previous years, and many own the boats.

By David Schmidt

The skippers competing in the annual Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race dream of winning a top trophy in this challenging offshore race. This year, 10 of them will be women.

While a female-skippered team has not won the Tattersall Cup, which is awarded to the race’s overall winner, more women have been competing in the race as skippers the last few years. It reflects the expanding ranks in sailing of experienced women, the creation of the race’s two-handed class and an uptick in the number of female boat owners.

Women have been participating in the Sydney Hobart race since 1946, with Jane Tate aboard the Active and Dagmar O’Brien on the Connella. The first all-women’s team, skippered by Vicki Willman, raced in 1975 aboard Barbarian, a 38-foot yacht.

This year, 10 women plan to compete as skippers and co-skippers. This follows an upward trend: nine women raced in 2022 as skippers and co-skippers, and seven competed in 2021. In 2019, this number was six, while three competed in the 2017 and 2018 events.

“It is a changed world for the better,” said Adrienne Cahalan , a two-time Tattersall Cup-winning navigator. She plans to start her 31st race — a record for women — as navigator aboard the 66-foot yacht Alive this year.

“Women are accepted as equal players and leaders,” Cahalan said of the race, noting that women are underrepresented in the Sydney Hobart only among the professional and big-boat crews.

The race, which starts on Tuesday, began in 1945 and is a serious affair. Six sailors died and five yachts sank in the 1998 event. Veterans call it one of the world’s greatest, and hardest , offshore races.

The 628-nautical-mile course begins in Sydney Harbor . After exiting protected waters, teams turn south-southwest and race down the New South Wales coastline, before crossing Bass Strait. This shallow-water swath separates Australia from Tasmania and can sometimes create boat-breaking waves.

Then, navigators approach Tasman Island before the boats make the final 40-mile push across Storm Bay and up the River Derwent to Hobart.

For women, a big part of their overall increase as skippers, sailors said, was because of an inclusive and welcoming community that helped create opportunities.

“There’s a women’s sailing network in Sydney where there’s a lot of engagement from females,” said Lt. Tori Costello, who plans to co-skipper the Royal Australian Navy’s 40-foot Navy One this year. “There’s been so many more females just being involved, being given opportunities to get out there and race.”

Sailors said this change was helped by the creation of women’s sailing events, including the Australian Women’s Keelboat Regatta and the Sydney Harbour Women’s Keelboat Series. They also cite SheSails, an Australian organization that encourages female participation in sailing, and several active women’s-sailing Facebook groups and clubs, as contributing factors.

Internationally, they point to the Magenta Project, which works to create better equity and inclusion within sailing, as another important element.

“Just about every sailing club I know of has a women’s group actively educating and providing opportunities for women” said Kathy Veel, the owner and a skipper of the 30-foot Currawong and a three-time race veteran. “There are now many very skilled, experienced yachtswomen who seek the challenge of being in charge.”

Another catalyst, sailors say, was the creation of the race’s two-handed class, which debuted in 2021. While most boats racing to Hobart have a full crew, two-handed teams race with just two people.

“Even if you don’t own the boat, the second person in most cases is a co-skipper,” said Wendy Tuck, the first woman to win an around-the-world race as skipper and a two-time two-handed class veteran. “It is a great opportunity.”

While two-handed sailing doubles the number of skipper roles, it requires, and breeds, a high level of competency and trust.

“Two-handed racing is a great format for fast-tracking skills in all aspects of sailing and seamanship,” Veel said.

After all, one skipper often sleeps while the other stands watch.

Many yachts that compete in the two-handed class are about 30 to 40 feet long. This matters, as their smaller sails generate less load than the bigger yachts.

“The smaller size of most two-handed boats makes them very manageable for female sailors,” Bridget Canham said. In 2022, she and Veel became the first all-women’s two-handed team to complete the race; they plan to compete together again this year.

Annika Thomson, skipper and an owner of the 52-foot Ocean Crusaders J-Bird, said that it was not as daunting to race two-handed aboard the smaller boats. She would know: In 2022, Thomson and her husband, Ian, raced their 52-footer two-handed to Hobart.

She was skipper.

“It’s not recommended,” she said as a joke, of racing a big, powerful boat double-handed to Hobart. “We did it, now we forgot all about it.”

This year, Thomson plans to skipper her boat with a crew of 11, including her husband, who will navigate.

While professionally-run yachts often hire professional skippers, many amateur teams are led by owner-skippers.

“Sometimes to take on a leadership role a person needs to create their own opportunities,” Cahalan said. “For example, by buying or chartering your own boat and putting your own team together.”

She isn’t alone in this thinking: Seven of the nine female-led boats are racing with full crews.

“My thought is always, and always has been, if I want to skipper a yacht, I probably need to own it,” Thomson said. “The more women that own yachts, the more women who are encouraged to buy their own yachts.”

Case in point: Of the nine female-led yachts, seven are owned or co-owned by women. These include Thomson’s 52-footer, Hilary Arthure’s 35-foot Wyuna, and Jiang Lin’s 34-foot Min River.

There’s more than pride in vessel ownership at stake. The Sydney Hobart race can award dozens of trophies. Of these, three are specifically reserved for women

For some skippers, these aren’t enough.

“While these trophies are great in that they acknowledge the women who were pioneers and role models in the sport, the prize women really want to win now is the Tattersall Cup,” Veel said.

“I think it’s much more likely a female two-handed boat could win a division,” she said, pointing to the costs and complexities of campaigning a competitive yacht. “But I don’t want to rule anything out.”

Thomson was more optimistic. “It would be really cool if someone took it up this year,” she said, referring to the Tattersall Cup.

Still, she was realistic.

“How long is a piece of string?” she asked, using an Australian phrase meaning that something is only finished when it’s finished.

Trophies aside, sailors said the real rewards of skippering a yacht in this race were camaraderie, teamwork and the chance to lead a team through a demanding test.

Half of the race is “not the best times, and you’re questioning why you’re doing it,” said Costello of the often-rough conditions. “It comes back down to those moments where you’re wide-eyed and it’s a bit crazy out there, and everyone has that knowing look like, ‘OK, we’re going to get through this.’”

And, with more women taking on this leadership challenge, sailors said the race’s future had never looked more inclusive.

“Women are a big part of the population, so we aren’t going anywhere,” said Tuck, who plans to start her 16th race this year as a watch captain aboard Disko Trooper, a 32-footer. “Well, yes,” she corrected, “we are going to Hobart.”

Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2024

Andoo Comanche

John ‘Herman’ Winning Jr has chartered the Sydney Hobart record holder, Comanche . In their first hit out, Winning took Line Honours from Black Jack in the fluky 2022 Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race. She took Line Honours in just under 20 hours and won the inaugural 260nm Tollgate Islands Race. Herman has prefixed the boat’s name with ‘Andoo’ for Andoo Products, which partners with his Appliances Online. This is the boat to beat for Line Honours.

American Jim Clark and Aussie wife Kristy bought brand new Comanche for her first Rolex Sydney Hobart in 2014 and finished 49 mins behind Line Honours victor, Wild Oats XI , ahead of her Line Honours victory in 2015 after scoring Line Honours in the light and fluky 2015 Rolex Fastnet Race. She also smashed the 2225 nautical mile Transpac monohull record in 2017. Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant bought her just prior to the 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart and as LDV Comanche , she took Line Honours and the race record after a protest against Wild Oats XI . In 2018, Comanche was pipped for second over the Rolex Sydney Hobart finish line by Black Jack after a race-long battle between the four 100-footers, won by Wild Oats XI . Cooney last took her to Hobart in 2019 and took Line Honours after doing the same in the 2019 Transpac Race.

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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!