The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney to Hobart Race Free

FREE FATAL STORM: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE TRAGIC SYDNEY TO HOBART RACE PDF

When global property magnate and mad keen sailor Peter Harburg talks about the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, he does so with an eye to gaining a competitive advantage for his foot super maxi, Black Jack. It seems nothing will stand in the way of Harburg winning an ocean race that he says is definitely, by far, the toughest in the world. His inspiration is the legendary British designer, inventor, engineer and founder of Lotus Cars, Colin Chapman. Chapman used aeronautical engineering techniques in the s, '60s and '70s to make his cars lighter and faster than his competitors'. He struck a fine balance between having the cutting-edge technology to outpace others and the strength to finish each race in one piece. A similar strategy is used by other ft super maxi owners. InBeck modified the boat's water ballast, installed new winch motors, added a J Zero off the bowsprit and a whisker pole. He bought the boat in from celebrity accountant Anthony Bell, who sailed it under the name Perpetual Loyal. InfoTrack came fourth. Matt Allenthe former UBS investment banker who won the race in in his super maxi Ichi Ban, says the challenging racing conditions in the Sydney to Hobart have a lot to do with the current that runs down the east coast of Australia in summer at about 3 to 5 knots. You know, it's still very much a seat-of-the-pants race. Instinct still counts for a lot. Allen had a long discussion about the Sydney to Hobart race with a bunch of sailors at the World Sailing annual conference in Bermuda in November. Aerial view of the start of the Sydney to Hobart race. Brendan Esposito. Harburg agrees there is no other race in the world that presents the technical and tactical challenges the Sydney to Hobart does. Dominic Lorrimer. Adrienne Cahalan, who is navigator on Chinese Whisper and has done 25 Sydney Hobart races, says the most dangerous part of the race can be crossing Bass Strait in a southerly storm. Cahalan says skippers have to think about Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney to Hobart Race tactics for three different zones of weather: the NSW coast and the impact of the current, Bass Strait, and then conditions off the coast of Tasmania, where it is not uncommon to be becalmed. Adrienne Cahalan far right was leading skiff skipper on "Condor" in the Sydney to Hobart. David Porter. Cahalan was in the tragic race ofand her yacht was forced to retire 40 miles from the finish. But she has a positive view overall. Thanks to the fatal storm ofit is the survival aspect of the Sydney Hobart race that weighs on the minds of all skippers, whether they are mega-rich or just in it for the thrill of sailing. A yacht sails towards a large storm cloud during the Sydney To Hobart yacht race. Bruce Gould, who has done 46 Sydney Hobart races sincewas on board the yacht Winston Churchill inwhen the monster storm came out of the Southern Ocean. Three of his fellow crew members — Mike Bannister, Jim Lawler and John Dean — died when they were swept out of a life raft. After that, says Gould, he thought hard before going back out to sea. I love ocean racing and I have sailed with some terrific sailors over the years. It is widely accepted that the changes made to safety rules and regulations by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia as a result of the lessons learnt from have made the Sydney Hobart a much safer race. Technology has helped as well, with real-time tracking of the position of each yacht. First across the line was Larry Ellison's Sayonara. Bruce Knecht The Proving Ground. It contains some extraordinary stories of which the most extraordinary of all is from the race, when the metre sloop Lolita was damaged in a storm and called for help. Before a nearby fishing trawler could arrive, a British submarine HMS Trump surfaced 20 metres away and managed to tow the yacht over the next three days to St Helens. Laurie Shea. This year there are yachts in the race including five super maxis. There are an estimated crew and about Technology and mountains of money have combined to create F1 style speedsters that can finish the race in a day and a half compared to Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney to Hobart Race and a half days for the nine yachts in the original race, which was won by Rani, skippered by John Illingworth. Beck says because the race is over so fast in a super maxi, his enjoyment comes from the hectic and sometimes fraught start in Sydney Harbour and the huge party at Constitution Dock in Hobart. Skipper and owner Matt Allen standing and the crew of Ichi Ban hone their competitive edge ahead of the race. Whatever happens during the mad and frantic start on the harbour on Boxing Day, Matt Allen from Ichi Ban says the final outcome will be unpredictable. You can be becalmed one minute and then you can have 40 to 50 knots 10 minutes later or vice versa. And it's it's quite a challenge. Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer Help using this website - Accessibility statement. Tony Boyd Columnist. Dec 20, — 5. Rolex Matt Allenthe former UBS Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney to Hobart Race banker who won the race in in his super maxi Ichi Ban, says the challenging racing conditions in the Sydney to Hobart have a lot to do with the current that runs down the east coast of Australia in summer at about 3 to 5 knots. Brendan Esposito "I was talking to Stan Honey, who is arguably the most recognised and highly regarded navigator, and he's been collecting data over the last decade and a half on all the big ocean races," Allen says. Print article License article. Sydney to Hobart. Super yachts. He has more than 35 years' experience as a finance journalist. Connect with Tony on Twitter. Email Tony at tony. The Everest Jockey a three-time winner of world's richest turf race Oct 17, The 10 most powerful people in Australia in Tom McIlroy. Premiers, doctors and bankers back in charge but PM still on top. Rich Listers Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney to Hobart Race with boards that can say no James Thomson. How to speak up about sexual harassment at work. Sydney Airport ready to fly. Flutes and all, orchestras are back Michael Bailey. Mate X e- bike belies its brutish looks to offer a sedate ride. This surf-mad director has no fear of sharks or cold water. Pandemic hits Harry Triguboff's serviced apartments Michael Bleby. Rich Lister's plant-based meat gets backing from Asian-based investors. Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney-Hobart Race - Rob Mundle - Google книги

The 75th Rolex Sydney Hobart Race was a mentally taxing affair for all competitors in this anniversary year of the offshore classic, reports Crosbie Lorimer. The first priority for any competitor is just getting safely out of Sydney Harbour, awash with an armada of spectator craft. If all is well you enter the fearsome Bass Strait in good order. Photo: Crosbie Lorimer. Into and across the usually aptly named Storm Bay — although quiet as mouse for most in — the course takes you finally past the Iron Pot at the entrance to Derwent River. Despite its rugged reputation, for all but the tail end of the fleet in this anniversary race the greatest challenge in the uncharacteristically light to moderate running conditions to Hobart was to pick the best route through two large and complex light air transitions. But Boxing Day dawned bright, with only a slight smoke haze and the promise of a building north-easterly sea breeze to send the strong fleet southward under spinnakers to the first Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney to Hobart Race those light air troughs off the New South Wales south coast. Those two transitions the second off Tasman Island were to tax the navigators of yachts large and small. And the mental anguish is never worse than in the tormenting 11 miles it takes to sail up the Derwent River to the finish line, as the line honours winner was to find. Accompanied by a fleet of spectator boats, Comanche heads for line honours in Hobart. But the breeze on this notoriously fickle river suddenly evaporated, leaving the super-beamy maxi yacht flat on its bottom, stock still and surrounded by a large, equally stationary spectator fleet. After agonising minutes with a spotter aloft searching for any zephyrs, the collective exhalation aboard Comanche was almost audible as a light breeze returned and she crossed the finish to take line honours in 1d 18h 30m — nine hours outside her own record from Maxis jockey for position at the start in Sydney Harbour. Winning was relief more than elation! All was in sharp contrast to the original cruise-in-company-turned-race. The response to such challenging conditions and the determination to finish the race was as practical as it was unconventional to modern eyes. The rules for the inaugural race were also few and evidently flexible. But above all, for the race pioneers just finishing was the goal; so the elapsed time of 11d 6h 20m for the last boat into Hobart remains a record to this day. Every one of the 75 years the race has run is rich with epic tales and Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney to Hobart Race anecdotes. Remarkably, despite their varying ages and designs, all five super maxis had been within sight of each other as they sailed up the Derwent River. Even for Mark Richards, the skipper of nine-times line honours winner Wild Oats XIwho had to settle for 3rd place this year, the draw of the race remains as powerful as ever. Technically there are so many variables involved in this race. The victorious Ichi Ban crew gets a champagne dousing from Rob Greenhalgh. With the line honours contenders berthed in Constitution Dock, attention turned to the much-coveted Tattersall Cup for the overall handicap winner under IRC. Anyone aspiring to raise this splendid baroque silverware aloft must bring together an extraordinarily well-prepared boat be it old or newcrew and strategy. Luck too will still play its part. This laser-like focus was rewarded in when the recently launched Ichi Ban won the Tattersall Cup on her first race to Hobart. The Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney to Hobart Race of Tribal Warrior are greeted with an Aboriginal welcome ceremony. Proud to make the finish: the indigenous Australian crew of Tribal Warrior. For Wayne Jones, skipper of the Beneteau It was blowing the boat sideways. We got pounded. Tribal Warrior was the first officially entered indigenous crew ever to participate. Crewmember Naomi Cain, who had only been sailing for six weeks before this race, found the experience challenging but deeply rewarding. Katwincharbuilt inis the oldest yacht ever to compete in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. But it just goes faster and lower and lower. The snorkels come up and away you go! But while the drought and unprecedented bushfires sweeping across Australia are symptoms of wider changes in the climate, it is changing this race too. Renowned ocean racing navigator and marine biologist Will Oxley navigator aboard Ichi Ban explained in Hobart that the run of mostly downwind races to Hobart over recent years is not simply an aberration, but rather the result Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney to Hobart Race the warming of the Southern Oceans. One suspects that British Naval Captain and much respected ocean racer John Illingworth, who turned the idea of a cruise into this famous race, would be hoping it loses none of its tough reputation. TAGS: Racing. The inside story of the nail-bitingly close Sydney-Hobart race

Boxing Day dawned hot but clear over the mainland harbour city for the start of the Sydney to Hobart race. The nor'east sea breeze was building and most sailors on the competing yachts expected a fast and comfortable ride as the wind pushed them down the NSW coast for the opening section of the nauticalmile course. But there were already signs of adverse conditions further south. An east-coast lowpressure system was forming. Midnight Rambler facing the conditions. With 16 Sydney to Hobarts already behind him, Psaltis was at the peak of his physical and mental condition as an offshore sailor. He was just eight years old when his father, Bill, bought him and his younger brother a small sailing dinghy. Bill Psaltis, an experienced offshore yachtsman with 22 Sydney to Hobart races to his credit, had twice been Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, organisers of the event. Ocean racing was in the blood. Ed Psaltis's formative offshore experience was gained on his father's boat, Meltemi, a name that reflected the family's Greek heritage. He had raced to Hobart for the first time aged just In late Novemberthen aged 37, he bought Chutzpah, a fibreglass sloop that had been winning strong events in Victoria. He secured sponsorship from The Australian Financial Review and renamed the foot It would head south with a crew of just seven, but they had sailed more than 50 Hobart races among them. Ocean racing is a stamina sport, so physical fitness is crucial. We all worked hard before the Hobart race doing weights, running, rowing and swimming — anything to build up our aerobic strength and endurance. Most of us Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney to Hobart Race done a lot of sport at school and that conditioning stood us in good stead. We spent as much time as we could that December just sailing the new boat hard in all conditions. We went out in storms to practise sail changes. We did [nautical]-mile round trips through the night to test ourselves and the boat. We trained very hard. By a mixture of good luck and good management, our crew was just about the perfect blend of experience and character to cope with the drama that was about to hit us. We'd all rowed and played competitive rugby at school. But our real love lay outside those sports. We'd row around in clapped-out dinghies behind these boats as we sailed them on the Parramatta River. We used to hold mini Sydney to Hobart races and dream that the three of us would one day do the real race together on the same boat. Credit: Bruce Miller. Midnight Rambler made a good startcleared Sydney Heads, and was soon running strongly off Bondi under full Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney to Hobart Race and the largest spinnaker on the boat. Psaltis and his crew were excited to discover that their footer was competitive — already passing some much larger yachts. Our top speed was 21 knots, surfing a wave on an absolute knife-edge. The yacht was going so fast there was a big rooster tail off the stern like a speedboat. We suffered two massive broaches during that period. They were really out-of-control capsizes — people in the water, absolute mayhem. Both times the little boat just jumped back up and kept going, showing how strong she was. But we did think we should take down the spinnaker. Midnight Rambler reached the entry to Bass Strait at 11am on the 27th. It had taken an incredibly short 22 hours of "no guts, no glory" sailing to get there. No boat of its size had ever covered that first section of the race in less than a day. The next radio check of positions confirmed that Midnight Rambler was now holding a surprising 6th place on handicap. Psaltis and his crew knew they were doing very well, and were determined to hold onto that advantage. But their dominant concern was the weather ahead. The temperature and barometric pressure were plummeting. They could see lightning bolts in the distance. Psaltis had done enough races to know the dangers. The worst of the gale hit two hours laterjust before 1pm on the 27th. It built very quickly to 30 knots of wind speed, then 40, then Another 10 minutes later it had become 60 knots of howling, snarling southerly. On Midnight Rambler, the crew changed down to the trysail and storm jib, the two smallest sails they had. Every time she started to come up, another gust would knock us down again. We needed to get the trysail off. It was all hands on deck. We managed to get the sail down and the boat eventually righted itself. That's one of the times when all our practice really paid off. For the next eight hours, they had the worst conditions he'd ever seen. The noise was possibly the scariest part of the whole thing — Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney to Hobart Race constant scream through the rigging, through the sails, and through yourself. The sound of the spray hitting the side of the hull was like somebody standing with a machine gun firing bullets into the boat. It's something I don't want to experience again. Anticipating that the storm was likely to push them east, they'd decided to head in closer towards land and forgo the favourable current running south further offshore. That one tactical decision would have profound consequences — both for their success in the race, and their survival. Psaltis remembers how the rising seas dwarfed his little sloop. Our standard approach was to go almost straight up the face while keeping boat speed, then pull away very hard at the top and slide down the other side," he says. The other 20 per cent you wouldn't pull away quickly enough and the wave would pass underneath. We'd sail straight into thin air and fall about 30 feet. The bang when you hit the water was incredible. It was more like hitting a block of cement than water. You'd be lying in your bunk certain that the keel had fallen off, the mast had gone, the bows had caved in. You were basically hanging on for your life. The worst period of the storm lasted about 10 hours. The breeze wasn't letting up and I really thought we weren't going to make it. You had to wear sunglasses or goggles because you just couldn't look into the weather without some kind of eye protection. The spray was like bullets in your face. The noise was just deafening. It was hell on wheels. I remember thinking, 'How the f… did we ever get ourselves into this? Midnight Rambler triumphed against atrocious conditions to win the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Credit: Michele Mossop. Forty miles into its Bass Strait nightmareMidnight Rambler was confronted with a situation that could easily have ended its race. During the height of the gale, crewman Chris Rockell Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney to Hobart Race thrown across the cabin by a huge wave while putting on his wet-weather gear. He'd flown almost two metres, landed badly and cut his head on a protruding bolt. There was blood everywhere and Rockell was concussed. Psaltis Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney to Hobart Race faced with a tough choice. Should they turn around and get Rockell treatment back in Eden, the fishing town on the NSW south coast, or press on? As we learnt later, many of the boats that got into real trouble had been trying to run with the Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney to Hobart Race. Don't pull out of the race! We kept him in his bunk for 24 hours. His only complaint through all this was that he reckoned he didn't need to stay below and wanted to pull his weight. Off Maria Island [Tasmania], we let him up and he helped out until the finish. Then he wouldn't even let us take him to hospital. The team came first, yourself second. As a team, the seven of us together beat that gale. If we'd been fighting it as individuals, it would have beaten us. They had now staked their lives on their collective ability to fight the storm and keep racing. By 2pm on the second day, 22 boats had already been defeated by the conditions and were heading back to the safety of Eden. The tragedy that would make this Sydney to Hobart the most notorious event in Australian ocean-racing history was beginning to unfold. On Midnight Rambler, the wind strength was too much even for their minimal rig of storm jib alone. The yacht was slammed flat yet again. Water poured in through a hatch that had been left slightly open for ventilation. All their electrics were knocked out in that one moment. Gone were the instruments providing boat speed, GPS location, bearing and distance to Tasmania, and the digital compass.