Race for the old and slow

Sean Langman's 80 year old Maluka of Kermandie leads Rolex Sydney Hobart on handicap

After the first two arrivals in the Rolex Sydney Hobart, there was a gap of almost 11 and a half hours until the arrival of the third boat to finish - Syd Fischer's Ragamuffin 100, which sneaked up the Derwent River to Hobart, finishing just 11 minutes ahead of Manouch Moshayedi's Rio 100, bringing the line honours battle between the 100ft maxis to a close

Following her dismasting, New Zealander Jim Delegat's Giacomo (ex-Groupama) lost the VO70 battle with Peter Harburg's Black Jack, which was fifth into Hobart. Giacomo has since managed to make it to Hobart. She was not the only boat to suffer a broken mast - Queenslander Bill Wild’s Wedgetail has lost her's too at 19.40 local while off Schouten Island. In last year’s race, Wedgetail also dismasted on that occasion in a southwesterly gale while lying east of Tasman Island. This time it was the hard running conditions that took their toll.

“Basically we were just north of Maria," said Wedgetail's sailing master, Kevin Costin. “A little wave caught us, we broached, and the mast failed. We’ve probably done that sort of broach many times before, on many boats. It’s totally broken at the third spreader - in two pieces. We are a little disappointed. We’re just trying to sort it out. This is twice in two years, that’s not good. But, you know, Bill’s pretty amazing. He put a lot of money into this, a lot of effort; he’s probably the most upbeat.

At the time of writing 62 yachts have finished with the mid-fleet flooding into Hobart over the course of today, with fast downwind conditions helping the tailenders make up time on their larger rivals with handicap honours certain to go to one of the smaller boats. Or more accurately, the slowest and oldest for at present, overall under IRC, Sean Langman's 82 year old, 30ft Class 4 yacht Maluka of Kermandie leads with 90 miles still to sail, while Roger Hickman's Farr 43 Wild Rose holds second, having finished this evening (local time) at 20:04:43. In third is Shane Kearns' S&S 34 Quikpoint Azzurro which had 76 miles still to sail.

Hickman has been in love with Wild Rose since she was first raced by Bob Oatley of Wild Oats fame. There may be no fiercer or cannier competitor in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. He is famous for driving his boat and crew to the limit.

“We had a massive broach in 30 knots this morning with the spinnaker up,” Jenifer Wells, Wild Rose’s navigator reported. “We laid her over a couple of times, broke the steering cable and it was looking very dicey. “We got out the emergency tiller and pulled the kite down, repaired the cable and we were back racing in 12 minutes.”

Wells admits that dark memories of two previous dismastings in similar conditions were going through their minds, “but we’re trucking again and getting bursts of 20 knots over the ground.”

Everyone on board is excited about the position Wild Rose is in as she closes in on Tasman Island. “It is absolutely fabulous,” Wells said. “We got a message from someone in France saying this is an example everyone should follow – a 29-year-old boat and still competitive in one of the world’s most famous races,” she said. “To have Wild Rose, Love & War and Maluka fighting it out is fabulous.”

Of course all three have a way to go, and the famous Derwent River evening shut-down still has to be avoided. There are big storms today in the region and it is threatening to get light in Storm Bay.

And broaching isn’t the only danger the crew of Wild Rose faces. They came close to a crisis on Friday night in that lumpy, testing southerly. “Hicko was absolutely in his element,” Wells said. “He was enjoying the conditions so much we thought he would break out into song.” If they win, he will.

On handicap, the first boat bigger than 50ft is Merlin, David Forbes Kaiko 52, way down at 22nd, and then you have to go all the way down to 35th, to find Nicholas Bartels Cookson 50 Terra Firma. In recent years the 50 and 60 footers have dominated the Rolex Sydney Hobart, but this year the Bass Strait high pressure ridge that proved so critical in the race for line honours has also defined the handicap race.

While the smaller, older boats were still enjoying a northerly on Saturday morning along the New South Wales coast, sailing to their optimal rated speed, the faster boats entering Bass Strait became trapped on the wrong side of the ridge in next to nothing, losing precious hours. To add to their woes, the northerly that finally arrived yesterday afternoon to liberate them would also push their smaller rivals unimpeded across the Strait.

Daryl Hodgkinson's 2013 Hobart race winning Cookson 50 Victoire was the 14th boat to finish, arriving at 07:28 local time this morning, but is currently 47th on handicap. Hodgkinson's crew knew their title defence was over early on Saturday morning, before they even got to Bass Strait. They could see that this was to be the year of the small boats, and there was nothing the 50 and 60 footers could do about it.

“We could see that they had a breeze to bring them down the New South Wales coast, while there was a hole in Bass Strait we couldn’t avoid,” Hodgkinson said. “Fortunately the other boats in or division were in the same hole too.”

With their hopes of an outright win dashed, the mid-sized boats settled down for some serious divisional racing. Victoire and Pretty Fly III engaged in a close-fought match race that would see them cross the line 400 miles later just a minute and a half apart after an engrossing duel up the Derwent River in a light breeze.

“Who would have thought you could match race up to the very last after 628 miles,” a delighted Hodgkinson said. He thinks he has won the match race and the division, Division 0.

The Victoire crew has a remarkable Hobart record. “We’ve done the race four times in the last five years and won our division each time, as well as winning the race overall last year. I’m proud of the boat, our crew, the record of our team, and I’ve forgotten already all the terrible things that happen.”

On tying up at Hobart's Constitution Dock Hodgkinson showed a scrappy bit of green rope attached to two deflated rubber buoys. “Look at this. I’ve got to show you my new trophy. It will go in my trophy room alongside the Tattersalls Cup. We were going so slowly that Pretty Fly III went right past us, and we couldn’t work out what was going wrong. We’d had problems with our speed all night, and there had been a funny noise. Then the boys saw we had this crab pot around the keel.

“And my bowman, Micky Slinn, an ex-British military guy says 'lower me over the side on a halyard and I’ll get it'. It’s one of the bravest things I have ever seen in my life. I was scared stiff. We’re going at 11 or 12 knots and he’s dangling down the side, head down, dripping wet, and we pull him back up - and there’s our trophy - Incredible.”

The nuggetty Slinn would have nothing of Hodgkinson’s praise this morning, dodging past the media with a grin and a “nothing to say: name, rank and serial number only.”

Onesails Racing came acropper too. She was clocking about 22 knots and looking set for a strong divisional finish when the boat shuddered to a screeching halt off the Tasmanian coast. The terrifying sound of shredding carbon had the off-watch crew jumping from their bunks in their thermals to inspect for damage. With the hull okay, they looked to the appendages.

“I’m pretty sure we hit a sunfish and that brought the boat to a shuddering stop,’’ owner/skipper Ray Roberts said. “She went into a wild gybe; we laid her flat in the ocean, got a lot of water on board. The good thing was none of the crew was hurt, and fortunately we still had one rudder, though it was hard to steer.”

The yacht was forced to limp at about 8 knots, well shy of the 20 plus she’d hoped to maintain until the finish. “But at least we made it,” Roberts said.

Photos from Carlo Borlenghi / Rolex