Thread: 2013 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race - I'm going south again.

Doing it again. Third and final time as I can't handle the nausea so well anymore.

I wasn’t planning on doing it this year as I’ve done no ocean racing in the last 2 years (since the 2011 S2H) so I’m well out of practice, but the boys asked me to step in when a spot became available a month ago.

I went out for a practice race up to Cabbage Tree Island and back the other week (overnight race, very cold conditions and pretty confused seas all the way there and back). As expected, much sickness which means a lot of noise from the stern…but the boys thought it was funny and I seemed to click back into place with the routines and processes we have on board.

Our boat
A DK43 called Minerva. Very much middle of the fleet in terms of size but she’s an old design and not particularly fast compared with all the modern 40-45 footers now, as carbon fibre boats become more commonplace.

She’s got a carbon fibre mast and a shiny new carbon-reinforced mainsail but otherwise she’s the same old girl we take in twilight races every Friday.

Fully-equipped with VHF radio, GPS, Satellite weather tracking and good old-fashioned maps and charts too, we've got an esky to keep food cool for a couple of days and a metho stove for boiling water and warming stuff up.

Sails: We’ll take 4 spinnakers and a gennaker for the downwind conditions (which as the most seasick sailor ever to have boarded a bobbing boat, I’m PRAYING we have a lot of), 4 jibs and a couple of special storm sails for when it gets above 40 knots and a really, really lightweight jib (like tissue paper) for when there’s no wind at all.

Minerva - Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2013



The fleet
97 boats this year….a big fleet. The usual Wild Oats XI that Channel 7 and 9 and 10 only ever seem to want to film. I HATE this – all sailors do. Those pansies on boats like WOXI and Loyal are professional yacht racers – the real heroes out there are the average people who leave their kids for 4 or 5 days and put themselves through hell in the name of tradition and teamwork, intra-boat camaraderie and bloody good fun. These are the guys who deserve to have the media coverage, not the people who just prove that with an infinite amount of money you can win a race......but anyway, rant over.
There’s the usual half-dozen yachts which represent blokes with big wallets and then there’s a few new-ish 60-75-foot designs which could be interesting.

The Clipper RTW Race is also joining us for this year which is great. 12 identical boats from Europe who’ve made it this far. 70 feet long. There’ll be a real tussle to see which one of their individual division comes over the line first.

In our division are boats like ours - designed for racing but within a budget. 40-50-footers.

Life on board
It's pretty basic. There are two watches of three hours each. The Tactician/ Navigator floats between all watches as and when required, as does the bowman. Everyone else is split into two watch teams and we do 3 hours on, 3 hours off. While that sounds like a lot of sleep, it’s not at all. When you’re off watch you have to make drinks, fix sails, pack sails, do the radio skeds (scheduled roll-call of all boats alphabetically by the race committee to find everyone’s position) and charge the batteries, which involves running the engine for 30-40 minutes and is hard to sleep through when you're right next to the engine. The "Yanmar lullaby", they call it. And then, just as you get your head down, someone calls for help up on deck.
In the rare off-watch sessions where you do get a good 2 hours to yourself, it vanishes. Your eyes seem to close and then someone wakes you up because it's your turn again. It's a cruel world out there.

We do have a toilet on board with a hand pump but being blokes we pee off the side and try not to number two for as long as possible. in my first Hobart I managed 5 days. mostly through being sick all the time, but nevertheless, it's amazing what you can do when you don't want to be shut on a tiny room with no fan or window, being bashed about and having to let nature take her course.

It's not all bad though. The wildlife out at sea is stunning. From the hilarious and bizarre flying fish to the mutton birds and albatrosses. From the tiny shoals of baitfish boiling over a tuna attack to the enormous whales of the southern ocean. Countless numbers of dolphin that like to swim close to our keel bulb too....and the stars on clear nights out at sea are amazing. Millions and millions of them.

Food and drink
If it’s not too rough we’ll cook up some simple noodles or pasta or even heat frozen pies in the metho oven....and snack on fruit and lollies to keep us going. Needless to say we get through gallons of water – changing sails is really heavy work – you need to wear full wet weather gear because of all the waves soaking you, but it makes you really hot while changing sails and repacking the previous one.

Gear
As above, we tend to wear our foulies at all times, unless it goes light and the sun comes out. I always sleep in full gear so if there’s an “ALL HANDS ON DECK!” call, I can get straight up and help out. God forbid we ever need to use the liferaft but if we do, I’m buggered if I want to be putting clothes on while it’s being deployed.
At night we have to be clipped on to the boat at all times (a race rule) and we tend to keep lifejackets on at all times too unless it's calm during the day.

Getting there in one piece
We normally race offshore with 10 but for the Hobart we take 12. It’s a lot of extra weight but in the Sydney to Hobart, someone always gets sick (me) and someone always gets hurt, so it’s best to have back-ups. At the end of the day we’re racing for fun, not for silverware.
We've had a few cracking injuries over the years, even on the harbour. Concussions from being hit with the boom, falling down the steps or just being thrown about and breaking ribs, collar bones and fingers. The worst is being hit by a massive wave that slams you into a stanchion or a winch.

In the month leading up to the race we've been practicing sail changes all the time, including at night and we’re all well used to each others’ jobs too. Fundamentally, we don’t introduce the really complicated sail change manoeuvres in big seas or with new guys on board so we tend to keep risks down at the cost of a few knots for a minute or two. Leave the flash stuff to the pros on their hundred footers!

What we do when we get there.
Clean-up! The race committee bring each boat a case of beer and we get all the stinky clothes, stinky sails, stinky sea boots, stinky fridge contents and the most feral bilge water off the boat for a couple of hours…..give it a really good tidy-up and get all our gear dry.
Then we hit the showers.
Then we hit the pub.
Customs House Bar in Hobart is a truly unreal place at that time of year. 2000 thirsty sailors and the bar is open all night and day for 3 days.
Brilliant.

Tracker
If you feel like it, you can follow our progress online using the official site yacht tracker Tracker - Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2013

Depending on the wind strength and direction and barring any serious malfunctions on board, we should be there on 30th, then I fly back to Sydney for the fireworks (I'm hosting a party in Kirribilli so no pressure!) and then I’m off camping – taking Monty away for a few days…..I’ll write up a wee race report when I get back!

Have a wonderful Christmas and think of us out there in the freezing ocean as you're sitting on your very still, very soft and very dry lounge!



Bobby

I love watching the start of the S2H and I too get the irrits that the TV focuses pretty much solely on the big EXPENSIVE "I can go faster than the wind" boats...

Gotta admit though that as advertising WIld Oats gets plenty of "free" publicity.....

I'd much rather get regular updates on all the fleet, ideally with aerial pics of them under sail.

It has always been a dream of mine to do a S2H but I know I;mnot up to it (can't endure that much of a lack of sleep).

I'd LOVE to do an ocean voyage on a yacht though. I'd LOVE too.

A tall ship would be even better....


BON VOYAGE !!! Go get 'em !