2010 Sydney - Hobart

[J.D.]

I know there are not many yachties on this forum (last time I started a thread like this it received a resounding raspberry) but for those who are interested, I have just returned from Hobart after four days of covering it.

Have to admit that this year's event was not very exciting unless you were in it. Quite a few retirements when the first front hit. The usual suspects: broken mast, torn sail, sick or injured crew and hull problems. At least it was relatively trouble-free.

Hobart was fantastic. What a great time to be there. It's a beautiful city at the most ordinary of times but when you combine the Sydney-Hobart, Melbourne-Hobart and the Taste of Tasmania Festival, it's just brilliant.

The protests didn't help matters much and kind of distracted from the best part of the story. It actually gives me the shits when we have to sacrifice great pictures of maxis going full tilt and run shots of people going in and out of rooms instead. Hardly the pinnacle of television spectacle.

Shooting Wild Oats XI coming up the Derwent was a right royal pain in the arse. The driver of the boat said he wasn't allowed within 100 metres of the yacht - we expected him to be conservative after what happened in Sydney Harbour - but we were about 300 metres away and with the sea state, getting a good shot was all but impossible. This was the first time I've been in a power boat when it broached. The port screw came out of the water and the engine stopped. Fortunately, I'm pretty familiar with broaching!

[bengatta]

it was pretty eventful on sydney harbour...

shame big nev stayed away, but I sure he would have been here if he could...

I was wondering this year whether the Andrew Short incident had an impact on crowd numbers... seemed to be down all over.

[J.D.]

Yeah, the media boat which got in the way of Wild Thing. I'm buggered if I know what happened there. The only people we ever hire are professional drivers and I couldn't see much evidence of that boat being driven by a professional...still...

Alfa Romeo was a big loss. I don't know the reasons why it wasn't there. Creighton has been campaigning the yacht in virtually all of the Rolex races for a long time now. Don't know why he was missing but it was a shame. Mike Slade's ICAP Leopard would have been very hard to beat in those conditions as Mark Richards acknowledged after the event. Shame it wasn't there either. It's a good heavy weather boat.

I wondered the same thing about Andrew Short. I don't know if there was anything to commemorate his loss (and that of Sally Gordon, who had 15 Hobarts to her name) but I doubt if it actually stopped people from watching.

I think, like me, most people expected Wild Oats to be the line honours winner. She's fully professionally crewed and faster on all points of sail than any of the other boats in the fleet. When you've got it so cut-and-dried, it's hard to generate much enthusiasm, except among die-hard supporters of one boat or another and there aren't many of those.

[wobblysauce]

it was really quite.. even the weather was quite boring.

[J.D.]

The weather was anything but boring.

IIRC wobbly, your idea of an exciting Sydney - Hobart is the 1998 one!

[wobblysauce]

now that was exciting.. and probably once in a lifetime.

[VTRacing]

now that was exciting.. and probably once in a lifetime.

Certainly for some...

[J.D.]

[mrleisure]

I don't think anyone could deny how beautiful Wild Oats 11 looks under sail , it would be a thrilling experience to be onboard or next best thing close up veiwing from another vessel alongside . She looks like an oversize skiff to me .

[wobblysauce]

you cant deny it is well thought out.

[J.D.]

@ Mr Leisure; you would probably appreciate Rán, whose stern looks more like a skiff than any other boat I've seen (all reverse curves and hard chines):



The cockpit is big enough to play tennis in and all the lines are run through tunnels under the deck.

The stern looks like my old Cherub from aeons ago...

[youtube] [/youtube]

[mrleisure]

Yeah not much to hang on to in a big swell , you'd want to have a harness hooked up . Cherubs eh JD , they would be a handfull in a strong breeze . I had a Flying 8 and then a Flying 11 when I was a kid then later on a 14ft Hobie , great fun , the 8 was very tricky to sail .

[J.D.]

Cherubs, 145s and a Laser - still by far the best dinghy ever designed (IMHO). I was only saying today that I wish I still had it. I'm not familiar with the Flying 8 and Flying 11. I don't think we have any in Victoria.

They're all a handful in a strong breeze but the Laser was the best, except when it came time to gybe the bastard. I never quite got the hang of gybing a Laser.

[KNAPPO]

Gybing a Laser was always brutal, i hated it as a little tacker.

This feels like another life ago but i use to race Cadets and an 18 foot A-Class cat.
Bloody great fun in the A-Class going solo but as i was only a young teenager i use to take a mate along for additional balast when the wind was up.

[J.D.]

Nice to see we have some fellow sailors here.

Most of my days out in the Laser resulted in a swim or two...! I usually ended up back bottling.

For anyone who thinks sailing is boring, you don't have to go this fast for it to be exciting:

[youtube] [/youtube]

Most people I know who think it's dull shit themselves as soon as the boat starts heeling.

[Hz-Lab]

My dad & I used to have a Mirror, loved it. Didn't take it out nearly enough, one time me and my dad took it out in some pretty wild weather, tipped it over a couple of times, it was up for sale the next day... lol.

Would love to get back in to it.

[wobblysauce]

My uncle used to have a 30foot sail boat when I was a lot younger, but sold it after it got damaged in a storm. Went to quite a few different places on that boat QLD Tas.. good times.