Moose McClintock from Dimension-Polyant just did the Sydney to Hobart race on the Nelson TP 52 Wot Yot. he was good enought o file this report for us anarchists. Enjoy.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't have considered doing the Sydney Hobart race. My biggest aversion is that I have an incredibly bad time sleeping on boats; I like it dark, quiet and still when I sleep. The thought of pounding through waves for three days and the resulting sleeplessness, combined with a screwed up body clock from getting there, wasn't what I really wanted to do. However, the Hobart Race is considered one of the true tests of offshore sailing and I guess if I wanted to reinforce any credibility in offshore circles this would probably help. Combined with the fact that I had some business to do in Sydney and the ticket would be taken care of, it became less difficult to say no.

To back up a bit, the manager of the D4 plant in Australia is Mike Green, an overwhelming personality who has done, I believe, 27 of these races. Along with his father Peter, who passed away in the early '90's but did around 38 of these, Mike and his dad are the only father-son team with over 25 Hobart's each. Needless to say, when Mike suggested I come do some work and then the race I had to consider it. Our ride would be Wot Yot, the Nelson/Marek TP52 formerly known as Yassou and Glory. Owner Graeme Wood had sailed last year on his Sydney 47 Wot's Next (the Wot being an adjunct of his business, wotif.com). Graeme moved up to the bigger boat but in an incredible act of generosity has retained the old boat and sponsored a youth team aboard the it as an extension of the CYCA youth program (the boat was 50/50 young and experienced old and was a creditable 27th in fleet).

Besides Mike and Graeme, we had a very experienced group aboard, almost all of whom had multiple Hobarts under their belt, while the newbies amongst us were our 23 year old bowman, my good friend and boat designer Bruce Nelson and myself. The boat was delivered in October and immediately went through a re-fit to meet the grueling conditions expected in the race. Fortunately, my Laser frostbite competitor PJ Schaefer is an engineer at Hall Spars, builder of the rig, and his recommendations kept a lot of potential worries under control. The boat, originally built by Goetz in 2001 and modified slightly for last year's worlds, was actually picked because the Aussies wanted to make sure they had a boat that would stand up to the potential pounding of Bass Strait and Goetz's background of exceptional boatbuilding also went a long way toward easing any worries.

My biggest problem, other than not sleeping, was missing Christmas at home with my wife and daughter. I'd missed 2 Christmas's before through Cup campaigns and wasn't anxious to miss another with my daughter but she was philosophic about it: "You're going to leave the presents, right?" "Yes, I am." "Well, then go ahead". My wife was understanding (not really sure how she puts up with me) so off I went.

After getting down there and getting my work commitments out of the way, we prepped for the race by going through a full safety review with a nominated inspector who went over everyone's responsibility in a variety of contingencies. Following the '98 race, with its' resultant fatalities, the race organizers recognized the necessity of supervising the competitors and the amount of preparation and detail required for each boat is pretty impressive. I'm thinking I should get my Safety at Sea and first aid certification going or they won't ask me back (maybe not a bad thing). Following our briefing, we did a quick couple hours on the water, checking a variety of A-sails and checking reef settings. One interesting note was watching Quantum, the canting ballast R/P 50, out sailing with their in-groove Code 0. Apparently, there is nothing in IRC saying a Code 0 can't be in the luff groove or battened so they have an enormous, widely roached and battened headsail with the stability of the headstay. It has raised quite a bit of a ruckus and it will be interesting to see if there is any legislation about it.

Anyhow, we got this day out of the way and I spent the next day playing with Mike's grandkids while his daughter delivered another child just in time for Christmas. Christmas itself was a true family affair and it's interesting to note how Christmas in Australia is a lot like the 4th of July here, there are family feeds and party's on the beach, not the nuclear family type of celebration we see in the northern hemisphere. I called my daughter at 12:30 in the morning (8:30 Christmas morning at home) to get a little bit of the Christmas spirit going.

The next day was the start of the race. The next day was the start of the race. Forecasts had dialed down from the initial heavy southerly to a more moderate (only 30-35) for the early part of the race and dying all the way down to Hobart. We started in about 20 knots from the south, planing down the harbor toward North Head behind the Maxi's and several of the bigger boats (including Quantum who had a beautiful set and planed over us before we got really organized). After exiting the Heads we beat out toward the south running ocean current. This current is much like the Gulf Stream, running at about 2.5 knots to 4 knots for the most part. As we approached the current line the wind became really unsteady (Bruce and I looked at each and both immediately thought of getting to the edge of the Gulf Stream) and were headed about 30 degrees. A tack to port and we were aiming down rhumbline, the majority of the boats in our area following suit. What we learned later was many boats continued straight out and caught a 4.5 knot ride south though in much rougher seas and more wind. These conditions were probably exactly the cause for the dropped rigs on ABN Amro and Maximus though I couldn't confirm with anyone. Whereas the southerly current swept them far ahead, the amount of easting they made negated a lot of the advantage. I'm curious as to whether the winners went out, I didn't stick around long enough to find out.

As the sun went down we watched Yendy's, an R/P 55 that was our main class competitor and an upwind machine (physically she looks like a much bigger boat, when we tied up side by side in Hobart her rig towered over us), starting to sail away from us and we in turn sailed away from Quantum and the RP 60 Loki (though the three of us stayed locked together all the way down). Although we would actually catch and pass Yendy's during the night (the entire crew stayed on the rail all night, a tribute to Mike's experience of getting as far down the road as possible while everyone was fresh), Yendy's eventually ground through us and passed us the next morning and inexorably stretched out in the heavy seas. We were dropping off the short stuff but the boat was handling the pounding without a care, a pretty good affirmation of getting the boat in the first place (whereas the team had been thinking about a TP52 as being a good boat they were concerned, given the optimization of the current fleet to lighter Med conditions, as to whether the boats could take the pounding they'd see in a Hobart). We saw 18-25 for most of the night with short, steep seas that made the ride pretty rough (rough enough for the dismastings, several broken steering gears, the forward rudder on Skandia and one sunken boat) but in truth I didn't think it was that bad (not that I'm complaining).

The 2nd day saw our entry into the Bass Strait and we were living in about 25-30 knots with the same short steep waves but now adding a long ocean swell. Though we were still on the wind it was very manageable but I could imagine exactly how this could go pear-shaped with another 10 knots of breeze. Our 4-man rotation on the helm was getting settled and though it was rough, the quality of steering made it seem a little easier than it probably was. I was probably the weak link in the group due to an increasingly sore back and neck, but the physicality of driving the boat definitely wore me down.

Over the course of the day we slowly got lifted and were able to crack off a bit for speed, only to get headed again and go back to a beat. It was getting pretty frustrating but the Southwester we were in was predicted to go Southeast so it seemed eventually we'd get to reach a bit and make up some time on Yendy's. Unfortunately, when the breeze came around on the 3rd day we were becalmed for a bit and when the breeze kicked back in we were on the wind again, just on the other tack. At least we could turn our necks in the other direction. All this time we were losing sight of Yendy's while we could always just see Quantum and Loki behind us. At least we had a benchmark and that gave us the incentive to keep pushing hard.

After the wind went to the Southeast we started the long beat to Tasman Island, the southeast corner of the course. The breeze was dying all the time and it soon became obvious that though we weren't that far behind Yendy's we would have some problems, given a 1.5 knot foul current, of saving our time. The good side of all this, however, was a spectacular view of the island, a weather beaten outcropping with amazing vertical rock formations carved through a millennia of pounding seas. As we rounded Tasman Island Mike pulled out a bottle of Rum and toasted his father, whose ashes he had spread over the same spot many years ago. At this point we thought we still had a good chance of saving our time on Yendy's if the breeze would just pick up about 5 knots for the A-sail run to Hobart. Unfortunately, the breeze stayed down as we gybed back and forth in a dead run in 8 knots while heading for the Iron Kettle, a lighthouse marking a right turn up the Derwent River. As we neared the last couple miles we realized we had a huge pile of kelp on the keel and though we tried a myriad of tricks to dislodge it, we couldn't shake it. However, the breeze kicked in and we had a beautiful sail down the last run to the finish, blasting through the Australian Laser Championships en route. 5th across the line, we ended up 2nd by a bit to Yendy's and 11th overall.

All in all, a beautiful sail, a great boat and a fantastic and incredibly hard working bunch of guys, never one gripe and certainly one of the most upbeat teams I've ever had the pleasure of sailing with. I can see the allure of this race for the Aussies, it's a tough race and they're a tough nation. I'm glad it didn't get as out of control as it has in the past but the guys on board were more than ready, in fact almost relishing the opportunity, if the shit hit the fan. Had the race been an offwind contest I think we could have done better but it was what it was and Love and War, a beautiful 1974 S&S design, took to the conditions like a duck to water…..they crushed everyone. So now the question is will I do another Hobart. Well, if I bring my wife and daughter so I don't miss Christmas, maybe. If they'll stop calling me Seppo, for sure.

Moose McClintock

01/02/07