Another dose of Rolex Sydney Hobart for Chutzpah

by Jim Gale on 29 Dec 2016 Melbournian Bruce Taylor’s downwind flier, Chutzpah, is the first of the 40 footers to arrive in Hobart, crossing the line 30 minutes ahead of her divisional arch rivals, Elena Nova and Simply Fun.

This was the downwind Rolex Sydney Hobart all three yachts were designed for, and Taylor and his long-standing crew made the most of it, though once again overall Hobart victory has eluded them.

“At the outset we thought the big boats were a good chance of doing the double,” Taylor said dockside. “We hoped they would get slowed down in a couple of calm spots, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.”

Instead it was Chutzpah that came to grief.

“The first afternoon and evening we had a fantastic drag race with Simply Fun. We caned them last year, but they’ve done a lot of sailing together since then.

“We were fairly conservative with our A2 spinnaker, because we figured we’d need it a lot. When it got to 30 knots we thought we should take it down to preserve it, but the moment we did, Simply Fun took off so we put it back up again.

“We sailed really well through the night, but at dawn we just had no wind. We were doing circles at one stage, and it went on for three hours.

“We also ran out of wind for a while at the bottom of Bass Strait and in Storm Bay.

“This boat is a rocket ship, the crew is good, tactically, we couldn’t have done anything else, but if you ever stop in a Hobart race you cannot win it.”

What made this 2016 Rolex Sydney Hobart special for Taylor was that two of his crew, James Permezel and Bruce’s son Drew were doing their 25th race, a big milestone for any yachty. Drew and Bruce become the first father/son duo to do 25 Hobarts together.

“It was a terrific race, not hard at all,” Permezel said. “The most fun was coming down the Tassie coast. We had five hours of hard reaching, doing 22 knots. We could see the miles slipping under us, thinking we’re getting there, we’re getting there, until we got to Tasman Island and it just died. But that’s life.

“We’ve all done so many Hobarts and other races together we’re looking for an ‘Old Crew Allowance’ next year,” Drew jokes.

“But this is a brilliant sport. In what other sport can a father and son compete in the same high level event? You couldn’t do it in basketball, but then I couldn’t do anything in basketball,” laughs the five foot something sailor.

Drew is confident he will be back next year, but what about the old man?

“I suspect we all will. The forecast was so promising, but yet again there is still unfinished business.

“I think we’ve held every position in the top ten except the one that counts, so that is still out there as bait,” Drew ends.

“We’re the first 40 footer here so we figure we did okay,” says Bruce. “We didn’t do any damage; no-one lost any fingers.”