Rolex Sydney Hobart; Wild Action on Handicap Winning Wild Rose VIDEO

by Dale Lorimer on 30 Dec 2014 Roger Hickman’s Wild Rose has just been confirmed as the winner of the Tattersall’s Cup for overall handicap on IRC.

The win is all the more remarkable when you hear - and see - what the crew had to do yesterday simply to finish the race, much less win.

Yesterday morning Wild Rose was close to Tasman Island in fast running conditions under spinnaker, with winds gusting more than 30 knots across the deck, when the yacht broached, causing the a link in the steering to fail.

Cool heads prevailed and excellent seamanship was exercised; within minutes the spinnaker was down, the steering gear repaired and the boat on its way again. Navigator Jenifer Wells was sufficiently relaxed after the event that she called the Media Centre here in Hobart some minutes later to relate the story.

But the high drama was far from over. Five minutes later the boat got the spinnaker wrapped around the forestay and when it reset, the yacht rolled into a Chinese Gybe (the wind caught the mainsail on the wrong side and rolled the boat to windward).

In all of his 37 previous Sydney to Hobarts Roger Hickman has never before experienced a Chinese Gybe!

Remarkably Lisa Hickman, Roger’s sister, who is an accomplished kite surfer and regularly uses Go Pros was shooting from the stern of the boat at the time that the incident unfolded.

As the boat rolled over she lost hold of the Go Pro which was still rolling, attached by her wrist strap. The resulting video is as you can see, very dramatic.

The man seen in the water is Andrew Scott, whose 18 year old daughter was sailing her first Hobart with him!

Amazingly, other than the steering gear, no other damage was done to the boat and the cew suffered only bruises and minor cuts, which is probably just as well, as they then faced hours of upwind slog across Storm Bay and up the Derwent River, completing eighteen sail changes.

'It was like a full Hobart Race in a day' said Jenifer Wells today.

Many thanks to the Hickmans for making this footage available and as a footnote Roger Hickman was keen for other sailors to see that despite what looks like chaos, the recovery can be managed calmly. Hickman, formerly a merchant navy officer, emphasized the importance of loud and repeated instructions to ensure absolute clarity, as you will see here.

This is definitely not the sort of footage you show to your mum and dad when they ask, 'how was your race, dear?'