Celebrating New Year on Hobart’s historical Constitution Dock became a personal reward for the Whitsunday Rolex Sydney Hobart Race sailors who completed 628 energy absorbing nautical miles simply to enjoy the honour.
The famous Dock Party was a new experience for Charlie Preen and Greg Tobin and their Dehler Magic crew while skipper Damien Suckling and the crew of Another Fiasco were in the party mood 12 months ago when they celebrated the last minutes of 2006 and the first hours of 2007 as the Performance Handicap class champions.
Unfortunately there was no dual celebration as class winners but the Another Fiasco and Dehler Magic crews showed that the Tropical Shirt sailors have the combined crew skills and determination to tough it out by completing what is regarded among the most physically demanding challenges in ocean yacht racing.
Both crews had completed a marathon ‘dance on the deck’ in harmony with the sound of the wind and waves and it became a special sense of achievement to ‘dance on the dock’ in world class company.
Another Fiasco racing in the highly competitive Grand Prix IRC division for the first time completed the course in 3 days 14 hours 38 minutes 38 seconds to average 7.3 knots while the smaller Dehler Magic averaged 6.3 knots in her course time of 4-03-55-28 during a weather system that favoured the new generation IRC class racing sloops.
However Another Fiasco finished 8th on corrected handicap in Division E which was an outstanding result considering they had little luck with the wind velocity and direction after entering Bass Strait.
Sure the weather forecast did not help but they were happy to have achieved what they set out to do and that was to record a finish with the corrected handicap result being a bonus.
Dehler Magic also suffered with the weather but her crew also enjoyed that special sense of achievement when they crossed the Battery Point finish line to finish 6th overall in Performance Handicap Division B.
The crews of Another Fiasco and Dehler Magic who raced in an unstable weather system into the cold latitudes will carefully monitor the windy east coast forecasts as they plot their return voyage home to warm and windy Whitsunday Island waters.
This could be some weeks as the presence of the monsoon season and the associated low pressure systems spiced with gale force winds and growling seas seem certain to delay their return and the announcement of the date for a special Hobart Hero’s welcome party on the deck of the Whitsunday Sailing Club.
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