Southern Light seventh boat to finish Osaka race

by Di Pearson on 2 May 2007 Tom Crabb and Trent Justice sailing their Adams 11.9 metre yacht, Southern Light, the lone South Australian entry in the 2007 Melbourne Osaka double handed yacht race, early this morning became the seventh boat to finish the race.

With a finish time at 01H 43m 41s AEST (15H 43m 41s UTC) on May 2, and an elapsed time of 37 Days 12h 43m 41s, both Crabb, from Adelaide and Justice from Brisbane are 28 years old, their combined ages making them the youngest crew in the race.

Southern Light is the smallest yacht to cross the finish line so far, only Wild Boar, currently still at sea and in 11th place, is smaller at 10.76 metres.

Crabb and Justice arrived tired but happy after the 5,500 nautical mile journey, the first time either has done the race. On coming ashore, Crabb told: 'The last bit of the race was fun. It’s not the type of sailing I’d like to do everyday, but we both enjoyed it. It blew constantly in the mid 30’s from yesterday until we finished and we had gusts in the 40’s.'

The South Australian says despite the horrendous conditions, 'we had a fair bit of sail up. We hit 20’s (boat speed) at times, it was a bit of white knuckle sailing, but it was nice to get a bit of speed up coming into the bay and the finish line.'

Old friends, the pair are shipwrights. 'We have worked together and have raced with (South Australian yachtsman), Geoff Boettcher, on Hardys Secret Mens Business together. We know each other well, have sailed together a lot and get along fine,' said Justice.

'We’ve done a lot of short-handed sailing together, so the Melbourne Osaka was a progression really,' Crabb chipped in.

Crabb also described the feeling to find they were 1,187 nautical miles behind the rest of the fleet following repairs to their rudder in Bermagui on the NSW South Coast. 'When we re-entered the race, it was in a dying southerly, then we got a light northerly and nor-easterly all the way to Taree (NSW North Coast). We were just a little late and missed the right weather patterns.

'We kept positive and watched the weather systems carefully the whole way. The key to the race was getting into the next pressure system. Just past Taree, we finally got the southerlies and took off. Trent and I spent our time two hours on and two hours off in our attempts to catch the fleet. We never thought of giving up.'

He also told: 'We learnt a lot about the race and our boat. We didn’t get to sail the boat before the Osaka really. It’s 20 years old; mutton that we dressed up as lamb!'

Justice said their first Melbourne Osaka was exciting. 'We enjoyed our race, but it had its ups and downs. The downside was leaving Melbourne and my fiancé Natalie behind. I found that hard, we’ve had so many goodbyes with my sailing,' said the yachtsman from Lota, inland of Manly in Queensland.

'The good part,' continues Justice, 'was the skeds every day. We both looked forward to climbing further up the course and catching boats up. The other good part was Tom and I did not have a bad word to say to each other the entire race. We have an incredible friendship, and it was Tom who motivated me to keep going after we repaired our rudder. He is very inspirational.'

His arrival in Osaka, he said, 'surprised me. It was freezing cold and you could see frost everywhere – I didn’t expect to see that in Spring.'

On their second day at sea, Tuesday March 26, Crabb and his wife Liz, who live in West Beach, a seaside suburb of Adelaide, celebrated their second wedding anniversary – separately, but managed a long-distance chat on their special day.

Prior to starting the race, Crabb, a sailor for 15 years commented: I am doing the race as both a personal challenge and using it as an opportunity to find solutions to problems in long distance racing and cruising.'

For his mate Justice, who has sailed for 20 of his 28 years, the race was: 'To test myself. It’s something I have always wanted to do. I built Southern Light with Jon Sayer (designer/builder and co-skipper of RYU-JIN – fgi) for the race, which I have always wanted to do.' Both said the race lived up to expectation.

Crabb also enthused on their reception in Osaka: 'The Japanese people and competitors gave a very warm welcome. It was fantastic – you couldn’t have asked for more. The Japanese people have made us feel at home and they are very sincere people. It’s the nicest reception I’ve ever had after a race.'

In other news, Gusto, which finished the Melbourne Osaka third on line, having been sailed single-handed by Brian Pattinson since a repair stop in Honiara, has been disqualified by the race Protest Committee for infringing the Notice of Race 4-1, which states: 'All entries shall be sailing yachts crewed by two persons. No person may be substituted for either of the tarting Skipper or Co Skipper/Crew.'

Back on the race track, father and son crew Jim and Joe O’Keeffe, (Hullabaloo), the only entry from NSW, are due to finish shortly. At the 10.00am AEST sked, the two, from Yamba on the NSW North Coast, were 22 miles from the finish line.

Asadori, the Japanese crewed Iain Murray 43 design (Shinsuke Nishi/Kyojun Fujita are behind Hullabaloo this morning, with 42 miles to sail.

Further down the course, Ingenue, 370 miles from the finish line, continues to lead Wild Boar and Esoterica, by 19 and 208 miles respectively.

From David James (Ingenue) yesterday afternoon: 'Still going well and enjoying the journey. The following wind is at 10 knots and we are sailing under full main and poled out No.1 on a reasonable sea making a steady 6-7 knots.

'We are using up the last of the eggs and bacon, but still plenty left to eat. Spanish tortilla for dinner. Last bottle of white wine remaining - saving the champagne for when we finish!

'It's getting ever-so-slightly cooler at night, requiring a cotton blanket at night.

'Enjoying the practise of celestial navigation. The Pole Star is very bright, approximately 22 degrees above the horizon. This is good entertainment for the mind. Rosie has compiled a template for all the formula calculations which makes it easier and fun.

'There is strong weather ahead – 35 knot winds, but we'll miss that by the time we get there.'


Weather from Roger Badham:

070501 0530Z
Winds are average winds at 10m – no gust.

GALES
TUE 01
A region of gale force SE-S-SSW winds of 35-45 winds, north of 29N, will clear to the east of the rhumb line by tomorrow morning. Wind turning SW-W/20-30 behind.
SAT 05
SW winds of 30-35 knots expected ahead of a front to cross the rhumb line north of 31N and clearing to the east that night.
SUN 06
S-SW winds of 30-40 kts expected to cross the rhumb line north of 26N. The gale force winds clearing to the east that night with NW-N/15-25 behind the front.

Argos tracker positions at UTC 00.00.00 (10am AEST & 9am JPN Wednesday May 2):

Alex (Jock and son Hamish MacAdie) FINISHED 07H 12m 02s (AEST) April 27
COCORIN (Itaru Matsunaga/John Bankart) FINISHED 14H 51m 22s (AEST) April 27
Gusto (Brian Pattinson) FINISHED 03H 52m 13s (AEST) April 28
RYU-JIN (Murray Bucknall/Jon Sayer) FINISHED 17H 58m 44s (AEST) April 29
Dekadence (Phil Coombs/Peter Walsh) FINISHED 09H 56m 03s (AEST) April 30
Tamagomalu (Makoto Hisamatsu/Jimmi Doherty) FINISHED 16H 16m 12s (AEST) April 30
Southern Light (Tom Crabb/Trent Justice) FINISHED 01H 43m 41s (AEST) May 2
Hullabaloo (Jim and son Joe O’Keeffe), Asadori (Shinsuke Nishi/Kyojun Fujita), Ingenue (David James and wife Rosie Colahan), Wild Boar (Shozi Yoneda/Jun Kanda),Esoterica (Campbell Reynolds/David Best), Cadi (John and son David Netherton, retired), Wasabi (Ken Down/Shane Gaddes – retired), Runaway (James Ryssenbeek/Andrew McCole – retired), Pippin (Roger Sayers/Anthony Bown – retired).