‘Katinka , Katinka, Katinka’

by Foxsports News on 1 Jan 2004 ‘Katinka , Katinka, Katinka’ was the jubilant chant that rang out today when the Sydney to Hobart yacht race straggler finally pulled in to Constitution Dock.

Among the appreciative lunchtime crowd were wives and family members of those onboard the 30-foot battler from NSW.

She was the smallest yacht to contest this year's event, which saw line honours snared by veritable giant, Victorian supermaxi Skandia, in the early hours of Monday morning.

Ellen O'Connell, whose husband Paul skippered the Currawong 30 on the 627-nautical-mile journey from Sydney, had been waiting patiently since yesterday. ‘I would have loved them to have come in last night around 12 o'clock for the fireworks,’ she said. ‘But at least out of all of the boats, they have got to enjoy sailing the most.’

Also dockside was Paul's dad Des O'Connell, 79, a veteran of 27 Sydney to Hobart races.

Completing his 10th trip to Hobart but his first as skipper, Paul O'Connell said while it was disappointing to finish last, the wooden-spooner was always guaranteed a warm welcome. Fellow NSW entrant Berrimilla, a Brolga 33, finished second last just before 7.30am (AEDT) today. The 48-year-old schoolteacher from Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral College said Katinka's six crew members saw in the New Year with a sail change.


‘Two of the guys had a hot chocolate, three had a beer and the other went to bed because he was more interested in having a sleep,’ O'Connell said. ‘We will celebrate with a crew dinner tomorrow. ‘We have just moved it back two days.’

O'Connell said Katinka had made frustratingly slow progress after suffering two major becalmings - one at the top end of Flinders Island, in the Bass Strait, and another near Tasman light last night. ‘Then we had unfavourable breezes from Tasman light coming down the river,’ he said. ‘It was just very, very slow.’

‘We just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when the breezes were just not there.’
He said he firmly believed there was still a place for little battlers in the Sydney to Hobart fleet because they were an important feeding ground and training area for the larger boats.

‘If you walk around a lot of the big boats in the marina, there are guys that started ocean racing on little boats,’ he said. ‘On a little boat like this, no-one is a passenger. ‘The guys that step off here actually had the whole experience.’