Tragedy brings Rouseabout 3 back to Hamilton Island

by Di Pearson on 27 Aug 2004 Melbournite John Rouse last brought his yacht Rouseabout 3 to Hahn Premium Race Week in 2001, where he won the Whitehaven Race.

Rouse, whose Don Jones 39 had an IMS optimisation by Jones (he designed Skandia the maxi) in 1995, then in 2001 Jones also designed a new keel and rudder, then last winter a new mast with sails from Quantum.

Happy with his modifications, Rouse had a successful 2001, winning not only at Hamilton Island, but at Sail Melbourne and the then named Bundaberg Festival of Sail in Geelong.

He had not intended on coming to either Hog’s Breath Race Week or Hamilton Island this year, but two big things changed his mind. Rouse lost both his former and current wives within two months of each other. Rouse, naturally, was devastated.

‘Although my former wife and I divorced, we stayed very close. I have children with both wives and my current wife made sure we all stayed one big family,’ Rouse said.

‘It’s like the Brady Bunch,’ son Adam interjected.

Rouse’s wife had a massive heart attack just over one month ago and it shook her husband up.

‘We’ve had a bit of adversity all right. Both wives, then an aunt died and then my dog. It’s all been a bit hard to take.

‘My sons from my first marriage are grown with children of their own now, so each of us tends to get involved in our own family things, it doesn’t leave much time to do things together. After my wife died, I realised I needed to spend some quality time with my sons Hamish and Adam, so here we are and I’m glad we are here,’ Rouse said.

Hamish is at the mast on Rouseabout, Adam ‘in the office’, with Dave Eickmeyer steering and Matt Hammond calling the tactics.

Their Rouseabout 3 gave things a shake up at Hog’s Breath Race Week. Finishing fourth overall, she was not a pre-event favourite, but a win and other top three places had her miss out on third place by just two points.

Here at Hamilton Island though, things have been a little different, as the IRC fleet has been starting with the maxis and super maxis, which has been daunting for the smaller IRC boats. Already some of the smaller boats have sustained damage from their larger counterparts and they power over the start line each day.

‘Yes, I admit we have hung back a bit, it’s a bit dangerous on the front line. I guess that affects our results a little,’ he says of their current 10th place overall. Their best result to-date is a fourth in Race two.

Their competition here is quite fearsome also. Names like Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats, Sandy Oatley’s Another Duchess, Colin O’Neil’s After Shock, Matt Allen’s Ichi Ban, not to mention the brand new Melbourne entry, Graeme Troon’s XLR8 and the two 98’ super maxis, Grant Wharington’s Skandia and New Zealander Stewart Thwaites’ Konica Minolta (Zana). These are the yachts that Rouse is having difficulty beating.

‘We’ll be happy if we can beat those Bavaria’s, we are having some close competition with them,’ Rouse commented, ‘and we’ll be back to take them on at Skandia Geelong Week in January too.’