China on the podium at Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race

by Al Skinner on 8 Jan 2017 With Perpetual Loyal storming up the Derwent at 20kts, and knocking almost five hours off the race record, sailors in Asia could almost be forgiven for missing an equally remarkable performance just one place behind on overall IRC Handicap.
Loyal was overtaken for the “double” by the VO70 Giacomo who managed to navigate the Derwent just before the wind died leaving a bevy of 50 footers struggling at under 1kt in Storm Bay - had the wind died just a little later the overall standings may have been somewhat different.

Amongst those boats was one which on the deadline day for entries carried a different name.

On one side of the equation, Pretty Fly III was entered for the 2016 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race but was also actively on the market. On the other side was Chinese entrepreneur Wang Bin who had the race on his bucket list. 'Find me a boat,' was his cry to his agents; Pretty Fly III, a Cookson 50 was available, was already entered, and had the potential to be competitive in the race being a sister ship to a previous overall winner. Offers were made, surveys done, a few replacement sails were ordered, all leading to the clearing of the first hurdle, that of being ready for 1300h on Boxing Day only a few short weeks later.

Her crew was an unusual mix, with Charles Caudrelier of the Dongfeng VOR team taking the lead role along with a few of his boys, with the owner’s crew making up the other half. Getting used to working with each other in just the couple of weeks available for training was not a simple task. This was just one of the challenges as the Chinese UBox crew, used to sailing a Swan 82, hardly spoke a word of English. Another worry was the new sails didn’t arrive all adjusted and branded until hours before North Sails went home for their (short) Christmas break with several of the loft staff joining different boats on the 26th for the run to Hobart!

The portents were good right from the beginning, with UBox going right to get clear air away from the Maxis which shared their start line, and they cleared the first turning mark still snapping at the heels of the 100-footers. 11 hours into the race UBox held the pole position on estimated handicap and was seldom out of the top three all the way down the Australian Coast.

All looked good until Storm Bay, but she was in the same piece of ocean as the other three boats that could have overhauled her – and they all gave her time.

It was an emotional owner and friends that produced the loudest per capita cheer as the finish line hooter sounded and UBox’s spinnaker floated to the deck. third overall in IRC and also overall winner of ORCi Division was quite an achievement for a team that didn’t even have a boat in the race three months before the start.

The impact for sailing in China? If the media coverage is anything to go by - with LETV covering the start live and the result going on the People’s Daily (the Government media) website within three hours - it certainly made an impact. Already there are more Chinese owners considering signing up for S2H next year.

Wang Bin, when asked if he had now 'ticked the Sydney Hobart box' simply responded “Why? I haven't won a watch yet!” - referring to the fact that the Overall winner of the Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race is traditionally presented with a Rolex Yachtmaster 2 Chronograph.

There will be the naysayers who will say it was only because……. or it was a result of…… but the simple fact is, for the first time ever a Chinese yacht has stood on the podium of one of the world’s big three ocean races. As a nice little bonus she crossed the line four hours ahead of that sister ship which won the race a few years back – sweet indeed, and mainstream sailing media almost missed it completely. Sail-World Asia is happy to set the record straight.