Richard Bennett shapes up for his 30th Hobart

by Bob Engisch on 20 Nov 2004 Noted Tasmanian photographer Richard Bennett is a Sydney-Hobart yacht race institution.

For nearly 30 years his award winning race photographs have been admired and sought after around the world as prints, in books (nine to date), or electronic images.

This year Richard shares a milestone with the 60th race. When it finishes in Hobart, he will have photographed half of all the races.

A love of aircraft and flying sparked Richard's interest in the race.

‘I flew out to have a little look in 1974, took a camera and took half a dozen pictures. I realised that what I was doing wasn't just getting pictures, but that I was also learning how I had to take them. I

' then had to develop my own techniques and decided that in 1975 I would photograph the whole fleet - not just half a dozen, but everything.

‘To be able to work with a pilot and have total confidence in the aircraft, I thought that learning to fly would be appropriate. I did my training and still hold a current pilot's licence so I understand exactly what aeronautical procedures are involved. This enables my pilot and me to work very well in harmony to get the best out of the situation.’

Richard was right above the dramatic action south of Eden, New South Wales, on December 27, 1998, when a vicious storm wreaked havoc among the fleet, resulting in the loss of five lives. Of the 115 starters in the race only 44 reached the finish line in Hobart.

‘I suppose the race of 1998 was my most memorable, but to go back, in 1984 I waited for the fleet to arrive and it didn't. There was a storm in Bass Strait and only a handful of boats arrived in Hobart. I had been getting excited for a whole year for the next Sydney-Hobart and it didn't happen.

‘I decided that if there was a storm somewhere then I'd be there.

‘I took a twin-engine aircraft to Sydney and followed the fleet down to Hobart. In 1998 when the big storm occurred and I was ready.

‘I wasn't there by chance. I was ready for a storm and had spent about $130,000 on twin-engine aircraft hire over the years just make sure that I was.

‘The pilot and I flew out to the location at daybreak and we put the co-ordinates into our GPS and then flew back.

‘In the middle of the day, when we thought the wind had increased to 50 knots, which would provide great photography, we knew exactly where to go.

‘When we got out it wasn't 50 knots of wind, there was 70 knots or more and as the day progressed the seas built and the storm unfolded.

‘With lots of pre planning, being prepared over a long time and having had that goal for 14 years, I managed to get world exclusive photographs of the storm.

‘I entered those pictures in the 1999 Australian Press Photographer of Year Awards. I won best sport photograph of the year and was second in the best series of the year.

‘Those pictures were published in the Harper Collins publication Fatal Storm, written by Rob Mundle, which sold more than 100,000 copies in Australia and went on to become an international best seller. It was published in the US and the UK and there was even a Latvian edition.

‘After the 1998 race I felt that I wanted to be a peer of the yachtsmen who went through the storm, so I accompanied (well known Tasmanian yachtsman) Joe Cannon on part of his Southern Ocean circumnavigation.

‘I joined Joe in Cape Town and we sailed for 63 days across the Southern Ocean in winter in a 35 footer. At 2,700 nautical miles from land we rolled 180º at 4 a.m. during a nine-day storm that was absolutely unbelievable.

‘I've never seen weather like it, the winds were more than 70 knots - I didn't know it could blow as hard as it did.

‘I can now imagine the dilemma faced by those 1998 Sydney-Hobart yachtsmen. The waves we faced were only 50 feet high, while one wave in 1998 was measured at 160 feet on a radar altimeter, so it is no wonder that those boats hit by these waves were disabled.’

Richard's first race was the year that Kialoa broke the race record in three days, 14 hours and 56 minutes and 36 seconds.

‘There was a great rivalry with Windward Passage, which finished about 20 minutes later.

‘Those boats were planing at 23 knots down the Tasmanian East Coast.

‘The pilot and I flew out from Flinders Island to photograph Kialoa, but she wasn't there, she was south of Maria Island. So we belted down there and had a memorable day photographing the race leaders.

‘At 9.30 p.m. we landed in Hobart very tired when we realised that we had left our wives, who we'd taken with us to Flinders Island, back on the Island.

‘The next day the leading yachtsmen were all keen to buy large format photographs and this gave me a good start.

‘Through the years the fleets were up around 160 boats. One year they were becalmed, which was one of the problems with relying on photographing the fleet from Hobart. But then a hard north-easterly came in they all took off under spinnakers.

‘They all converged just north of Tasman Island, a fabulous sea of spinnakers. We flew round and round in circles hour after hour and we photographed all of the boats.

‘It added up to a photograph every 47 seconds for five-and-a-half consecutive hours (a total of 421). So that's the sort of speed at which things happen out there. You need to be able to work very quickly and compose pictures in a split second. Technical expertise and visual awareness are necessary.

‘My favourite races are those with the larger fleets. When there aren't many boats there is a lot more water mixed up with them. I really to like to have 100 odd boats to photograph, which we have not seen since 1998, but this year, the 60th anniversary, we will.

‘There were 354 entries in the 50th race. I missed four of them somehow, but managed to get the other 350. I knew I couldn't cover 350 yachts on my own. We flew 56.5 hours in four days.

‘I had trained my daughter Alice when she was 15, showing her exactly how to photograph yachts from the air. When she was 16 I took her to Sydney for the 50th race, provided her with an aircraft and a pilot and she photographed 150 boats for me.

‘She entered the Australian Professional Photography Awards with those images and won several awards.

‘The Sydney-Hobart is very demanding. I get up at 4 a.m. and don't finish until 10 o'clock at night on most of the days. I arrange processing and scanning of the day's pictures overnight and to have prints made, from which we take orders. They can also be ordered online (www.richardbennett.com.au).’

Dockside in Hobart, from the 28th onwards, just near Mures Restaurant you will find Richard's Photo booth, staffed by Richard wife Suzy and daughters. Make sure you and your crew drop by to look at the images of your boat.

Richard was brought up on a farm at Geeveston, south of Hobart and was introduced to photography through bushwalking in Tasmania, which he describes as the most beautiful island in the world.

‘I was absolutely captivated by the wilderness. As a wilderness photographer, I see the yacht not just as a racing machine, but in the context of its environment.

‘Every year I get excited about the Sydney - Hobart and book my accommodation and aircraft to cover the race. I'll stop photographing yachts a week or two after rigour mortis sets in, I reckon.’