Smallest, slowest boat challenges on handicap

by Helen Hopcroft on 27 Dec 2006 She’s the smallest boat in the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart race and many sailors think the prettiest. At 9.01 metre LOA, the gaff rigged timber vessel built in 1932; is dwarfed by the fleet’s huge maxis, yet this afternoon she is sixth on handicap in the 2006 race, 60 miles off Montague Island, on the NSW south coast, well ahead of her supermaxi plastic rivals on corrected time.

Her owner Sean Langman is successful big boat sailor, a man with a well known 'need for speed'. Langman is best known for his racing results aboard his 66ft Murray Burns Dovell flier, and the owner of Noakes boatyard.

‘Last year I sailed a 90 footer supermaxi to Hobart, everything ran on power. We needed a computer technician and full time engineer just to keep the boat running… This isn’t what the race, or sailing, is about for me.’

‘I’ve gone back to ‘sailing’ sailing’ said Langman. I’ve gone back to the grass roots, back to why the race came about’.

The solidly built Maluka is a world away from the electric winches and the canting keels of the big maxis. It’s strange that a return to a total reliance on boat handling and sail power can appear radical in a racing event.

‘It’s really about communing with the sea again’ he says. ‘If you’re charging towards an albatross at 28 knots the poor thing is just trying to get out of your way. This time we’ll be able to give it a wave…’

Hector Crawford, who has done a lot of sea miles with Langman, is the 2IC on Maluka.

He commented dockside before the race started. ‘‘This is just something different’ he answers. ‘The challenge of just doing it’. ‘In the end you just can’t compete with money’. If you don’t have 10 million lying around which you can afford to throw at the race ‘…you have to think outside the square’.

Can Maluka can win on handicap?

‘I don’t rule it out… the handicap is higher than we’d expected…being such a slow boat, we really have to make use of currents and the weather.’ On other boats you can afford to make a few errors, maybe lose a few miles here and there. But not on this one. ‘We’ve just got to be a lot smarter, sail a lot smarter’ he explains. And perhaps they might succeed in their quest for handicap honours. ‘You never know your luck in the big city’

Luck or good sailing? 24 hours later Sean Langman’s Maluka is 65 miles off Montague Island and sixth overall on handicap.

Crawford is the Navy and his main concern was making sure that the crew would get on for five or so days. ‘Crew harmony is much more important’ on a long voyage in a smaller vessel. It’s much easier for crew to remain focussed on a fast two day race, but five days will test people. ‘It will be a very long race’.

Hector’s girlfriend Sarah Willmot is on board Maluka. They have done regattas and yacht deliveries together but this is their first long distance race.

His family is supportive of his racing but his ‘Mum always has a little bit of a heart attack’. She reads the race updates on the internet and always fears the worst. Sometimes too much information is worse than not enough…

Hector works as a relief sailing master on the gaff rigged Young Endeavour. The tall ship was England’s bicentennial gift to Australia. In the spirit of historical accuracy, they loaded it up with hardened UK correctional centre inmates (it’s a joke guys, a joke…)

The gaff rigged tall ship gives young people aged 16-23 the opportunity to try sailing. The Navy has the contract to run the ship; they focus on teaching sailing skills, team work and personal development.

Hector loves his job. It’s much better than being shot at in a ‘horrible grey warship’. He was the Young Endeavour’s bosun from 1997 to 2000. He met Langman when Noakes got the contract to rig the ship. He has been racing with Langman ever since and has a great deal of confidence in him.

This is Hector’s 10th Sydney Hobart. He’s done two in the Young Endeavour and the rest with Langman. He’s ‘never done it in a boat under 60ft’ so racing the 30ft Maluka will be a very different experience.

Hector says he’s on board as ‘someone that Sean’s got a lot of faith in if it all goes bad’. As a professional seaman he’s been given the responsibility of organising the safety aspects of Maluka’s race.

Does he like the boat? ‘I’ll let you know in 5 day’ he cracks. ‘Obviously Sean’s absolutely in love with it’. But ‘it’s still a race to me.’

A race it is, as the very pretty Ranger ploughs south.