Kurtsy would have been proud of them

by Peter Campbell on 30 Dec 2006 Peter Campbell feels certain that Peter Kurts, wearing his floppy white hat, would be looking down from above with great delight as Love & War crossed the finish line early today to win the Rolex Sydney Hobart's Tattersalls Cup for the third time in 33 years.

When Peter Kurts launched his Sparkman & Stephens 47 Love & War in 1973, the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race was not yet 30 years old. Now, 33 years later, this classic timber boat has proven itself one of Australia’s greatest ocean racing yachts by winning the coveted Tattersalls Cup for the third time.

Only one other yacht has been Overall handicap winner of the Hobart Race three times – the Halvorsen brothers’ Freya which won three in a row in 1963, 1964 and 1964. Love & War has now won in 1974, 1978 and – remarkably for her age, against many of the most sophisticated, state-of-the-art yachts in the world – in 2006.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Race Committee late this afternoon confirmed Love & War as the Overall IRC winner after calculating that none of the remaining yachts had a reasonable prospect of finishing in time to beat her.

Love & War’s victory came as no surprise to me personally. A couple of weeks before the 60th Rolex Sydney Hobart Race in 2004 I spent an enjoyable couple of hours chatting with ‘Kurtsy’ aboard the boat he loved so much and sailed so well. 'We could win this race,' he told me confidently. 'She is still in excellent shape, her rating (IRC) is favourable and no other boat of her vintage goes as well to windward in a hard breeze.'

She nearly did win that 50th Race, winning IRC Division E and the 30 Year Veterans Trophy and placing seventh Overall. Sadly, Peter Kurts was not aboard for what would have been his 31st Hobart. The 80-year-old had been admitted to hospital suffering from pneumonia only days before the race, telling his son Simon and his fine crew to take her south.

Love & War went on to sail an outstanding race. Although not her forte, she sailed exceptionally well in the hard downwind running of the first afternoon and night, revelling in the subsequent hard beating to windward across Bass Strait and down the Tasmanian East Coast.

From his hospital bed, Peter was able to follow the fine performance of his favourite yacht, but he passed away on the day she sailed back through Sydney Heads.

It was an equally optimistic Lindsay May I met on the CYCA marina a week or so before this year’s Sydney Hobart. 'I think she could win this year…the forecast weather of hard beating to windward is just made for her…and we have that excellent rating.'

Simon Kurts had loaned Love & War to May to sail in the 62nd Rolex Sydney Hobart as he was following a third generation of Kurts sailors, his sons, in the Sabot Nationals in Victoria.

So Lindsay set about hand-picking a crew for Hobart, drawing most of them from the now retired maxi Brindabella, including the owner/skipper of the 80-footer George Snow, whose official role was that of cook.

That evening Lindsay emailed me a copy of the Richard Bennett photo of Love & War used on the front cover of the February/March 2005 edition of ‘Offshore Yachting’ magazine. 'This epitomises what the Rolex Sydney Hobart and ocean racing is all about,' he wrote.

Lindsay, one of Australia’s best ocean racing navigators, is meticulous in his preparation for long races. 'We are just about ready, but I have to find floppy white hats for all the crew.'

He did, and the crew all wore floppy white hats, a Peter Kurts signature look, at the start on Boxing Day.

They were stowed away, of course, as Love & War bashed to windward virtually all the way to Hobart – conditions made to order for a remarkable yacht created for the IOR rule from the drawing board of the New York naval architect Olin Stephens, himself now aged in his 90's.

‘Kurtsy’ would have been proud of them all!