Inaugural Sydney to Hobart skipper to start race 57 years later.

by Peter Campbell on 11 Dec 2001 On December 26, 1945, Peter Luke set sail for Hobart in his 12-metre yawl Wayfarer in the company of eight other yachts, and set a record that has never been broken - for the longest time ever taken to complete the 630 nautical mile course: 11 days, 6 hours and 20 minutes.

On Boxing Day, December 26, this year, the 86-year-old will fire the 18th century replica cannon signalling the start of the 57th CYCA Sydney Hobart Race for the fleet of 76 largely state-of-the-art racing yachts, some of them anticipating an arrival at Hobart's Constitution Dock in under two days.

Peter Luke, co-founder of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in 1944 and its oldest living ex-Commodore, will be the Official Starter of this year's bluewater classic.

Luke will fire the 1.00pm Starting Signal cannon while another yachting great, Richard 'Sighty' Hammond, who completed his 40th Sydney to Hobart Race in 1999 to become the record holder (he now shares this record with Tasmanian yachtsman John Bennetto) will fire the five minute Preparatory Signal gun.

'We decided this year to honour our founding fathers and those that have helped make the CYCA Australia's premier ocean racing club by inviting them to be part of the starting line-up,' said Commodore Hans Sommer today.

The Managing Director of BMW Sydney, long time naming rights sponsor of the CYCA's popular Winter Series, will fire the 10 minute Warning Signal gun.

Luke began his boating career as a very young boy when he lived Taylors Bay on Sydney Harbour. His father gave him an eight-foot dinghy with a one horsepower outboard motor, which he quickly converted to sailing boat with a sugar bag for a sail hung off a broomstick for a mast.

In the ensuing years he graduated from dinghies to keelboats, culminating with the launching of Wayfarer in 1942. Peter still sails Wayfarer on Port Stephens where he lives with his wife, Monnie.

The first Sydney-Hobart Race in 1945 was marked by gales that played havoc with the fleet of nine starters. Two yachts were reported as missing for four days, and the fledgling race made front-page headlines in Sydney and Hobart newspapers every day. Many of the entrants, most of whom had never ocean raced before, sought shelter, sometimes going ashore for a meal or to telephone home to say they were OK, and then continuing the next day.

Luke was the last to finish the race, having put into Port Arthur the night before for a crayfish dinner after encountering 65-knot winds in Storm Bay and spending an uncomfortable night drifting under bare poles.