15th Trip to Lord Howe for Komatsu Blue Lady.
by Jessica Statham on 25 Oct 2000
Komatsu Blue Lady Jeremy Hancock
The Leasecorp 2000 Gosford to Lord Howe fleet is a mixture of well known IMS race boats & sturdy cruising style boats whose skippers just love to compete.
Komatsu Blue Lady is a Challenger 39 owned by Shane Kearns of Getaway Sailing at Birkenhead Point in Sydney. This study sloop was built and designed by Nick Louis Boat Building of South Australia, who has built over 30 Challenger boats.
Starting with the original heavy duty cruising design Shane specified a long list of Charter modifications these included hand rails, push button toilets, GPS, navigation, lee cloths and private bunk spaces.
Komatsu Blue Lady competes in numerous races, as Shane says: 'We never win but we do always complete. Last year the Sydney to Hobart it took us 7 days to finish. We arrived in Hobart on January 2nd, nearly all the other boats were sailing back to Australia. We had our own New Years Party two days late!'
Shane spent 23 years in the Army Engineer Corp and during that time he was heavily involved in the Army sailing program. After leaving the Army in 1998 Shane established Getway Sailing.
Getaway offers all types of sailing, this includes chartering the boats for a whole array of events and destinations including weddings, birthday, divorces and concession charters too.
Shane also charters out places during races for paying crew. He always ensures that at least 3 people are experienced crew. 'Everyone gets sick on the first day and I don't want to be left sailing alone'
Shane has sailed to Lord Howe many times and this will be his 14th trip to the island, he sailed there just last week saying that the conditions on the island were spectacular. 'postcard picturesque'
He says 'Sailing to Lord Howe, there is never any problem finding crew. Everyone wants to go there and there is no difficulty in filling the boat. It is a beautiful island but the weather getting there is often 30-40 knots, people don't really expect it! It usually takes us 3 days to get there and 3 to get back'
On sailing Shane says: 'I'm doing what I want to do. The actual sailing is repetitive, but it is the weather and the crew that change, and that is fascinating for me. You can learn so much.'
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