Rolex Sydney Hobart Milestone Race, Overall Winners Announced

by Giles Pearman on 2 Jan 2009 The 64th Rolex Sydney Hobart has been a milestone one with a high-quality fleet of 100 boats including eleven overseas entries, an unexpectedly close line honours battle at the head of the fleet between the maxis Wild Oats XI and Skandia and four of the sensationally fast downwind TP52s filling the first four placings overall on handicap.

Bob Oatley's canting-keeled design Reichel/Pugh 98 Wild Oats XI took line honours for a record fourth-successive year after trailing Grant Wharington's Don Jones-designed canting-keeled Skandia for most of the race. While the two maxis slowed in lighter winds along the Tasmanian coast to be denied the course record, the TP52s hardly faltered and finished within five hours of them. Bob Steel's Quest won the race's major trophy the Tattersall's Cup for the overall winner on IRC corrected time, from Alan Whiteley's Cougar II. Both are Farr designs. Graeme Wood's Judel/Vrolijk-designed Wot Now was third and Syd Fischer's Farr-designed TP52 Ragamuffin fourth.

The two brand new Reichel/Pugh designs in the race also enjoyed the hard-running conditions with Alan Brierty's R/P 62 Limit placing fifth and Stephen Ainsworth's R/P 63 Loki eighth overall on IRC. Both are exciting boats, featuring the latest rig and sail-making technology, and their results were highly promising considering the Rolex Sydney Hobart was their very first offshore race.

As always, while the boats were impressive the people manning them were even more so and provided the most touching moments during the prize-giving ceremony at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania today, which was attended by His Excellency Peter Underwood, Governor of Tasmania, and Michael Aird MLC, representing the Premier of Tasmania, along with other distinguished guests from the organising clubs and the event supporters.

Bob Steel, who won the race in 2002 with a previous Quest, was ready for the reminder at the ceremony that he had thrown the watch he was wearing at the time into the Derwent River when he accepted the Rolex Yacht-Master timepiece that goes to the winning yacht. Asked would he do the same with Rolex Yacht-Master he had won on that occasion, he pulled out an old watch from his pocket and theatrically threw it into the crowd.

Steel praised his crew saying they had, 'put in a tremendous effort in beating the strong competition in this year's race', especially his sailing-master Michael Green, who has crewed with Steel in the Admiral's Cup as well as this race, including the 2002 win. Green, who has now sailed in thirty Rolex Sydney Hobarts, aims to overtake the thirty-five race record of his father Peter, a famed sailing-master from the race's earlier years who died in 1990.

Each year he has raced since, Michael has poured a tot of rum into the sea for Peter as his boat has rounded Tasman Light nearing the finish of the race and downed one himself. Michael Green inherited a Rolex from his father, but lost it in a home robbery about thirteen years ago. And today, in recognition of Michael's efforts, Steel handed his second Rolex to him at the presentation ceremony; a gesture that left Green close to tears and brought deafening applause from the audience.

Another emotional moment came when John Walker received the medallion recognising the completion of his 25th Rolex Sydney Hobart in his Peterson 34 Impeccable, the boat he has sailed in all of them. Aged 86, he is the oldest skipper ever to sail in the race. 'This race will be my last,' he said simply before thanking the crews who have sailed with him over the years.

Syd Fischer was recognised with a medallion for completing his 40th race. Fischer, who is 81, in previous Ragamuffins, won the Tattersall's Cup in 1992 and took line honours in 1988 and 1980. His current TP52 Ragamuffin finished second to the 2007 overall winner Rosebud.

Tony Cable from Sydney, who raced on the Volvo 60 Getaway-Sailing.Com, was recognised for completing his 45th race, passing the 44-race record of the late John Bennetto from Tasmania and Lou Abrahams of Victoria. 'Records don't interest me particularly; I'm out there because I enjoy being at sea, the companionship and the competition,' he said.

Understandably not present to receive his 25-year medallion was Graeme Ainley, skipper of Georgia, which sank on the first night when the rudderstock pulled out in a collision with an underwater object. The race committee awarded the Rani Trophy for the 'most meritorious performance' to Les Rodriguez's Volvo 60 Telcoinabox Merit for rescuing the crew of Georgia. 'In difficult conditions the crew of Telcoinabox Merit conducted the rescue mission in an exemplary demonstration of seamanship,' the citation read.

The award for the yacht travelling the most distance to compete went to Walross IV, owned by the Berlin-based Academy Sailing Club, which trains young students in offshore sailing. The yacht departed from Germany in October 2007 to begin a world-girdling voyage that took her to Qingdao for the Olympic sailing and on to Sydney.

As has been tradition this year, Commodore Matt Allen of the CYCA, made poignant reference during his speech to the tragic events of 1998 that have so shaped recent editions of this great race, but drew out the positives from the events especially the developments in safety and survival equipment and techniques.

Richard de Leyser, General Manager of Rolex Australia, said Rolex was honoured to be a partner of the race noting that, 'the Rolex Sydney Hobart is one of the world's great sporting challenges and within Rolex it is considered as one of the iconic events with which the company is associated. It rates alongside the likes of the US Masters and British Open in the world of golf and Wimbledon in the world of tennis.'


Overall Results for the 64th Rolex Sydney Hobart are as follows:

Line Honours
Wild Oats XI (Maxi 30m, NSW) – Robert Oatley, Elapsed Time 01:20:34:14

IRC OVERALL
1st Quest, (Transpac 52, NSW), Robert Steel – Winner of the George Adam Tattersall’s Cup – Elapsed Time 02:01:00:37, Corrected Time: 02:17:43:11
2nd Cougar II (Transpac 52, VIC), Alan Whitely
3rd Wot Now (Judel Vrolijk 52), Graeme Wood

IRC Division 0
1st Quantum Racing (Cookson 50, NSW), Ray Roberts
2nd Ichi Ban (Jones 70, NSW) Matt Allen,
3rd Black Jack (Reichel Pugh 66, QLD), Peter Harburg

IRC Division 1
1st Quest (Transpac 52, NSW), Robert Steel
2nd Cougar II (Transpac 52, VIC), Alan Whitely
3rd Wot Now (Judel Vrolijk 52, NSW), Graeme Wood

IRC Division 2
1st Ragtime*, (Spencer 65, USA), Chris Welsh
2nd Chutzpah, (IRC40, VIC), Bruce Taylor, VIC
3rd Wedgetail, (Welbourn 42, QLD), Bill Wild
* Redress granted: 1 hr 55 minutes

IRC Division 3
1st Tow Truck, (Ker 11.3, NSW), Anthony Paterson
2nd AFR Midnight Rambler (Farr 40 modified, NSW) Ed Psaltis & Bob Thomas
3rd True North (Beneteau First 47, SA) Andrew Saies, SA

IRC Division 4
1st Winsome (S & S 41, The Netherlands) Harry J Heijst
2nd Ray White Spirit of Koomooloo (S&S 49, QLD) Mike Freebairn
3rd Pinta–M (S&S 41, The Netherlands) Atse Blei

PHS Division - Overall
1st Telcoinabox Merit* (Volvo 60, QLD), Leo Rodriguez & Ian Bishop, QLD
2nd Getaway-Sailing.com (Volvo 60, NSW) Peter Goldsworthy
3rd Pirelli (Farr 65, NSW), Martin James, skippered by Les Goodridge
* Redress granted: 18 hrs

PHS Division 1
1st Telcoinabox Merit* (Volvo 60, QLD), Leo Rodriguez & Ian Bishop, QLD
2nd Getaway-Sailing.com (Volvo 60, NSW) Peter Goldsworthy
3rd Pirelli (Farr 65, NSW), Martin James, skippered by Les Goodridge
* Redress granted: 18 hrs

PHS Division 2
1st Lloyds Brokers - Too Impetuous (Holland 43, QLD) Rudy Weber
2nd Flying Fish Arctos (Radford 16.4,NSW), James Dobie & Andy Fairclough
3rd CHorse (Cavalier 350 SL, NSW) John Smith

Sydney 38 Division
1st Morris Finance Cinquante, Ian Murray, VIC
2nd The SubZero Goat, Clayton/Foye/