Rolex Sydney Hobart: 50 years on from New Zealand's treble - audio from the win

by Compiled by Richard Gladwell 29 Dec 2021 21:42 PST 29 December 2021

It is hard to believe that 50 years have passed since three New Zealand offshore racers took the first three places overall in the 1971 Sydney Hobart Race, and secured a Southern Cross Cup win.

As the years have passed the win has proved to one of the turning points in New Zealand's yachting history, showing the way for wins in the Admirals Cup, Whitbread Round the World Race and Volvo Ocean Race, and America's Cup. New Zealand yachts had previously won line honours in the Sydney Hobart - Fidelis (Jim Davern) in 1967, and Buccaneer (Tom Clark) in 1970.

Chris Bouzaid won the Tattersall Cup, awarded to the overall winner on corrected time, in another One Tonner, Rainbow II, after a blitzing display of heavy air downwind sailing in the 1967 event. Bouzaid had, of course, put New Zealand on the international yachting map with his two One Ton Cup level rating campaigns, winning on his second attempt in Heligoland, Germany in 1969.

What set the Sydney Hobart win apart was that it was a team effort, sailed in New Zealand built boats, using New Zealand built sails, proving, without maybe realising it at the time that the New Zealand marine industry and keelboat side of the sport had the capability to match, and beat, the best sailing technology in the world.

From that point on there was no turning back, and the sport, designers, clubs, owners, sailors and the marine industry shared the self-belief to work together across multiple sailing project and campaigns. The key was that the three skippers in the 1971 Southern Cross win, in two instances built and sailed their own boats. One to his own design as well. The third skipper made the sails for the three boats. They all had skin in the game, which was quite a different situation from their competitors - where wealthy owners commissioned designers, and placed orders with builders and sailmakers, and put together a racing campaign.

New Zealand's approach was different, and it remains different to this day. It's a culture that many admire, but few understand. Maybe it helped that for a generation there was a degree of intermarriage between the Lidgards and the Wilsons and the Brookes and the Salthouses. While they may have been fierce competitors on the water, and in business, ashore they were friends and whanau (extended family).

John Lidgard - from his excellent book "It's in the Blood"

In the Hobart race, the New Zealand team had no set plan, other than stick together. This we did admirably, until Gabo Island, which is the departure point from mainland Australia before transiting Bass Strait. At this stage, we had Pathfinder a few minutes ahead and a similar distance astern. Waianiwa and Runaway remained on course for Cape Freycinet, our planned Tasmanian landfall. Pathfinder, with Ray Haslar back as navigator, continued on a slightly leeward course, which would take her farther off the Tasmanian coastline.

The wind was south-westerly at first, then gradually backed until we were running quite square, with Waianiwa breathing down our necks.

Pathfinder was able to reach up to Tasman Island, on the south-east corner of the course, and had extended her lead. As we progressed south, the wind freshened and it was a hair-raising run. There was no way we were going to reduce sail and allow our team mate to run us down, but with the apparent wind registering 40 knots at times and the boat and rig vibrating wildly with the pressure, reducing sail was a very tempting option. Both our full size spinnakers were shredded, but our heavy reaching spinnaker, plus a staysail tacked to windward, enabled us to maintain our lead.

Passing inside the Hippolite Rocks at 0200 on a dark and stormy night was something I could have done without, but Heather was confident that we were on course and eventually we were around the corner in a rapidly dying breeze.

The beat across Storm Bay in a left-over sea and 5-10 knots of breeze was hard on the nerves. Heather was our top light-weather helmsperson and slightly extended our lead over Waianiwa.

The Iron Pot is the lighthouse which guards the entrance of the Derwent River and Hobart town. The finishing line is 12 miles upriver. With an outgoing current, very fluky headwinds, and big lifts and knocks, it was one of the longest 12 miles I have ever sailed. We could see Pathfinder ahead, but had no show of catching her. The local radio station informed us that if Pathfinder could finish in the next 45 minutes, she would win the Hobart race. We reckoned all three of us should finish before that, so Pathfinder had it made. So it proved.

After Paul told me to calm down, I did and crossed the line 25 minutes later to take second place. Waianiwa also finished in time to take third. The celebrating was immediate and unrestrained and I am ashamed to admit to only a vague memory of it. I was interviewed by phone by yachting commentator Peter Montgomery and still shudder when the tape is replayed. I awoke the following morning to find the majority of the crew present, but no sign of Heather or Kevin. I discovered that they, along with Brin, had been rescued by the harbour master, taken to dinner and given a bed for the night. We eventually calmed down, but the prize-giving was memorable.

The welcome home from Auckland was staggering and similar to that accorded the Whitbread racers in later years. Our team 1-2-3 to Hobart is a record likely to stand forever. We had taken the Southern Cross Cup. Waianiwa was highest points-scorer, with Runaway second-equal with the British Prime Minister Heath's Morning Cloud and Pathfinder was fourth. [Ed: She hit a rock in an earlier inshore race in Sydney harbour, used her engine to refloat, and was given a points penalty.]

Chris Bouzaid:

Many new ideas and inventions happen by chance but capitalizing on them is what makes us kiwi's great.

In sailing from Rainbow II's steel decks to ETNZ's small foils, and everything in between Kiwis sailors constantly lead the world in their ability to think outside the square, long may it live.

The invention of the Blooper, Shooter and all the other names those "Crazy down wind add-ons" was no exception.

The rivalry between Aussies and Kiwis has been an ongoing battle since the convicts started to escape from Sydney and make their way to New Zealand.

As a little country with not too many residents we are known to "Punch way above our weight in all arenas of sports such as Rugby, Cricket, Horse Racing, Yachting and of course Drinking.

It is always a bit of a sore point especially when we compete against the Aussies. I believe it was Bruce Farr who designed the T-Shirts we wore at the 1977 Admirals Cup in Cowes saying, "WE ARE NOT AUSTRUCKENFALIANS", who remembers those T shirts?.

Jokes like, "Why do the Aussies drink their coffee out of their saucers?" Because the kiwi's have taken away all their cups." Are still very true.

The 1971 Southern Cross Cup team was no exception.

The SCC started with two short races outside Sydney Heads and then a 150 mile race up and down the coast of New South Wales, then the final race was the Sydney to Hobart Race.

Teams arrived from all over. There was a team from Great Britain comprising three yachts one being the hugely successful Morning Cloud sailed by the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Sir Edward Heath. There were also teams from Ireland, the USA, France and other states of Australia. (Being Aussies they made their own rules and allowed each state to compete as well as the country!)

This was a highly competitive regatta with lots of money on the line due to the fact that Aussies will bet on any two fly's walking up a wall.

In 1971 our team was all One Ton Yachts, Runaway, Pathfinder and Waianiwa. When we arrived in Sydney for the 1970 Southern Cross Cup we had a secret weapon up our sleeve.

Now my story must go back to early November, the three of us were having a practice sail in light conditions in Auckland. In those days I made pretty much all the sails on these yachts so we were testing out our super light "Drifter" headsails that were not attached to the headstay but were set flying. As we sailed heading for Tiri the wind started to rotate and over the next five minutes it went from North East to South West so there was a quick call on Waianiwa for the Floater spinnaker.

Hurry, hurry, and up it went, the only problem was that the sheet was led around the headstay but inside the drifter. Up went the spinnaker and as soon as it was set I called for the drifter to come down because it was in the way of the spinnaker sheet. The boys on the foredeck eased the tack of the sail to clear the spinnaker sheet and then to all of our amazement the drifter set outside the spinnaker.

Whoa, hold on WHAT THE F**K I said passing the helm to Bevan Woolley and quickly running forward to look and there it was before my very eyes, I could not believe it, the drifter was setting outside the spinnaker like a huge Spinnaker staysail. We quickly managed to get the three yachts lined up together and there was no doubt that this configuration was faster, not very stable, but, was it legal.

When we came ashore I immediately contacted the rules gurus and after a days deliberation they could not find anything in the rules that prohibited this, after all it was just a big spinnaker staysail. By now my mind was running amuck so I immediately designed a much larger sail the would better do the job. On the next weekend just before we all departed for Sydney, we went out and tested my new sail which by now we had named the "Shooter" and it was clearly faster so it was decided that this would be our little secret for Sydney and I set about making new ones for all three yachts. Yes at a special price!!!

Now back to Sydney. For whatever reason I was nominated as Team Captain, not sure why. We would meet each morning to plan our day or race.

The first two races were short Olympic Races and we knew we would do mediocre in these because of the rule changes favoring the larger yachts and in the big scheme of things they didn't count for too much as each only carried a single point whereas the 150 Mile race carried double points and the Sydney to Hobart carried triple points so we decided to keep our Shooters below decks until the Sydney to Hobart Race.

We did as expected in the first two short races, however the Aussies were ahead of us by 10 points and the Brits were ahead of us by 12 points going into the 150 Mile Race. This race also went only OK for us so on the last run down the harbour with the larger yachts in sight on Waianiwa we flew our Shooter. Wow what a sight as we slowly closed in on the finishing line. The outcome of this race was that the NZ team scored a 1st, fourth and eighth out of 30 yachts, so we were in the hunt but still behind the Brits and the Aussies. The downside was that protest flags appeared on Morning Cloud.

The problem was that they couldn't figure out which rule we broke but Sir Edward Heath and his merry men with the help of the entire judicial system in the UK and the Royal Yachting Association determined that there was some wording in the rule book that said "No sail may be flown KITE LIKE" Well to quote one of my crew, "What the f**k is Kite-like'" which had now become one word.

Well into the protest room I went (there were no International Juries in those days) and the chairman of the Protest Committee [Ed: Also the skipper of one of the Australian competitors in the 1971 Sydney Hobart race] Sir Robert Crichton-Brown - gotta love those double-barreled hyphenated posh names! Immediately looked at me and said "Listen sonny boy, (I was now nearly 30yrs old and had already won the Sydney to Hobart Race and two One Ton Cups) don't think you can push us Australians around. Wow! this seems like an impartial jury I replied. It was going to be an interesting fight but nobody thought the colonials would beat the Prime Minister of the UK.

The protest went on for nearly two days and the subject matter was "What is Kitelike". My answer was always the same "Kitelike is like flying a kite" Go fly a kite and see if it is anything like what we were doing. They also claimed we were flying a sail upside down but there was no rule that said that was illegal either. After two days they gave up and we were off to the races.

Meanwhile, out in the harbour there were many yachts trying to emulate what we had, but with little success. We had whetted their appetites but we had not given away the shop - and with the Sydney to Hobart Race only two days away they had little chance of catching us up.

The final chapter has now been written into the history books. The New Zealand team of Pathfinder, Runaway and Waianiwa finished the 640 mile ocean race from Sydney to Hobart Race First, Second and Third on corrected time and they won the Southern Cross Cup buy the largest margin on points, a record that has never been equaled or beaten.

One can never forget John Lidgard when being interviewed on prime time television by Peter Montgomery when asked "I'll bet you are having a tough time keeping Brin Wilson and Chris Bouzaid from getting drunk and in trouble?" his reply was broadcasted all over Australia " Wellll act-tua-llley I am having quite a tough time keeping John Lidgard from getting drunk and out of trouble!!"

Waianiwa finished up being the top scoring yacht in the fleet. At that stage she only had one keel bolt and very few people knew that the whole way to Hobart we thought our keel was going to fall off so before leaving Hobart we secured it with two more keel bolts fore and aft to stop it moving.

Cheers, Chris Bouzaid.