Whisper claims fourth place in Rolex Sydney Hobart
by Di Pearson / RSHYR Media 28 Dec 2024 05:42 PST
28 December 2024
Whisper en route to the finish of the 2024 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race © Rolex / Andrea Francolini
New South Wales boat Whisper staged a neck-and-neck race down the coast with rival No Limit before closing out fourth place on line in the 2024 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race today.
Owner/skipper, David Griffith, a director of race organiser, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, was full of praise for the David Gotze owned and skippered No Limit, a Reichel/Pugh 62 compared to Griffiths’ Judel/Vrolijk 63.
“We had a neck-and-neck race down the coast with No Limit (a Reichel/Pugh 63). They passed us and our A5 (spinnaker) blew up and they were screaming down the coast – and good on them – we always have such good racing against them,” Griffith said.
Gotze returned the compliment to Griffith after finishing fifth over the line.
“We had our usual good race with Whisper. We always have good, friendly competition with them,” Gotze said.
“We gave them a cheer when we got in. That was a hard race, but it’s so good just to get here in one piece. We made it.”
Griffith said the first night was “horrendous”.
“But I couldn’t ask for a better crew – they did all the right things, got sails up and down and did their jobs and kept the boat going in those conditions,” Griffith said.
As well as finishing fourth on line, Whisper is seventh overall at the moment, but could still move up or down in the placings depending on some of those competitors yet to finish.
Griffith said one of his main aims of the race was to get out of the Harbour cleanly.
“We had a little skirmish, but the boat (URM Group) did their penalty turn, so that was good. It was sad what happened to their rig,” he said.
URM Group was one of the race favourites but was dismasted early in the race on Boxing Day.
Griffith said Bass Strait was not as bad as he expected.
“It touched 40 knots at times, but mainly it was 25 and going up to 35 at times,” he said.
“We had confused seas with the westerly change, it was like a washing machine.”
He said that heading to Tasman Island, they had No Limit and Caro in sight and had a great battle with both.
“It kept see-sawing between the three of us,” Griffith said.
He said the second night was a fierce one.
“We had three reefs in the main, but we got through that alright without a problem. We caught up with No Limit – they fell in a hole. Our tactician, Billy Merrington, did a good job planning our tactics right,” he said.
“Coming into Tasman Island today it went funky and then there was a storm, strong winds and rain – but it didn’t last very long – but we were going backwards at one point, we were searching for wind.
“No Limit closed to within a mile of us – you really didn’t know how it was going to go – one minute you were in third place overall, the next down to eight and worse – it’s been an up and down race.
But he said it was not his worst experience in the Sydney Hobart.
“My worst was my first in 1976 – Peter Shipway put me on Leader and it blew 50 knots in Bass Strait,” he said.
No Limit’s navigator, Steve Kemp said the race was “one of the toughest races I’ve done”.
“It was hard work, but it was good. We made it,” he said.
“If it wasn’t for breaking our D1 (helps hold the mast up) which took 20 minutes to repair, we could have sneaked through the westerly,” he said.
“I think we would have ended up top three or four. It’s the best we’ve sailed. It will be the best result we’ve had in the race with the boat, so we’re pretty happy about that.”
Both Griffith and Kemp paid tribute to their fellow competitors.
“We feel awful for those who lost their lives and then those who lost masts and suffered damage,” Griffith said.
Kemp echoed that.
“I feel for those who didn’t get here – and the people who died – words can’t express that,” he said.