2024 RSHYR: Ocean Crusaders J-Bird's Annika Thomson makes history
by Greta Quealy/RSHYR media 29 Dec 2024 16:21 AEDT
26 December 2024
Annika Thomson smiling upon her arrival in Hobart © CYCA/Salty Dingo
Emotions were high as the Ocean Crusaders J-Bird crew docked the TP52 following their finish in the 2024 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
They were greeted by a mass of friends, family and onlookers at 09:16hrs Sunday, following 2 days 20 hours and 16 minutes of racing from Sydney to Hobart, when crew from the races finishing partner, Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, took their finish time.
Ocean Crusaders J-Bird is the third 52 footer across the line, after Caro and Smuggler finished Saturday evening.
Reflective of the ‘bird’ in the yacht’s name, friends and family waved cardboard cut outs of birds, with the faces of the crew members in place of the bird heads, drawing laughs from the crew of this quirky fanfare.
The race, organised by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, was particularly special for the Queensland crew, as it marked the third year running that co-skipper Annika Thomson has claimed the Jane Tate Memorial Trophy for first female skipper across the finish line. Jane Tate was one of two of the first women to compete in the 628 nautical mile race in 1946.
Thomson becomes the first woman to have won the trophy three times. She first claimed it in 2022, when she and her husband and co-skipper Ian Thomson competed in the Double Handed Division. She lifted the trophy again in 2023, when the fully crewed yacht placed 16th on Line Honours.
Thomson was overwhelmed with emotion as she reflected on the rich history behind the Jane Tate Memorial Trophy.
Jane Tate was an absolute legend,” Thomson said. “In her time what she did was just heroic. I don't think she saw it that way. She just got on with the job.
“And that's what we do. We just get on with the job out there.”
Five of the 15 sailors on board Ocean Crusaders J-Bird are female: Thomson, Annie Eastgate, Amberly Middleton, Phoebe Reedman, and Laura Thomson.
“We just have the best sailors on the job,” Thomson said of her team.
The yacht had a few breakages in the heavy conditions experienced during the first evening of the race. But she said it was nothing the highly trained crew couldn’t handle.
“I'm really happy that I had good helms people and good crew to just keep the boat levelled and to keep us going and pushing and pushing,” Thomson said.
Another Queensland yacht, Stephanie Kerin’s Humphreys 54 Active Again, was hot on the heels of Ocean Crusaders J-Bird for the majority of the race. Kerin, like Thomson, was also after her third Jane Tate memorial trophy.
Navigator on J-Bird, Ian Thomson, said there had been “cat and mouse racing” between the two yachts. Thomson said Active Again gained considerable mileage on Ocean Crusaders J-Bird during the second night of racing.
“This morning, we were scared [of being overtaken],” Thomson said. “We had an important job to do last night, to put some miles in between us and them,” which she said they achieved.
Active Again subsequently finished at 12:36:46pm today.
Thomson puts their win down to great crew work and a touch of luck.
“We got away,” she said. “We tripped on. And we got some really good wind shifts. We were so lucky with the winds coming around. Every turn we just went straight [in the direction of the finish].”
Ocean Crusaders J-Bird crew continue to champion the importance of taking care the marine environment. Thomson is director of the non-for-profit organisation Ocean Crusaders (the yacht’s sponsor) which was founded by her husband, Ian. The couple refitted the yacht in 2021 and 2022 with mostly recycled materials and replaced the diesel engine with a battery-powered one.
Her message for her fellow female sailors remains: “If you have a dream, just put your mind to it and go for it.”