Pip Hare’s yacht mast snapped 1400km from shore. Her skill on the high seas got her to Melbourne

A British sailor has thanked Melburnians who rallied to help her after a broken mast ended her participation in a solo, round-the-world yacht race.

Pip Hare said being escorted into Melbourne by local yachties, having a berth arranged for her boat and even accommodation was the silver lining after the “devastating” incident.

Pip Hare on her yacht, Medallia, at Victoria Harbour, Docklands, on Sunday.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

“It’s been incredible,” said Hare, who chatted to locals and posed for selfies next to her boat, Medallia, at Victoria Harbour in Docklands on Sunday.

“It’s the silver lining to what has been a really difficult end to my race.

“I was really humbled because nobody knows me from Adam. Why should anybody help me? Yet, they’ve all chosen to do that.

“I think it’s a real testament to the sailing community but also to the spirit of people in Melbourne.”

Pip Hare, on the deck of Medallia, chats to members of the public at Docklands.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

The 2024 Vendée Globe race, a non-stop solo circumnavigation of the world, started on November 10, from Les Sables-d’Olonne, in western France.

Hare was in the treacherous Southern Ocean 1400 kilometres south of Australia, and 37 days – almost halfway – into her voyage when on December 16, her yacht crested a wave.

“When it landed, the mast broke and fell over the side,” Hare said.

After initially feeling “horror and disappointment”, Hare said she snapped into automaton mode, ensuring there were no holes in the boat, and jury-rigging a sail.

Neville Rose was among four Ocean Racing Club of Victoria members who drove to Apollo Bay, 200 kilometres south-west of Melbourne, on Friday after hearing Hare had arrived offshore.

At 8pm, the four motored to her on Little Miss Magic, an 18-metre power boat owned by club member Steve Twentyman.

Little Miss Magic escorted the Medallia through Port Phillip Heads on Saturday morning, and club members liaised with port, customs and quarantine officials.

Once in Port Phillip Bay, the club members gave Hare fuel, fresh fruit and tea before the two boats arrived at Docklands on Saturday night.

Rose said at times, 20 pleasure boats flanked Medallia in the bay and hundreds of people watched the yacht dock at Melbourne City Marina. Hare stayed in a club member Robert Tanner’s Docklands apartment.

Rose said Melbourne’s “fantastic” ocean racing community had rallied to help, and the same would be done if Australian sailors got into trouble overseas.

Rose said it had been a “crazy busy” week for the club, which had also organised the Cock of the Bay race across Port Phillip Bay on Boxing Day and the Melbourne to Hobart Race on Friday.

Rose, a nine-time Melbourne to Hobart competitor and four-time Sydney to Hobart yacht race participant, said Hare had “rotten luck” in the mast breaking.

He admired her skills in sailing to Victoria after the accident, and said Vendée Globe participants like her were “extraordinary” sailors.

It was Hare’s second Vendée Globe race. In 2020-21, she came 19th, and became the eighth woman ever to finish the race.

Hare said she was “devastated” not to finish this time but vowed to enter the race in future, likening the challenge to an athlete competing in the Olympics.

“It’s the greatest sailing event in the world,” she said. “This is my chosen sport. I’ve dedicated my life to it and I want to be the best I can.”

Hare, who lives in Poole, in county Dorset, plans to ship the Medallia back to the UK, and fly home in mid-January. Then she will “put a new mast on the boat and start racing again”.

Keen local sailors Clare McAuliffe and her son, Zac Sayle, 18, came to Victoria Harbour from Seddon in Melbourne’s west to meet Hare.

McAuliffe, a yachting coach, said Hare had shown incredible courage and resilience in sailing to Victoria after the mast broke.

But McAuliffe said she wasn’t scared for her, “knowing the competence that these sailors have, that go around the world”.

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