Sydney Hobart top women: Jessica Watson, Adrienne Cahalan, Annika Thomson, Vanessa Dudley make mark
They didn’t star result-wise but Jessica Watson reckons she and Azzurro sailors had more laughs than any crew in the tough Sydney to Hobart and her later partner would be proud of her.
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Ultra-light breeze, big seas, massive parking lots and wild winds did everything possible to conspire against Jessica Watson and her crewmates on Azzurro having a successful Sydney to Hobart but she knows her late partner would be proud of them for doing and finishing the race described as brutal, harrowing and hard by most competitors.
Watson and her crewmates made it into Hobart late New Year’s Eve to a hearty welcome from locals and sailors thrilled to see Watson, the young girl who inspired a generation by sailing round the world when just 16, finish one of the most challenging races in history.
“Awesome but brutal, really, really unrelenting. It was either no wind, which was really frustrating, or a lot and that was tough and hard” Watson, now 30, said on arrival after moire than five days at sea and the 77th yacht to finish the Sydney to Hobart.
Watson also revealed she had felt Cam Dale’s presence throughout the race and she had spoken about the love of her life who died in late 2021 from a catastrophic stroke at age 29, with the crew at different stages of the voyage.
“He’s always there,’’ said Watson who met Dale, a well known young sailor from Melbourne, when she did her first Hobart race as a teenager back in 2011.
“It wasn’t the result we wanted but he would have been proud of us,’’ said Watson who with her crewmates got delayed by strong headwinds and big seas off the Tasmanian coast.
When Azzurro arrived in Hobart some older members of the fleet, who knew Dale and Watson when they were together, raced out on yachts to be part of the welcome home committee.
“It’s a great adventure. it’s absolutely nonsensical, completely stupid, it’s really uncomfortable and it’s really hard yarns. I don’t think people realise how hard and painful it is. But that is what makes it so special,” Watson said.
“We didn’t have a break at all at any point so it was tough … and obviously it took a long time.
“So tough and brutal but we are thrilled to all get here safe and well.”
WOW! WOMEN ON WATER MAKE WAVES IN 2023 SYDNEY TO HOBART
They might be in the minority still but women have stolen plenty of the limelight - and success- in one of the roughest and toughest Sydney to Hobart yacht races in recent memory.
With Alive’s Adrienne Cahalan and URM’s Alice Parker setting the pace as navigators on the winner and second place getter in the race for the overall honours, Annika Thomson on her yacht Ocean Crusaders J-Bird then claimed a special race trophy.
Thomson was the first female skipper into Hobart for the second year running and was awarded the Jane Tait Trophy, named in honour of the first woman to complete the race back in 1946.
And she arrived on the only electric driven yacht powered by renewable energy in the 103 strong starting fleet.
“It was nice not to have to do all the world this time.,’’ said Thomson who last year sailed the Sydney to Hobart two-handed but arrived in Hobart with a crew of 11.
Thomson said the yacht was caught in the violent thunderstorms the first night at sea like the majority of the fleet with the wind fluctuating between four and 25 knots at time and lightning striking the water nearby.
They also faced a tough upwind slog the final day of the race which she said the yacht, powered by lithium batteries, handled well.
“The best part of the race was the team camaraderie. We were laughing as we packed dup and having a great time together at the pub,’’ she said.
Arriving in time for New Year’s Eve on Sunday was Vanessa Dudley on the Victorian yacht Tilting at Windmills, owned by Sarah Dempsey.
Dudley, from Sydney, is one of the most respected woman in Australian ocean racing and only the third woman in history to do 25 Sydney to Hobart yacht races behind Cahalan and Felicity Nelson. Nelson, on her own yacht SuperNova, also finished this years race.
“Remind me, when I say I’m doing another Hobart race again that I said I never would after this year,’’ Dudley said.
Also due to dock last night was Jessica Watson and her cremates on Azzurro, a little 34-footer owned by Jack Kliner.
“We just need more wind. It’s a slow race home,’’ Kliner said as Watson steered towards the finish line.
“It’s been a wet, wild and slow race.’’
Watson, who last raced as a teenager, joined Kliner and his team to reconnect with ocean racing and also to honour her late partner Cam Dale and to raise hypertension awareness after Dale’s stroke.
Watson, who sailed round the world at 16, said she feels more connected with Dale, who she met during her 2011 Sydney to Hobart campaign, when at sea.
“He’s always there,” Watson said.
“It is so important to stay connected (to sailing). It helps make me so much better.
“He is part of all my sailing.’’
In other notable achievements by women, Jamie Winning-Kermond was aboard the supermaxi Andoo Comanche which finished second over the finish line and Jiang Lin was the first skipper on a two-hander to make it to Hobart.
She finished in 55th place and was also on the fourth two-hander to cross the finish line.
“Things are changing. Maybe not as fast as we would like. But they are changing which is good,” said Sydney to Hobart doyenne Cahalan, who now has six line honours wins, three overall wins and two race records to be one of the races most successful sailors.
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