Sydney to Hobart best storylines: URM bowman Morgan Frew in firing line, Olympian making debut

Bowman Morgan Frew once lost all feeling from the waist down after a frightening accident sailing. But he still loves the sport and will be one of around 1000 sailors in this year’s Sydney to Hobart.

Newcastle’s Morgan Frew once lost all feeling from the waist down after a frightening injury sailing.

For years Morgan Frew has been getting wet and wild on Sydney Harbour racing Australia’s famously fast and furious 18-foot and 16-foot skiffs.

These boats, once utilised by rugby league teams to keep their players fit over summer, are some of the fastest - and wettest - on the harbour.

And wet is exactly what Frew will be aboard the Anthony Johnston owned and Marcus Ashley-Jones skippered URM in the race south.

Crew aboard Alive and URM competing in the recent Big Boat Challenge.

Frew, from Belmont on Lake Macquarie, north of Sydney, is bowman aboard the 72 foot long URM which was originally raced as Shockwave for Sydney car dealer Neville Crichton.

The 37-year-old sheet metal worker said he has a love/hate relationship with the job which sees him constantly fire hosed by water as he runs the sail department at the front of the yacht.

“I don’t get a choice in the matter,” he said.

“But I do like the challenge and the excitement of it though.”

Work on the bow of a large racing yacht is one of the most hazardous in the sport.

Bucked around by the waves and pummelled by water charging over the front of the boat, bruises, bangs and injury are part and parcel of the job.

Morgan Frew, left, aboard his skiff. He will be doing his eighth Sydney to Hobart this year.

“Fortunately I have never had a major injury,” he said.

That, however, did happen on an 18-footer.

“ I had a bad one on an 18 when I fell in a capsize and broke some vertebrae in my neck,’’ he said.

“I capsized on Sydney Harbour in 2017, fell from the wing, landed on something and was semi conscious in the water but rescued by a crew mate.

“My whole body weight landed on my head.

“For three days I had no feeling from the waist down. Movement, but no feeling.

“Fortunately it came back and everything is fine now.”

Frew said the incident has done little to douse his love for the sport.

“I didn’t put me off sailing. Once I was allowed I went back and sailed,” he said.

“It’s slowed me up a bit and I’ve been racing skiffs with a bad back and neck

URM was bought by owner Johnson in 2019 and returned to Australia after being raised extensively in Europe.

Skipper Ashley-Jones has 16 Sydney to Hobart yacht races under his belt with navigator Steve “Mothy” Jarvin the most experienced with 31 former races.

The rest of the crew come from the skiff ranks with assorted experience in offshore ocean racing.

Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin raced for Australia at the Tokyo Olympics.

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He’s done two Olympic Games and America’s Cup racing but missing from Jason Waterhouse’s CV until now is a race he has watched set sail almost every Boxing Day his entire life.

“It’s been a long time coming, doing a Sydney to Hobart,” said the 30-year-old from Sydney’s northern beaches who sailed around the world for four years with his family as a child.

Crew aboard the yacht URM in a great battle with Alive in the recent Big Boat Challenge.

Waterhouse, whose busy schedule also includes helping organise his wedding in January, has signed on with the Anthony Johnston owned URM campaign for the Sydney to Hobart and is loving the experience - mostly.

“It’s great. It hasn’t really appealed to me in the past. I enjoyed the fast, edgy racing like SailGP and then going back to my own bed and having a good sleep,” said the Rio Olympics Nacra 17 medallist with cousin Lisa Darmanin.

“But it’s cool. It’s totally different, like a totally different sport.

“I’m learning a lot and enjoy being part of a team of 22. The sleep, or lack of it, is tough but the worst part is being wet the entire time, the salt factor.

“But what I really like is that having been in a sport for more than 20 years I’m learning something different every day.’’

Jason Waterhouse has been a member of the Australian SailGP team from the start.

URM finished third on IRC handicap in the Bird Island race won by Matt Allen and his Ichi Ban crew.

It then finished fourth overall in the Cabbage Tree Island race, another major lead up to the Sydney to Hobart.

These results have elevated the crew into being one of the early favourites for the coveted overall owners in the Sydney to Hobart with the likes of former winners Ichi Ban and the Tasmanian entry Alive.

“We are definitely going for the overall,” he said.

“We like it really rough and windy or downwind and light.’’

Waterhouse and the Australian team during a previous SailGP event on Sydney Harbour.

Waterhouse, who can reach speeds in excess of 50 knots in the SailGP arena, said he also enjoys how different it is to racing an Olympic Nacra or the foiling Team Australia F50 he will be on during the Sydney round of SailGP.

“It’s like you are driving an oil tanker in comparison but I’m really enjoying a new part of this sport,” said Waterhouse, who will help drive the yacht and also work the main sheet trimmer when the Sydney to Hobart starts on Boxing Day.

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