Sydney to Hobart race 2019: Ichi Ban’s Matt Allen prepares for 30th race

Winning the Sydney to Hobart is the goal but there’s another reason businessman and ocean racer Matt Allen will be on the start line of the race for the 30th time on Boxing Day.

Ichi ban skipper Matt Allen is contesting his 30th race this year.

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Each Boxing Day, after weaving his way through the throng at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, Sydney to Hobart veteran Matt Allen stops for a quiet moment of reflection.

He takes time to remember the yachts he has raced, the successes, the laughs, camaraderie and the dramas at sea.

And then he silently honours all the sailors he knew who have passed.

“I think about all the people I have done Hobart with and then those who are no longer with us,’’ said Allen, preparing for his 30th Sydney to Hobart this year on his Botin designed 52-footer Ichi Ban.

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Matt Allen at the helm of his Sydney to Hobart racer Ichi Ban.

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“That’s one of the great things about this race, this sport. The people you meet, the relationships you form.

“And this is a special year, the 75th anniversary. It’s why a number of boats have revamped for the race but it’s also a time to reflect on the history of the race.

“When you think about it it’s an amazing thing our forefathers did - to race to Hobart on Boxing Day 75 years ago.’’

The Sydney to Hobart was initially conceived as a cruise but became a race thanks to the urging of visiting British Royal Navy Officer, Captain John Illingworth.

At 12pm, on December 26, 1945, nine timber yachts and their intrepid crews set sail with Illingworth’s 36-footer Rani and his six crewmates claiming both the handicap and line honours after surviving a 36-hour storm and crossing the line six days, 14 hours and 22 minutes after starting.

Matt Allen (third from left) with his team on Ichi Ban.

CYCA member Peter Luke and his crew on Wayfarer were the eighth and final boat to complete the race, with their time of 11 days, six hours, and 20 minutes still the slowest in history.

“There is such an amazing sense of history with this race. There would hardly be a day of my life when I don’t get a question about the Sydney to Hobart it has such a reputation and profile,’’ said Allen, a former Australian Sailing President and CYCA Commodore and current member of the Australian Olympic Committee Executive and World Sailing’s Oceanic and Offshore Committees.

Ichi Ban skipper Matt Allen and crew celebrating their overall win in 2017.

Ichi Ban on the approach to the finish line in Hobart.

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Two years ago Allen and his team drove Ichi Ban “like they had stolen it’’ to score the former investment banker’s second coveted overall handicap win - his first was with the late Lou Abrahams on Challenge in 1983.

The businessman and sport politician loves his sailing family, the fraternity he spends his off time with between business deals and helping plot a successful Tokyo Olympics for the International and Australian Olympic Committee.

The attraction and appeal is there is nothing you can do at this age at such a high level unless you buy a soccer team or something - but you are actually a participant here, not a spectator.

It’s part of the reason he is preparing for a milestone race this year.

“It’s in my blood. Every year the Hobart is different. I think one of the most amazing challenges in the sport of sailing,’’ he said.

“It is such a tactical race, a race where you need the luck element, that balance of pushing hard but not so hard it breaks.

“It’s a great challenge of seamanship and the racing elements, the tactical side of working wind shifts and currents.

“I think the Sydney to Hobart is one of the few things you can do at a really high level when you are out of your (athletic) prime.

“The attraction and appeal is there is nothing you can do at this age at such a high level unless you buy a soccer team or something - but you are actually a participant here, not a spectator.

“That’s pretty special.’’

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