Sydney to Hobart preparation under way

The motley crew of Yeah Baby travelled from the Gold Coast to participate in the Sydney to Hobart race in just over a week.

Skipper Andy Lamont and crew membr Phoebe Reedman aboard Hutchies Yeah Baby at Rushcutters Bay, Sydney. Picture: Nikki Short/The Australian.

Phoebe Reedman sits on the deck of Yeah Baby as it lilts gently from side to side in its mooring at Rushcutters Bay in Sydney.

An entirely familiar state of being for her, she explains.

“Mum used to strap my sister and me into a car seat in the cockpit when we were toddlers so we wouldn’t get in the way when she was tying up alongside,” she says, smiling. “We would have had a boat before we had a house.”

Reedman is part of Andy Lamont’s crew preparing to set sail in the Sydney to Hobart race in just over a week. This finds them at the Cruising Yacht Club in Rushcutters Bay on Sunday morning.

Scattered among the hundreds of yachts bobbing in unison are teams of workers walking up and down the docks that sprawl out into the marina like wiring on a circuit board.

There are about a dozen crews in immediate sight tending to their yachts. Some clearly look professional – replete in thick, expensive-looking polo shirts stamped with corporate sponsor badges – using power tools to work on huge, elegant boats; on another boat, a middle-aged man sits alone on a yacht staring out into the ocean through sunglasses.

On Yeah Baby – actually, called Hutchies Yeah Baby; Lamont explains the old owners have another yacht named Yeah Baby – a dozen or so are preparing for their second Sydney to Hobart race. They’re a non-professional crew who live on the Gold Coast and go sailing once a week.

“We came 30th over the line,” Lamont recalls of last year. “Or was it 31st?

“That was out of the red line. So we’re aiming to improve on that this year.

“I would say that if we got in the top 25, top 20, that would be success for us.

“It’s going to be a really fun race.

“You know, yacht racing, you don’t normally get a lot of attention. You’re just out there in the ocean doing it by yourself. But you’re coming into Hobart and there’s a whole amphitheatre of people applauding.

“When we get to Hobart … we all jumped in the water last time. That was fun, it was really cold then.”

As Lamont is talking, navigation and IT specialist Matt Andrews’ children run along the dock, jumping on and off the boat.

“It’s a great sport because it’s a sport that you can actually just keep getting better at as you enter your 60s and 70s,” Lamont says.

“There are very few sports you can do that with. I have my grandkids on the boat all the time, we like to keep them involved.”