Sydney-Hobart: Old and slow race to make New Year

Some of the oldest and slowest yachts in the Sydney-Hobart race were battling to reach Hobart late on Tuesday

Katwinchar has won the Grand Veterans category of the Rolex Sydney Hobart race Picture: ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

Some of the oldest, and certainly the slowest, yachts in the 75th anniversary Rolex Sydney-Hobart race were battling to reach Hobart late on Tuesday in time to take part in the city’s famous New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Ten yachts from the fleet of 157 that set sail from Sydney on on Boxing Day were still at sea on Tuesday morning and they were spread out over a 60 nautical mile stretch of the Tasmanian east coast — making speeds of between 1 and 5 knots.

Most of the yachts were expected to make Constitution dock before midnight but one or two may not make it until some time on Wednesday.

On Monday afternoon they were subjected to the worst of the historic race’s notoriously changeable weather when they were hit by a series of violent thunderstorms and swirling winds of up to 50 knots.

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The storms had been forecast, but their violence caught some sailors off guard.

The storms battered the yachts for several hours and blew almost all of them backwards at some stage.

Tasmanian Ian Gannon’s 35-year-old 30 footer Take Five was forced to take shelter behind Schouten Island for a time before continuing towards Hobart.

Among other boats still at sea were Wonderland, skippered by Rebecca Conner who is the first indigenous woman to skipper a yacht in the race’s history; Cailin Lomhara, skippered by 78-year-old American Larry Green who is making a double-handed circumnavigation of the globe with his wife Charlene (the Greens had to remove several tonnes of cruising equipment, and their two cats, from their yacht to get her ready to race); and Natelle Two, owned by Tasmanian Glen Roper and skippered by his daughter Laura, which had to make a 50 nautical mile detour back to the coastal town of Triabunna to drop off a crewman who was injured in the storms.

On Monday night the oldest yacht in the race and the oldest yacht to ever take part in any Hobart race, 115-year-old Katwinchar, struggled into Hobart after a horror last 20 nautical miles.

Skipper Kendal Barry-Cotter described the race as a wonderful experience. “Amazing actually, really amazing,” Barry-Cotter said, “It’s something that I thought I’d never get the opportunity to do — so I thought it was absolutely wonderful.”

Barry-Cotter praised the tiny double-ended ketch: “She was built in 1904 in a London brewery and it’s been a privilege to be involved in the restoration of the boat with my brother and to race it with guys like Michael Spies, who is doing his 43rd Hobart race. The rest of our crew have been absolutely fantastic.”

Spies, who was sailing master aboard the yacht, said the race had been a challenge.

“It was pretty easy physically, but today just tore strips off us,” Spies said, “Storm Bay just destroyed us and the Derwent showed why this is called one of the most challenging races in the world.

“You only had to be out there today, it was going from zero knots to literally 40 knots in an instant.”

Spies said the crew was looking forward to a few bottles of the special Katwinchar beer that has been brewed in their honour by Gold Coast brewery Black Hops after it heard of the yacht’s history and that Kendal and his brother Bill Barry-Cotter were restoring the vessel.

Katwinchar won the Grand Veterans’ class in the race.

Line honours winner Comanche and third placegetter Wild Oats XI were halfway up the Tasmanian coast on their way back to Sydney by noon on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Jeff Sloan’s Archambault A35 Archie has been declared the provisional winner of the Melbourne to Hobart race, which takes the boats via the west coast of Tasmania.

Archie arrived in Hobart just before noon on New Year’s Eve.

“We knew it would be a tough race, which it was.” Sloan said. “But not because of big waves or strong winds – it was due to no breeze.

“It was the quietest crossing (of Bass Strait) we have ever done, followed by a good run down the coast with some storms at the end.”

Line honours winner was Guillaume Leroux’s Class 40 Lord Jiminy, the first French entrant in the race.