Sydney to Hobart yacht race 2024: Jessica Watson, Stacey Jackson, Carolijn Brouwer racing for a cause

Jessica Watson thought she had seen plenty at sea as a teenager sailing solo round the world. But after a few races with two top guns doing the Sydney to Hobart she has changed her mind.

Jessica Watson after arriving at Hobart at the end of the last race. Picture: Chris Kidd

Jessica Watson’s experience during her solo around-the-world odyssey as a tiny teenager captured the imagination of the world and inspired a movie, a book and made her one of the most recognised sailors in the country.

Fifteen years after she sailed back into Sydney Harbour to a hero’s welcome on her little 30-footer Pink Lady, Watson is about to kit up for her fourth Sydney to Hobart yacht race beside two women who have also sailed around the world.

Stacey Jackson and Carolijn Brouwer are among an elite group of women to have raced in the Volvo Ocean event with Brouwere part of a winning crew.

The pair encountered wild tempests, wipe-outs, dismastings, damage and drama aplenty during their multiple races alongside the best sailors in the world..

“I need to do a podcast,’’ Watson said before the Boxing Day start of the Sydney to Hobart. “The stories they are telling are just unreal.

“It is so cool. They are telling stories casually about dropping rigs (masts), going round Cape Horn and things like that.

“Also, the influence of getting along as a crew for so long at sea, things like that. It is just fascinating.’’

Jessica Watson and her crew from Azzurro after their arrival in Hobart last year. Picture: Rolex

While Jackson and Brouwer, who was also an ILCA 6 coach for Australia at the Paris Olympics, have done thousands of nautical miles together, including racing Wild Oats X with an all-women’s crew to second place overall in the 2018 Sydney to Hobart race, Watson is teaming with the dynamic duo for the first time.

The crew of Wild Oats X after finishing the Sydney to Hobart in second place in 2018.

Carolijn Brouwer spraying champagne on French skipper Charles Caudrelier as they celebrate winning the Volvo Ocean Race in Scheveningen, The Hague, in 2018.

They will be aboard Oroton Drumfire, a luxury 78-footer that is one of around 100 yachts expected to set sail on Boxing Day.

It has links to Ocean Crusaders, a foundation to clean up waterways and beaches and raise awareness of the problem with the people who use the oceans as a playground.

Watson last year completed a rough-and-tough Sydney to Hobart on the little 34-footer Azzurro, which only just made it into Hobart for New Year’s Eve celebrations.

This year her ride is more than twice as long and will be significantly faster and more comfortable.

“We were really worried we weren’t going to make it,’’ Watson said of last year’s race. “We were just going so slow.”

This year’s fleet is headlined by four 100-footers in defending champion LawConnect, race record-holder Master Lock Comanche, Wild Thing 100 and Maritimo 100.

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Originally published as Sydney to Hobart yacht race 2024: Jessica Watson, Stacey Jackson, Carolijn Brouwer racing for a cause