AdvantEdge: Tasmanian skipper Andrew Jones on how racer punched above its weight in Sydney-Hobart

“Bloody awesome” – that’s how Tasmanian skipper Andrew Jones described his Sydney to Hobart experience aboard his yacht AdvantEdge after the local flyer finished the blue water classic early on Saturday.

Crew member Shayne Hansen with skipper Andrew Jones of yacht AdvantEdge from Tasmania after they finished the Sydney to Hobart 2023. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“Bloody awesome” – that’s how Tasmanian skipper Andrew Jones described his Sydney to Hobart experience aboard his yacht AdvantEdge after the local flyer finished the blue water classic early on Saturday.

A 47-foot Inglis-design racer, AdvantEdge exceeded all expectations by finished 27th on the water as well as eighth in the hotly-contested IRC Division 2.

Not bad for a boat that spent six years gathering dust in a shed at Port Sorell.

Making it all the more special, Jones’ son Josh was along for his Hobart debut.

“It was bloody awesome because we finished 27th overall [out of 103 boats] and I did it with my son and all my best mates,” Jones said.

“We could have done better but we made a mistake on the first day.

“When the fleet split in two – some went out wide and some stayed in close to the coast – we stayed in the middle and got stuck with no wind.”

Crew member Shayne Hansen with skipper Andrew Jones of yacht AdvantEdge from Tasmania after they finished the Sydney to Hobart 2023. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

It took Jones and his team a great deal of work to get the boat back in battle trim after it was parked and a shed built around it to protect it from the elements.

“It takes a whole lot of effort to do a Sydney-Hobart, both in time and money,” Jones said.

AdvantEdge was second boat in its division out of Sydney Heads.

“We were matching it with Mayfair and all of these type of boats and we had Chutzpah, the boat [Tasmanian] Peter Fletcher was on right beside us, and they went one way and they went the other.

“We ended up in a hole and those other boats were 50 to 60 nautical miles in front of us the next day.”

The thunderstorm that haunted the fleet on the first two days was nothing to Tasman Island in the middle of night.

“There were thunderstorms all the way down the NSW Coast and they weren’t too bad, the worst was at Tasman, which was typical,” Jones said.

“That was pretty extreme when we went through there.”

Visibility was low as hail stones driven by a 35-knot gale punished them as they rounded at 1am on Saturday.

“It was a full black-out and we couldn’t see where we were going,” he said.

“We were looking at the instruments to see where we were going and what speed we were doing, and the navigator was yelling to us how far we were off the rocks.”

AdvantEdge came through unscathed.

“You could turn her around and do another one,” Jones said.

Tenacity, of the Bellerive Yacht Club, was the next Tasmanian boat home, 41st across the line and eighth on IRC Division 3.

Kraken 111, sailed by Two Handed local team John Saul and Rob Gough, came home 49th on the water, second on Two Handed IRC Division and in with a shot of winning IRC Division 5, while Midnight Rambler (Ed Psaltis) made it in 57th and a podium finish in IRC Division 4.

Tassie yacht Zephyr (Ian Johnston) was due on Sunday and Hansen Tasmania (John Townley) was fourth-last of the 86 yachts still out there, and was racing the clock to beat midnight on New Year’s Eve.