Observations from Afar.
Commenting on the 80th Edition of the Sydney Hobart Race from a warm, comfortable and stable chart table on the other side of world is a risky business. Armchair pundits are the most annoying type. Even the word Pundit has morphed over the last few decades from meaning a learned expert, into an overly opinionated commentator more concerned with for sensationalism than thoughtful or scholarly reasoning.
That said, observing the race from 10,000 nautical miles away does give a degree of objectivity, that is sometimes lost in the hurly burly of holiday time Australian sports coverage.
So I’ll take the plunge and give you (in no particular order) half a dozen of my personal take aways from the 2025 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race… and yes, of course it’s all seen through the distorted lens of traditional sailing values!
LOVE & WAR is the Greatest Boat to Ever Compete in the Sydney Hobart.
LOVE & WAR leaving Sydney Heads - ROLEX/Andrea Francolini pic.
I’m happy to argue this point with anyone. OK, she didn’t win the Tattersall Cup this year, but being the top fully crewed boat out of the 103 entrants in IRC at the age of 52 is just another extraordinary achievement in a list of honours that leaves all other pretenders in her wake. Forget MORNA, FREYA, WILD OATS XI, SIANDRA, WESTWARD or any other S2H success story. This 1973 Sparkman and Stephens legend is the greatest boat ever to compete in the race. And the fact that many of the key crew members were different this year only goes to emphasise that it’s the actual boat as much as the talent onboard that keeps her at the front of the fleet year after year. And yes I do live and sail aboard an S&S design from exactly the same era so of course I’m biased!
Read a report on her race in the CYCA news feed HERE
The CYCA have Opened a Can of Worms with the IRC Double Handed Division Rules
Allowing two different groups of boats to compete for one prestigious Trophy under two different sets of rules was never going to work. I’m a huge fan of the double handed sailors. Their skill level and endurance are almost beyond comprehension to me, as a recreational sailor and occasional amateur racer. They also provide a realistic way of winning without the multi-million dollar budgets of the 50+ footers. But by banging the square peg of double handed sailing into the round hole of an IRC fully crewed rating system, the organisers have created a rod for their own backs. (Am I mixing too many metaphors?)
In all, 76 IRC Boats finished the race. 12 of these were double handed. 7 of the 12 finished in the top 10 overall. Or to put it another way 4.7% of the fully crewed IRC fleet finished in the top 10 boats. 58.3% of the Double handed fleet finished in to top ten.
Sure, there are some exceptional sailors amongst the double handed crews and the weather suited the particular size and length of a modern double hander. But they are not proportionally that much better! In the two weeks since the end of the race, this very real issue seems to be a no go zone for much of the sailing media. If I was a betting man, I’d be putting my money on a few rule tweaks in this area for the 81st race.
The Pre-race Parade of Sail was nice but….
The initiative of the CYCA to create a parade of previous competitors should be seen as a positive step towards acknowledging the boats and people who made the race such an emblem of Australian Sport. Giving the Classics a place on the stage of Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day is a generous and well meaning move.
SOLVEIG photo © CYCA / Andrea Francolini
But I’d like to add a note of caution that comes from decades of tokenism to Classic Fleets from Australia’s major yacht clubs. Too often beautiful wooden boats are paraded out as the quaint relics of history, rather than living, flourishing and important sailing craft in their own right. They are more than just a photo opportunity for the cover of the latest newsletter and a nod to history. They are the vessels in which the best values of our sport reside. And they will be a part of our sailing future long after many of the canting, planning, foiling, computer driven Swiss army knives, are ground down into not very useful plastic aggregate.
Skipper’s Discretion
Of the 128 boats that started just under three quarters of them finished. The reasons given on the Rolex Sydney Hobart website are cursory. “Minor Hull Damage”, “Rigging issues” etc
But one explanation stood out to me. Those of you who are regular readers of SWS will know of our admiration for the sailing exploits and written opinions of Michael Spies who was skippering MARITIMO KATWINCHAR in his 47th Hobart. So, when the official website lists “Skippers Discretion” as the reason for retirement, then I’m full of admiration for a decision made from experience and with a respect for the sea learned from hundreds of thousands of ocean miles. No excuses, just a considered and balanced choice. I expect that the full story of MARITIMO KATWINCHAR’s retirement will come out in Sailing Anarchy soon (Spies publication of choice). We’ll keep you informed. (A footnote… also onboard KATWINCHAR was Scott Kaufman, Etchells sailor, yacht designer and creator of MATILDA the S&S Swan and floating home of your correspondent!)
Is the West still Viable?
The West Coaster Rhumb line passes just to the north of Maatsuyket Island
As a sailor who learned Ocean Racing by sailing out of Port Phillip Heads into Bass Strait, it’s sad to see the dismal five boat entry list in the ORCV´s 2025 Westcoaster. The significant milestone race down the east coast of Tassie was no doubt a mitigating factor in the poor turnout, with Victorian boats coming 13th, 14th, 16th, 17th, 26th and 27th overall on IRC in the main game.
But perhaps the writing is on the wall for the 53 year old West Coaster. The mentality seems to be that “if I’m going to go to all the expense and effort of preparing my boat for a major ocean race it might as well one that people have heard of”. I hope I’m wrong.
The First Woman Skipper to win the Hobart
Brilliant! Probably the most important headline of the whole race! Jiang Lin began racing in the twilights and Sunday summer series at Balmain Sailing Club in 2012 as a 47-year-old. Now as a sixty year old, she is a Sydney Hobart winner. A fairytale story.
Min River moored in Constitution Dock - Credit: CYCA | Salty Dingo
But the bigger gender equality picture still needs some work. It’s not quite as bad as the Lamu Dhow regatta I recently sailed in, where 0% of the 600 sailors were female, but the 80th Hobart crew lists were made up of only 12% women. And what’s more disappointing is that only half the boats had a women on board. Estimates of female participation in the 1994, 50th Hobart were around 9%. That’s means there has been a one percent rise every decade. At that rate we reach equality in the year 2405. Not good enough!