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Robby Nimmo

Australia has four huge sporting events each year but the Sydney to Hobart race gets scant attention in the international media.
That  mystifies those in Australian sailing circles who refer to Christmas Day as 'the day before the Hobart Race'. It is considered the Everest of ocean races.
The Sydney to Hobart race is the real deal. It's an iconic Australian summer event, rating on a par with the Melbourne Cup, the Australian Open tennis tournament and Boxing Day test cricket.
Along with the Fastnet and Bermuda races, it's recognised as one of the world's three classic long ocean races. All are 600-plus nautical miles, but the other two offer none of the thrills and spills of 'The Hobart'.
Boxing Day on Sydney Harbour is a spectacular event. Every vantage point on the harbour foreshore is crammed from first light. Helicopters hover overhead.
Anyone in Sydney who owns any sort of vessel - from surf ski to 100-foot power boat - heads out on the harbour and through 'the heads' (where Sydney Harbour meets the Pacific Ocean) to farewell the fleet.
'Head out the heads, turn right' is the laconic way Australian sailors describe the race.
If only it were that simple.
They say that yacht racing is like standing under a shower tearing up US$100 bills. In the Sydney to Hobart race, it's more like having cold buckets of water thrown at you for days on end ... waves that leak into the best wet-weather gear and pierce your eyeballs like daggers.
Race legend tells it that 'every seven years, there's a big blow'. In fact, this can happen any time.
The 1977 edition saw winds of 50 knots, and in 2004 super maxi Skandia lost her keel and Konica Minolta retired.
Many of the fleet retired into the fishing town of Eden, seeking refuge from the gale-force winds. (Eden is the last safe haven on the New South Wales south coast before Bass Strait).
The race that is most remembered for bad weather is 1998, when fierce winds blew dogs off chains and many hardened sailors were as sick as dogs. Over a dozen yachts reported wind speeds of up to 80 knots and seas of up to 20 metres. 'The Bass Strait bomb' exploded.
Six crew members perished at sea, including three from Winston Churchill, a classic timber sloop. It was one of the five yachts that sank that year and only 44 of the 115 boats on the start line finished. A total of 56 crew members were air-lifted by helicopter from stricken yachts or life rafts.
US businessman Larry Ellison, veteran sailor of America's Cup fame on Oracle, has vowed never to compete in the race again. At a charity benefit to aid the victims' families and in Bruce Knecht's book The Proving Ground he said he'd never been so terrified as he was on board his 80-foot maxi yacht, Sayonara, in the Hobart.
Ellison is an acrobatic pilot, used to having his inner ear challenged, and had only ever previously once been sea sick, but on this race he didn't eat and barely drank fluids for three days. Despite winning the race's line honours, Ellison has not been back.
Commodore of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, former Sydneysider Warwick Downes, doesn't hold back when he reveals just how difficult the Hobart is.
He said: 'This is arguably the toughest ocean race in the world. Having 40 or 50 knots on the nose is normal. Sometimes it's too rough to cook for days; you snack rather than eat proper meals. You have to contend with sleep deprivation and food deprivation. It's not so much an ocean race as an endurance test.'
They say there are two stages of seasickness: the stage when you think you are going to die, and the stage you wish you would.
Hong Kong banker Drew Taylor is lucky he doesn't fall victim to mal de mer and has competed in probably more Hobarts than any other Hong Kong sailor, notching up 18. Each year he races on his father's yacht, Chutzpah. 'It's probably the hardest 600-mile race in the world. No two years are the same, but this year [2008] was a relatively easy race,' he said.
There are myriad reasons why the Hobart throws up such tough weather. Bass Strait is shallow and when strong southerly winds push against the northerly current, it produces waves that 'have no backs', which means they have no rounded slope to sail down the other side, causing sheer drop freefalling. This, coupled with the odd monster rogue wave, gives Bass Strait its iconic and challenging status.
The idea to race was the brainwave of some yacht owners and their families to travel to Tasmania as a 'cruise in company' in 1945 from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia established the previous year. Although the nine yachts that took part were made of solid timber, decks leaked like sieves. There was limited technology and not all had electrical systems. There was no weather relay, no satellite navigation and no refrigeration. The latter was a challenge for all the yachts in the early days, especially Wayfarer, which still holds the record for the longest race of 11 days, six hours and 20 minutes.
Hong Kong started making an impact on the fleet in 1973 when skipper Bill Turnbull was the overall winner on Ceil 111, designed by America's Cup winning designer, Ben Lexcen.
The handover year of 1997 was auspicious in Hong Kong for many reasons. Karl Kwok's crew was largely Kiwi hired guns on Beau Geste who won the race overall.
Grant Wharington, skipper of Skandia (the yacht that battled it out for line honours last week with Wild Oats X1), is part of the Hong Kong connection. He has competed in China Coast Cups in Hong Kong aboard former boats Wild Thing, as well as the previous Skandia.
This year there was a David and Goliath situation - the line honours winner Wild Oats X1 at 98 feet was almost double the size of the overall winner Quest; the Bruce Farr designed TP 52 footer. The boat that wins line honours is usually the boat with the biggest wallet attached to it.
Winning handicap and being declared the overall winner is all about how well you sail the boat. Sounds simple enough, but I won't be rushing to join the queue for the next Hobart. Can you blame me?
Who did what at the Sydney to Hobart
1. The oldest crew member in the 2008 race was John Walker, 86, skippering his boat Impeccable. Walker and his boat have competed 25 times.
2. The smallest boat in the 2008 fleet was Maluka of Kermandie at 30ft and the largest were 98ft. (Wild Oats X1 and Skandia).
3. The smallest ever handicap winner was Screw Loose at 30ft in 1979, the smallest line honours winner was Rani in 1945 at 34.73ft. The largest overall handicap winner was Wild Oats X1 in 2005.
4. The largest fleet was 371 starters for the 150th Sydney to Hobart in 1994.
5. The closest finish for line honours was in 1982 when Condor (Britain) beat Apollo (Australia) across the line by seven seconds



SAILING ROUGH