Limerick's Ger O'Rourke and his 12-man crew swept into Hobart yesterday (Thursday) to a class win in the Sydney-Hobart that also gained him fourth place overall in Australia's classic 628 nautical mile offshore race.
The achievement – at O'Rourke's first attempt – and one of few Irish boats to have completed in the history of the 61-year-old race, could have equalled Harold Cudmore's 1991 performance when the Cork helmsman swept to overall handicap victory in equally breezy conditions on John Storey's Atara.
A torn spinnaker during the second night in the Bass Straits led to a violent broach and a broken spinnaker pole on the Western Yacht Club entry.
The dramatic wipe out, O'Rourke believes, lost him up to an hour in handicap time and consequently the possibility of a podium place in Tasmania.
The top three places were snapped up by three state of the art maxis in the last few hours of the race but the 40 year old Limerick property developer held on to a class win in Division B made up of 16 top boats.
"This was our first ocean race so as Sydney-Hobart virgins we were very realistic about our chances here and we're really delighted to have got this result under out belts an elated O'Rourke told the Irish Times amid celebrations in Hobart.
But if the broken pole was Chieftain's low point the high point, according to 28 year-old bowman Rory Herraghty, was the consistently high speeds achieved.
In one six hour period, speed bursts allowed them to take 22 miles out of an identical sister ship, Living doll.
"We pushed really hard and had the big kite up for most of the time. That was the big difference. Our speed did not drop below 20 knots for 10 to 12 hours. Herraghty said.
Sydney sailor Bob Oatley, sailing Wild Oats XI, a 30 metre maxi yacht, claimed an historic treble in and became the first boat since the inaugural winner in 1945, Rani, to take line honours, set a benchmark elapsed time and be the overall winner on corrected time.
The 95-boat fleet that started on St. Stephens day, included many international entrants including the UK’s Open 60 Hugo Boss, skippered by Alex Thompson, a new talent in international yachting. Thompson first made news in the 1998-99 Clipper Race when, at the age of 24, he became the youngest skipper ever to win a round the world race.
Thompson was joined by local Australian and fellow Vendee Globe 2004-5 competitor Nick Moloney, Olympic silver medallist Simon Hiscocks, Hobart-born Team New Zealand sailmaker Dick Parker and renowned meteorologist Chris Tibbs, who broke the Round Ireland speed record in May was also racing but managed only 29th on handicap.
The Sydney-Hobart, though popular with Irish crews rarely has an Irish entry and O'Rourke from the Western Yacht club is keen to highlight his crew's amateur status made up largely of his Beneteau 40.7 crew from the Shannon estuary.
The nine man Irish crew were supplemented by three pros and as well as Kiwi boat builder Stu Molloy, a Kiwi sailmaker Shane Young was also drafted in but the lynch pin in the Limerick side was Germany's Jochem Visser, a past winner of the Admirals Cup, who sailed as navigator.
Admittedly disappointed that the new Commodore’s Cup rules set by the Royal
Ocean Racing Club will ban shifting ballast, O’Rourke's new craft may be out of next year's Irish team line up because of his canting keel but yesterday's class win more in his debut performance serves as a memorable compensation.
The 50 foot Cookson built boat will be shipped back from Tasmania for a full circuit in these islands starting next May at the Red Funnel regatta in Cowes.
Dear sub editor can we put the crew in a small panel please:
Chieftain's Sydney-Hobart crew
Ger O'Rourke IRL (skipper)
Mark Tighe IRL (Boat captain)
Andrew Deakin IRL (driver/trimmer)
Rory Herraghty IRL (bowman/driver)
Edwin O'Connor IRL (pitman)
Dominic O'Sullivan IRL (trimmer)
Gordon Spain IRL (mid bowman)
Brian Griffin IRL (grinder)
Cathal Corbett IRL (mastman)
Stu Molloy NZL (driver/trimmer)
Shane Young NZL (driver/trimmer)
Jochem Visser GER Navigator (pro)
