If you’re looking for somebody Irish on the biggest fastest boat racing to Hobart from Monday’s traditional start in Sydney Harbour, then you got it – the hugely experienced big boat racer Justin Slattery of Wexford and Cork is on the strength aboard the course record holder, super-maxi Adoo Comanche.
Yet if you’re looking for someone at the most extreme other end of the size scale, someone who moreover is putting in competition in the twenty-one boats two-handed division that is now admitted to the all-important Tattersalls Cup for Best Corrected Time, then you’ve got that too. Lee Condell of Limerick is at the core of the duo campaigning the Sun Fast 3300 Sun Fast Racing which – with her several sister-ships – is in the smallest-size cohort in the 110-strong fleet.
The biggest ones. The four 100ft Super Maxis which will be racing to Hobart include (left) the continuously-modified Wild Oats which has taken line honours nine times and held the record too, and (second right) Andoo Comanche, the current record holder, whose crew includes Justin Slattery of Wexford and Kinsale
The smallest ones. Lee Condell of Limerick (right) and Lincoln Dews are in the two-handed division in the smallest boat type in the fleet, the Sun Fast 33 Sun Fast Racing
But though it looks at the moment as though the expected northerlies in the early stages may so favour the four super-maxis that they carry fair winds all the way to the finish and an eventual results dominance, any seasoned Hobart Race follower knows that regardless of how they’re doing as they close into the conclusion of the 628-mile race along the Tasmanian coast, the final flukey miles to the in-harbour finish line up the Derwent River are often so dependent on the time of day and the state of the summertime sea breeze that it all can become a bit of a lottery.
PATCHES OF CONNEMARA IN, THEN PATCHES OUT
So any sensible betting person will want to spread their choices. Yet even here if you want to limit that exercise to boats with a distinct Irish flavour, the range is comprehensive. For instance, there’s a feeling that the TP52s have now become so competitive among themselves that they are producing a level of performance which can overcome the simple size advantage of the bigger boats.
And at mid-week it looked as though we’d a third boat of Irish interest in this elite class, when a TP52 called Maritimo departed Coff’s Harbour on the Gold Coats with considerable fanfare to head south to Sydney and the start. For in times past Maritimo was one of Eamonn Conneely’s two all-conquering Patches, both of which were the hyper-hot TP52s of their day, and both named for the tiny townland in Connemara where we find the ancestral homes of this branch of the Conneely family.
But a Southerly Buster was blowing bang on the nose for the quick hop to Sydney, and Maritimo/Patches chances of Hobart success were knocked out by sustaining a spot of structural damage sufficiently serious to have her withdraw from the big one on Monday. Stuff happens. It sure does. And it was a timely reminder that underneath the sunny skies, the Tasman Sea can quickly turn dark and rough.
However, we still have at least two top-level Irish-linked TP52s to step into the breach, starting with Chris Sheehan’s Warrior Won spearheading the US challenge, having already topped the RORC Caribbean 600 in February and the CCA Centenary Year Bermuda Race in June.
Chris Sheehan’s Warrior Won had been the most successful TP52 in North America in the 2022 season, and her crew in the Hobart Race will include the Glandore-linked Dylan Vogel, and Shane Diviney of Howth
Apart from the owner/skipper’s clearly-evident Irish descent, his crew includes international regular Shane Diviney of Howth. And since last weekend’s preliminary piece, we’ve heard from the depths of West Cork that Warrior’s hyper-talented lineup also has Transpac Race, Caribbean 600 Race and Bermuda Race winner Dylan Vogel in the crew.
He’s the son of US sailing rockstar Scott Vogel (think America’s Cup bowman) and ace America’s Cup back-up navigator Dory Street, who is the daughter of international sailing legend Don Street of Glandore. So in Glandore’s Twixtmas-enlarged population of sailors, there’s no doubt which boat they’ll be cheering on her way next week.
Meanwhile in Dun Laoghaire there’s a quiet air of confidence, as their main man in the Hobart Race is Cian Guilfoyle who is on Caro, the very new Botin 52 which is the highly-fancied fresher of the TP52 division and the fleet generally.
Owned and skippered by Max Klink of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in Auckland, and therefore carrying all that intense Kiwi-Aussie rivalry with her, Caro is a secret hidden in plain sight, for she swept the board in the TP 52s in Hamilton Island Week back in August. So the fact that Dun Laoghaire’s proven offshore performer Cian Guilfoyle has been recruited to do his first Sydney-Hobart Race aboard Caro speaks volumes for the high regard in which he is held.
As clean as a whistle…..the much-fancied Botin 52 Caro – with Dun Laoghaire’s Cian Guilfoyle in her crew – was built in 2021 in New Zealand by a specialist team led by Mark Turner
TP52 IS A SAILOR’S BOAT
The TP52s’ enduring popularity may stem largely from the fact that the boat’s concept was developed by active sailors at the top level every bit as much as it came out of various designers’ computers. There are times when designers can stray into an ivory tower frame of mind, and even the enthusiastic input from the test sailors in the biggest boat-building companies can get lost - or at least watered down - in the jungle of corporate communication. But if you’ve a boat of which the really good sailors approve and regard as their own, it’s something special and its survival chances as a class and a concept are that much higher.
The same thing broadly happened with the creation of the Volvo 70 Class. This was a sailors-inspired boat first, and an organisers and promoters’ boat second. So though the organizer and promoters may well have slipped from the scene for some time now, a good Volvo 70 will still be soldiering on for many years yet as a sound proposition for serious competition. And very good value too, albeit at a rather stratospheric notion of what constitutes “good value”.
You may have to spend quite long periods with the boat well heeled, but as shown here by Willow, the Volvo 70 will be going remarkably fast to windward
VOLVO 70 WILLOW IS “THE BALLIVOR BARGAIN’
Thus in noting that Jim Cooney of Ballivor in County Meath has downsized from the 100ft Comanche - with which he set the existing Sydney-Hobart Course Record in partnership with Samantha Grant - the fact that they down-sized to the Volvo 70 Willow (ex Ericsson 3, ex-Groupama) can reasonably be reckoned to be “The Ballivor Bargain”, as top level Volvo 70s are awesome performers which can easily be snapping at the heels of any hundred footer which so much as sneezes.
Thus Willow may well wiggle her way into keeping within this favourable northerly breeze which is expected to favour the super-maxis, and though in recent years Comanche is the fastest if the breeze is present, the much-modified Wild Oats can pull it out of the hat in lighter conditions - and with the legendary Stan Honey of California as her navigator, she’s as well-placed as possible to take any advantage going.
Legendary navigator Stan Honey with owner Samdy Oatley aboard the ever-young Wild Oats
Nevertheless at the middle and lower ends of the fleet, the possibility of a trough or two with less favourable southeasterly or even southerly winds before the finish becomes more likely, and just how far up the fleet this disadvantaged prospect extends is something which will only be discovered during the race.
LIMERICK’S CLASS WIN
But there are so many factors involved, with the sea currents and volatile winds which can persist on this classic course, that occasionally an overall winner can suddenly come centre stage out of nowhere, so to speak. And of course with a fleet of this size, the class placings assume extra significance, something of which we were emphatically reminded when Ger O’Rourke of Limerick made his international debut in 2005 with his then-new Cookson 50 Chieftain, winning his Sydney-Hobart class despite breaking a spinnaker pole, and placing fourth overall when the podium was dominated by Maxis.
Ger O’Rourke of Limerick’s Cookson 50 Chieftain won her class in the 2005 Sydney-Hobart Race and placed fourth overall, and then went on to place second in the 2007 Transatlantic Race, and first overall in the 2007 Fastet Race. Subsequently, as Adrian Lee’s Lee Overlay Partners (Royal St George YC), she was overall winner of the first RORC Caribbean 600 in 2009
With the predicted wind patterns the way they are at the moment, Tom Kneen’s 2021 Fastnet Race overall winner, the JPK 11.80 Sunrise, is not currently favoured for the overall podium position, but you never know. And she certainly has to be a hot contender in her class, IRC-3, even if this is the first race to Hobart for the owner-skipper and many of his crew, as their lack of Hobart notches is offset by tactician and former race winner Adrienne Cahalane - who is Offaly-born - as this is her 30th time down he 628-mile course, though she has seldom done it in a boat which manages world-class performance allied to on-board comfort in the style of a JPK 1180.
“World class performance allied to on-board comfort” – Tom Kneen’s all-conquering JPK1180 Sunrise
MONEYPENNY THE DARK HORSE
Finally in the lineup of special Irish interest, we have the dark horse, Sean Langman’s Reichel/Pugh 69 Moneypenny. She started as an American-built RP 65, but has acquired a new lease of life with four feet added to the stern to make her an RP 69. And in another turnup for the books, just six weeks ago she acquired Gordon Maguire, who took his first overall win in the Sydney-Hobart Race way back in 1991. But even with five Hobart bullets now in his CV, the former Howth sailor seems as keen as ever, and as he has joined an already talent-laden crew on Moneypenny, this is a boat to watch regardless of how the conditions may pan out to suit certain boat sizes.
If you’re making a late night of it on Christmas Day, the live start sequence in Sydney Harbour will be coming up in the small hours of Monday, and here’s the Race Tracker: https://rolexsydneyhobart.com/tracker/
The dark horse. With four feet added to her stern, and Gordon Maguire added to her crew, Sean Langman’s RP69 Moneypenny is an intriguing betting proposition for the Sydney-Hobart Race 2022
