With his fifth win of the Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race’s prized Tattersall Cup for overall victory – with the most recent wins being three in a row with Matt Allen’s TP52 Ichi Ban – ex-Pat Howth sailor Gordon Maguire has confirmed his position as one of Australia’s most accomplished offshore racer. His apparently easy-going demeanour disguises a will of steel when it comes to getting the best performance out of a boat, such that he is renowned for instinctively sensing the slightest change in wind conditions a nano-second before the electronic instruments give any indication.
He sailed the 2021 Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race with the added emotions of having mourned - along with all the Irish sailing community - the death a fortnight ago at the age of 95 of his much-loved father Neville, an equally accomplished sailor, and this makes the 2021 win - coming as it does a clear 30 years after his first Sydney-Hobart race overall victory – something very special indeed.