'Did you hear about the midnight rambler? Well, honey, it's no rock and roll show'

Preparing for Hobart

It's the big one, the Sydney to Hobart. In this article, Ed Psaltis, overall winner of the '98 Hobart, talks about how he, co-owner, Bob Thomas, and crew, are preparing both the boat and themselves for the race.

In March of this year, Bob Thomas and I were seriously considering selling the AFR Midnight Rambler and notwithstanding market conditions, were receiving quite attractive offers. In the end, however, we decided to keep her as there was nothing in the price range we deal in that would have given us a big enough of a performance jump. In addition, we took into account the pure fun you get in racing a boat like ours.

Anyway, we decided to show faith in ‘the old girl’ and once that decision was made we set about upping the ante in all areas of our race program, to see if we could lift further our offshore racing performance on IRC .

We had her anti-fouled in June, sprayed on with additional coats using thinners to get a smoother finish.  From now till Boxing Day we’ll regularly dive and give her a very light wet sand to keep slime off and progressively improve the finish below waterline.

No problem, all we have to do is remove all the fittings...

We also took the major step of having the decks professionally resprayed.  Our decks had lost all their non-skid and frankly, they were becoming a hazard at sea. The process required us to remove every piece of deck hardware. If we had known the amount of work this would turn out to be, we probably would have opted out! It was a huge exercise, taking far longer than we had planned; however, having removed everything, we were able to properly service and upgrade all deck gear, which has transformed the boat. Everything works like new and every fitting is now properly sealed on brand new non skid decks with sika, eliminating all those small thru-deck leaks most boats put up with. The boys from Yachtmod did an outstanding job in painting her decks.

As the boat needed to be in a shed, we took the opportunity to take the mast out and have Sydney Rigging Specialists complete a full service and check. A few deficient fittings at the mast head and on the boom were found and duly replaced before they could fail and cause far greater problems. It’s no secret that ocean racing is all about attention to detail. If you stop little things failing, you’ll avoid big problems at sea…it’s just Murphy’s law.

We also attended to further IRC rating optimisation. No rocket science here, but just a measured program of focusing on known areas where IRC ‘goes easy’ compared with those where it penalises heavily. While we still carry an onerous hull factor (the judgemental area in IRC that causes so much angst), our rating is at a point now where we believe we can just about race with some level of success.

It’s about commitment

An important part of our program is that we select the entire crew very early, based on full-time commitment to the coming season. This system has been our trademark since 1990 and I firmly believe it is the only way to go in preparing for Hobart.  The crew going to Hobart are doing every BWPS race…this is a crucial requirement we ask for. Apart from letting crew who haven’t made the Hobart team know early so they can look for alternatives, it also encourages our main weapon at sea…TEAMWORK! By the time Boxing Day comes around we have a crew that would go to hell and back together (and may have to!) The team ethic is very strong and in my humble opinion this is critical to a successful Hobart campaign.

There have been years where we’ve had offers from top helmsman and trimmers, but we’ve had to take them off the list because they weren’t able to commit to the entire season.  Whilst this often reduces the pure talent we have on the boat, I firmly believe the mateship and teamwork we develop more than makes up for loss of higher profile talent. I know there are many owners who don’t live by these rules and good luck to them, but I am not about to change as I have seen the benefits of this ‘old fashioned’ approach over the years.

Training is an important part of our program, and all selected crew are expected to turn up for regular weekend training sessions, which increase in intensity and frequency as Boxing Day approaches. Apart from the usual manoeuvers of inside/ outside headsail changes, peels and drop sets, as well as a thousand gybes, we concentrate on reefing procedures and step by step processes in getting the main off and storm gear up. We try to get out in December on an ugly, stormy day to go way offshore and repeatedly carry out sail management in a southerly front, so when it comes in the Hobart we have the mechanics down pat and will hopefully perform just as well at two in the morning as we will at two in the afternoon.

It never ceases to amaze me that, despite doing this many times over the years, we always seem to find a few little improvements to the process, only through trial and error. In the end, no matter how many Hobarts we’ve done, we are all still learning!

Sails are the engine for the boat and any serious campaign is going to have to have top quality rags. Just before the Southport race we purchased a brand new offshore main and two new headsails from Macdiarmid Sails, our long-time sailmaker (our running gear was already in top nick). We don’t use these in our training to keep them in good nick, preferring to use the older sails for those sessions.

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you

Before each big race we have a mandatory crew work day or two.  All crew attend these and a several-page list of jobs is completed, covering all areas of the boat from masthead to keel and bow to stern. Nothing is left unattended or to chance. Winning a major ocean race is 60% about what happens before the gun goes. The more detailed your preparation, the fewer things will break, the better you’ll perform, the faster you’ll go! In this regard I believe it is very important that the crew ‘get their hands dirty’ and in doing so get to know the boat intimately (including her bilges and other less glamorous areas). Bob and I spend many hours personally attending to regular repairs and maintenance, over and above these working bees. In doing this, we know how every inch of the boat works and if things go wrong, we can immediately take a hands-on approach to resolving the problem. I would personally feel very uncomfortable being a skipper who went to sea without such intimate knowledge of everything on board. Yes, it means doing some dirty unpleasant jobs, but let’s face it, most of us enjoy stuffing round on boats; my wife certainly cottoned on to that fact! The boat and you become as one; it becomes a personal thing. Sounds a bit fluffy I know but I have found this works to great advantage in tough conditions.

It’s paying off

Our program seems to be working well.  This year we managed to win overall the Audi Sydney to Gold Coast race, against a very high quality fleet. We have had our fair share of success in offshore racing over the years but frankly, we view this recent win as our biggest achievement since knocking off the Hobart race in ‘98. It is vindication of the incredibly hard work we’ve all put into the boat over the last few months and in having faith that she still has life left in her yet.

The subject of electronics and use of a laptop at sea is very topical right now, with major advancements in this area constantly coming to market.  Weather and current information can be invaluable.  At the same time there is such as thing as ‘information overload’.  In this year’s Gold Coast race Bob was constantly on the computer checking real-time updates on weather, currents—and through the CYCA website—the positions of rival boats. At midday on day two the laptop died (maybe from overwork!) and from then on it was back to the old days of two updates a day via sked, weather updates via HF, and current observations using our onboard instruments.  There has been suggestion amongst our crew that not having all the real time computer information, especially on rivals’ tactics, forced us to concentrate and stick to our macro game plan. We had to largely forget the opposition and just concentrate on our pre-race tactics, how we should fine tune for the conditions, and how to get our boat to the finish line as fast as possible—without the distraction of second-guessing ourselves based on what others might be doing.  They may have a point!  Don’t get me wrong—we will have laptop for Hobart, but sometimes extraneous information can clutter rather than clarify, sound decision making.

Finally, we are honoured to have been accepted as an entrant in this year’s Lord Howe Island race. As the only category 1 race outside of Hobart it’s a good shake down, mid season. The challenges of open ocean and the beauty of the Lord  Howe Island as it emerges from sea make it a highlight of our offshore racing each year.

Another Hobart win is our ultimate goal.  There’s no telling what Boxing Day will bring, but this year we’re pretty happy with our preparation—the rest is up to the weather Gods.