Line Honours winning Skipper from the last two Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Races, Christian Beck, has again thrown down the gauntlet to claim underdog status as the psychological warfare starts before the 2025 race.
At the launch of the prestigious event at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Darling Point headquarters, the 30 day mark to the Boxing Day event revealed a fleet of 133 contenders in this 80th race.
That stands against 104 starters in last year’s event.
Beck, Owner/Skipper of LawConnect, will be facing four other 100-foot maxi racers: Master Lock Comanche, SHK Scallywag 100, Wild Thing 100 and Palm Beach XI, together with another 100 footer, luxury cruiser Maritimo 100.
“It’s much harder for us with them (Comanche) there, because the problem we’ve got is Comanche is better than us in every way, and the same type of boat as us,” Beck said.
“So therefore, if it’s good for us, it’s great for them,” he said of the conditions.
He said what they had hoped for over the last few years was conditions that were “sort of good for neither of us”.
“So, the odds of us beating Comanche and Wild Oats (now known as Palm Beach XI) are not very high,” he said.
There are six overall winners in the fleet, including last year’s victor, Celestial V70 skippered by CYCA Commodore Dr Sam Haynes, who became just the third CYCA Commodore to win while serving his term.
Haynes also won the 2022 race with his TP52 Celestial, which was runner up in 2021.
He said the most difficult challenge was figuring out the formula for a successful campaign.
“That’s a question that is kind of easy to answer and hard to answer,” he said.
“You spend a lot of time on our preparation for all areas, particularly looking at crew and where they’re going to be positioned on the boat, and selecting the crew,” he said.
“I’ve been lucky to have a very good crew for a long time now, but getting them into the positions where we can share the workload and everyone can perform at their best.”
He said a lot of safety planning was done, as well as extreme weather scenarios, but it also involved smaller details, down to what food was on board.
“We just make sure that the things that we can control we do control as well as possible, and reduce the amount of unexpected, events.”
Elizabeth Tucker, Owner/Skipper of First Light, a Class 40 yacht she purchased in Spain and then sailed to Australia double handed, will have an all-female crew.
“So, I do like to do things a bit differently. I guess trying to sail around the world solo is kind of a bit different. But I decided to use the opportunity for my goals to create more sort of a pathway for women in sailing to learn every aspect of the boat, to step out of the normal limited crew role that people are often given,” she said.
“So every crew member on the boat, I consider a co-Skipper. So, they helm, they look at some of the navigation – we do have a dedicated navigator – but they really do everything on the boat, more like the double handed.”
Michael Spies, Skipper of the 121-year-old Maritimo Katwinchar, is hoping for something special in the race.
Maritimo Katwinchar is the oldest boat to ever do the race, and one of the smallest in the fleet. Spies is aiming for another Sydney Hobart Overall win to add to his 2003 victory as Skipper of First National Real Estate. Spies also took Line Hhonours and broke the race record in 1999 with Nokia.
Maritimo Katwinchar was sailed to Australia in 1951 from England with three crew and is considered a competitive 33-footer. But as for a victory in 2025?
“If the planets align and it is a small boat race, well, I’d like to think our name could come out the hat.”
#RolexSydneyHobart #SailingAustralia #Sailing
More Offshore Sailing stories: Click here
