Sail Away
FLTLT Rob Saunders tells the story of his adventures as part of the Aurora crew for the 60th Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Boxing Day last year.

The route sailed by Aurora from Sydney to Hobart.

FLTLT Rob Saunders (on the far right) endures the harsh weather conditions of Bass Strait with owner Jim Holley and fellow crew member SBLT Matt Cooke during the race.

All hands on deck

-114 yachts lined up for the 623 nautical mile race at 1.10pm on December 26 last year. - Aurora is a 12m racing yacht owned by Jim Holley, a veteran of 17 Sydney to Hobart yacht races. - FLTLT Rob Saunders, based in Canberra, joined Aurora after answering an ad posted by Jim Holley, who was looking for a crew. FLTLT Saunders already had a team of experienced and dependable sailors ready to go, so after some initial offshore sailing trials, four other ADF members also joined: CAPT Peter Tolchard, SBLT Matt Cooke, retired CPO Steve Phelps and retired LCDR Paul Jones. Nick Hildyard, Mary Holley and Swedish round-the-world sailor Goté Vickstrom made up the rest of the crew. - Aurora placed sixth in division and third in veterans, finishing on December 31 last year.

THE first confirmation that we were going to be in for a cold trip was at the Christmas Eve race briefing held at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

The Bureau of Meteorology weather briefing provided a computer-modelled weather prediction for the next seven days.

By the 27th, a strong cold front would be bringing strong winds and very cool temperatures. I always tell my crew to bring along a pair of ski goggles – and it looked like we were going to use them.

As predicted, the weather on Boxing Day was very pleasant, 25°C, 15kt north-east breeze. Due to the number of yachts starting, two start lines were set. Being one of the smaller yachts, we started from the second line. Part of our pre-start plan was to ensure that we hit the line on-time, but most importantly kept out of trouble.

I have seen too many yachts get too aggressive at the start, only to end their race with a collision. We had a beautiful start and a fast trip out of the harbour where we set our spinnaker and headed south-east to find the east Australian current flowing south at about 2kts. The first 24 hours were fantastic – surfing down 5m swells with 25- 30kts of wind up our tail.

When the breeze picked up to 35kts we dropped the spinnaker, gybed, set the headsail and started heading back inshore to catch the cold front moving in from the south-west. We certainly found it on the night of the 27th! The breeze remained steady at 30-35kts from the south-west, but the air temperature dropped rapidly.

It wasn’t raining anymore – it was hailing. By the morning of the 28th, the seas had increased in size from 7m to 9m and become very confused. The wind was 35-40kts, with squalls of 50kts.

The water temperature at 15°C felt like a warm bath. We were shipping a lot of water over the deck (and over us). The water warmed us, but then very rapidly the wind and hail chilled us to the bone.

This was my tenth trip across Bass Strait. Not the worst, but most certainly the coldest and wettest. You could not afford to have any skin exposed to the elements.

The night of the 29th brought new challenges. The wind had moderated to 25-30kts, it was very dark, no moon and no stars – until the electrical storm arrived!

We had been visually monitoring the movement of the storm for several hours and by midnight it looked as though we would sail behind it. By 3am, the storm had turned and we found ourselves in the middle.

Thankfully the wind remained fairly constant as we were blinded by the sheet lightning. Now I know what a rabbit in a spotlight feels like. We should have arrived in Hobart in the afternoon of December 30, but we had lost a lot of time coping with the confused seas in Bass Strait.

So an extra cold night at sea had to be endured. The water temperature had dropped to 11.7°C, but that was still nice and warm compared to the chill caused by the wind-driven sleet.

We finally arrived in Hobart at 4pm on December 31, finishing sixth in our division and third in the veterans. At least we made it – 57 yachts didn’t. Many yachts retired before they got to Bass Strait.

If we didn’t have a seaworthy yacht with a dependable and well-trained crew, then we would have seriously thought about not continuing.

Once you have committed to crossing Bass Strait, you have to be prepared for whatever mother nature throws at you. We looked after each other and looked after the yacht. Apart from a few bruises, we arrived in Hobart with no injuries and no damage to the yacht.

In Australia, the media is focussed on the large maxi yachts. As far as the media is concerned, when these yachts arrive in Hobart some two to three days later, the race is over.

In fact, the majority of the fleet is still at sea. It’s a tough long race for the smaller yachts and any that completed the 60th Sydney to Hobart yacht race can stand proud that they participated in an “honest Hobart” (a tough race).

This is the reason that I enjoy the race so much. It’s tough, cold, wet and the like, but when you get to Hobart, you feel alive. For the past four to five days you have worked around the clock – three hours on-deck working and three hours below trying to rest.

But when off-watch, you don’t get three hours of rest. It takes 20 minutes to get dressed in three layers of thermal clothing, don the wet weather outer layer, boots, gloves, safety harness and more.

There are also meals to reheat, equipment repairs required and race strategies to discuss with the navigator. If the yacht tacks, those on off-watch have to shift equipment and themselves from one side to the other or assist the crew on deck with a sail change.

When in your bunk, you quickly learn how to strategically position your arms and legs so that you don’t get thrown out when the yacht leaps off a wave.

Life was good when in 24 hours you got six hours of broken sleep. The challenges of fulltime university studies and managing a young family are easy compared to this.

I consider the Sydney to Hobart yacht race to be one of the ultimate adventurous exercises that an ADF member could participate in.

You learn to push yourself much further beyond your personal boundaries and when you’re cold, wet, very tired and sometimes seasick, you still climb out of your bunk, don your gear and get up on deck smiling.

When was the last time you climbed your Mount Everest?”

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