Pair prepares for great race

By Carmel Anderson

FELLOW Lady Penrhyn crew members Flight Lieutenant Rob Saunders and the boat’s skipper, Lieutenant Commander Paul Jones, have begun planning their campaign for the 2004 Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

A time-honoured tradition was lost when Navy yachts the Lady Penrhyn and Alexander joined the recent Pittwater to Coffs Harbour race series.

Since the mid 1980s at least one of these boats has taken part in the Sydney to Hobart yachting classic.

They were excluded in November last year for failing to meet new NSW Waterway standards for offshore sailing.
But LCDR Jones and three of his crew quickly regrouped after this setback, adding a Midshipman, a Leading Aircraftwoman and two civilians to the crew to enter the Pittwater to Coffs Harbour coastal series held in late December and early January.

And with the demanding seven-race series behind them, LCDR Jones and FLTLT Saunders have begun planning their assault on one of the world’s greatest ocean yacht races.

Lacking a yacht, but with determination and the experience of nine Sydney to Hobarts between them, the two plan to enter the 60th Sydney to Hobart in 2004 as an independent team.

This means raising about $120,000 to charter a boat and pay for associated race costs.

Unfortunately, it also means the end of a formal Defence association with the Sydney to Hobart race; the end of a tradition that can be traced back to the origins of the race and which has been kept alive by Defence’s blue-water yachtsmen.

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