It’s not the size, just feel the quality

• NEWS
• 28 Dec, 2008 05:10:00 PM

It’s not the size, just feel the quality

Sydney yachtsman Bob Steel may be on the verge of his second overall win in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Six years after winning the race on corrected time with a previous Quest, Steel now has a nervous night’s wait to see if he has won again.

1650HRS, 28 DECEMBER 2008

Sydney yachtsman Bob Steel may be on the verge of his second overall win in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.  Six years after winning the race on corrected time with a previous Quest, Steel now has a nervous night’s wait to see if he has won again.

Quest crossed the finish line at 2pm this afternoon, four and a half hours after Wild Oats XI, nearly twice as long in length, had taken line honours.

“A fantastic sleigh ride,” is how Steel this afternoon described his 16th Rolex Sydney Hobart race as he led Quest’s two TP52 sisterships, Syd Fischer’s Ragamuffin and Alan Whiteley’s Cougar II across the line by 12 minutes and 46 minutes respectively.

“It looks like we could do quite well on handicap, now we’ve just got to wait for the big result,” he said.

"This Rolex Sydney Hobart was very kind to us, probably the easiest race I’ve done but there were parts you wished you were somewhere else,” he said.

“We’ve got so much experience on the boat, around 160 Hobarts between us and we’ve got a very good yacht, one of the leading TP52s in Australia.”

Just ahead of Quest across the line was Geoff Ross’s Yendys. Ross has a similar story to tell having won the Rolex Sydney Hobart in 1999 with a previous version of Yendys.

Ross was claiming some sort of record despite being pipped by Quest for leading player in the clubhouse on corrected time.

“We think we have the race record for under 60 foot boats.  I got the record for under 50s in 1999 in very similar conditions in a Farr 49,” he said.

Andrew Short Marine Shockwave 5, a former Alfa Romeo Shockwave, was fourth across the line, skipper Andrew Short’s personal quest to be realised another day.

“Winning this is not just a dream.  It is my life-long goal and I’ll keep going until I get it,” Short said.

“The Rolex Sydney Hobart is the pinnacle and you’re only as good as your last Hobart race and you want to do your best.  In the old days it was a four to five day slog. Now it’s more intense, you have to work harder to get results.

“It’s an eight year old boat.  I’m not the wealthiest bloke in Australia – none of the crew gets paid.  We do it for the love of the sport.”

Meanwhile, it’s hard to keep a good man down.

Roger Hickman, sailing master on Alan Brierty’s new 19.5 metre Reichel Pugh design Limit, today crossed the finish line in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in fifth place and still standing despite what should of been a debilitating leg injury before the race start.

Hickman, one of Hobart’s most accomplished yachtsmen who made the migration north to live in Sydney, hobbled aboard Limit on Boxing Day for the start with his right calf heavily bandaged after a fall during the Rolex Trophy.

According to orthodox medical opinion, he should not have started the race.

“A couple of doctors told me it would be three weeks on crutches for me and three months of physio before I was walking again,” he said.

Instead, Hickman visited a Sydney physiotherapist for a four-hour session on Christmas Day and another three-hour intensive massage before the start on Boxing Day – and then took his place at the wheel of a new boat whose limits were yet to be tested.

Two days and 628 nautical miles later, he was still standing.
“I can walk, but I can’t stagger,” he said as he sipped his first beer after tying up at the marina.  “It was OK, but steering was hard. I didn’t do as much as usual.”

By Bruce Montgomery & Lisa Ratcliff/Rolex Sydney Hobart media team