Captain's Quarters with Stacey Jackson

• NEWS
• 28 Dec, 2018 03:00:00 AM

Captain's Quarters with Stacey Jackson

We caught up with Stacey Jackson, skipper of Ocean Respect Racing and Wild Oats X for her inspirational story of this boat’s 2018 Rolex Sydney Hobart campaign.

Mention the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and people’s minds are instantly drawn to eight-time line honours victor and twice overall winner, the RP100 Wild Oats XI. What many people are only just beginning to realise, however, is that there’s another arrow in the Oatley family’s Rolex Sydney Hobart quiver in the form of the RP66 Wild Oats X.

By no means a newcomer to the sport, Wild Oats X has been racing since 2004, however she has taken on the Great Race just once before with her debut last year. Returning in 2018 for another Tattersall Cup hunt, Wild Oats X is sporting an all-female crew sailing under the banner of Ocean Respect Racing.

We caught up with Stacey Jackson, skipper of Ocean Respect Racing and Wild Oats X for her inspirational story of this boat’s 2018 Rolex Sydney Hobart campaign.

Q: What’s your aim in the 2018 Rolex Sydney Hobart?

JACKSON: We’ve set out with a few missions: we want to win the Jane Tate Memorial Trophy for the first female skipper across the line and we’re also vying for the Tattersall’s Cup. Our biggest goal, however, is spreading the cause for the need for sustainable living and reducing the use of plastics to improve ocean health.

Q: What drives your passion for ocean health?

JACKSON: I’ve sailed around the world twice now and been in some of the most remote places in the world, each time we witnessed very obvious human impact – things like plastic water bottles floating around in the middle of nowhere – and there’s just no excuse for that. We even sailed around oil rigs off the coast of Brazil which create their own atmosphere from all the burning-off that they do and it all comes back to the production of plastics. Everything that I saw highlighted the need to make a change.

Q: How are you feeling entering the race?

JACKSON: The Tattersall Cup is the goal for anyone doing this race – we’re here to win it. Our crew has plenty of Hobarts to our name and something like 20 around the world races combined, we’re ready!

Q: Who’s the biggest threat – if not you, who’ll take the Tattersall Cup?

JACKSON: Matt Allen’s defending the overall win this year and he has a very good boat for the job, however so do we. We’re going to go out and race as hard as we can in order to get the win and hope the weather goes our way.

Q: How did you get into sailing?

JACKSON: I started sailing at seven years of age, my dad is a sailor and he got me into it. From my very first sail I loved it, however I wasn’t particularly good at it! That’s something I’ve worked on a lot over the years.

I would sail my little dinghy up and down the river where I lived but I could see there were bigger and better places I could go with sailing, so I got into the big boat scene and started racing in Rolex Sydney Hobarts when I was 18.

Q: Your favourite sailing memory?

JACKSON: I’ve got a few! I come from Mooloolaba and the first time I ever came to Sydney was by boat – sailing through Sydney Heads in the evening is a pretty spectacular sight to see. Also, to think that at the age of 15 I had sailed from Queensland to Sydney, that’s what made me realise that you can sail far and wide, it was a defining moment for me.

Q: Describe your team’s ethos…

JACKSON: We are an all-female team, however that was more by accident than design – we set out to assemble a team of very good sailors who are at the top-end of this sport and they happened to all be female. It’s a bonus that we’re getting to be role-models for the next generation of women in sport and with so many achievements by female sailors recently, it’s great to be able to highlight that women can be in the top-end of our sport.

Ocean health is really our big goal, however, and it’s fantastic to be able to have a voice for the need for sustainable living.

Q: In 2019 the Rolex Sydney Hobart celebrates its 75^th race – will you be entering?

JACKSON: It’s an epic anniversary for this race, I think we’ll see a huge number of boats enter the race, similar to the 50^th. It would be really cool to be a part of that, and hopefully you’ll see us return as the same team we are this year, and this is the start of something big for us.

Make sure to use and follow #RolexSydneyHobart to keep up with Wild Oats X and all competitors during this year’s Great Race. Yacht Tracker technology will also once again be used to follow the race in real-time, with the Standings page providing projected outcomes race-long. Stay locked right here for all the latest news and information, and visit the Yachts page to see all entrants making up what is touted as the toughest fleet in Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race history.  

Interviewed by DJ MUNRO