On Boxing Day she will skipper her very own ocean racer, Archie, an Archambault 35, across the starting line of the Rolex Sydney Hobart 2009.  To say that Sally is a little bit excited is an understatement.

After all, she hadn’t actually done any ocean sailing before she picked up Archie in Melbourne for the delivery to Hobart in October 2006.  She was very seasick.  “But I am getting better,” Rattle insists.

Despite the seasickness, within a month she had entered Archie in the offshore qualifying race for that year’s Melbourne to Hobart, launching what has become a pretty impressive campaign record for boat, owner and crew.  In that 2006 Melbourne Hobart Archie was second across the line, and Rattle figured she had a pretty quick boat on her hands. “It was quite a good sign,” she deadpans. 

Archie went on to win the IRC division in the 2007 Maria Island Race, followed that up with first overall in the Melbourne to Hobart that year, and then won the follow-up Sovereign Series. She also won the Tasmanian Offshore Championships in 2007 and 2008 and finished first on IRC in this year’s Bruny Island Race.

“It’s been quite a ride,” Rattle says. “We have some fantastic people on the boat, and we have stayed together and that’s really important.  We have two brothers in the crew and my husband is team manager. It’s a real family affair.”

Rattle is now a real veteran, with more than 5000 sea miles and seven Bass Strait crossings under Archie’s keel since that first squeamish delivery three years ago.

This year “the family” convinced her it was time to step up.  They wanted to do the Rolex Sydney Hobart.

“Some of the guys had done a few of them already.  Even though it’s my first, they haven’t really been very forthcoming on what I should expect.  Hopefully we’re fully prepared for whatever happens.” 

 
Whatever happens in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart, one thing is for certain.  Archie will be in the middle of it.  At 35 feet she is the second smallest yacht in the fleet, two feet longer than James Connell and Alex Brandon’s Zephyr Hamilton Elevators.  While the Rolex Sydney Hobart is a sprint for the maxis, which so often seem to be tied up safe and cosy before the inevitable southerly moves through the fleet, the race can become a four or five-day marathon for the smaller, slower boats.

Archie crewmember Mick Souter will be competing in his sixth Rolex Sydney Hobart this year. His first was back in the 80’s, when, far from minnows, boats around 35 to 45 feet made up the bulk of the fleet.

“I took my own little boat, Alarm Link Bambino to Hobart once. She was 27 feet 6 inches. I got her two months before the race, she cost me $18,000 and the race cost us $30,000 all up. We were competitive most of the way until we got bashed up in Bass Strait.

“I grew up in small boats. You’ve got to have them in races like this. They’re the entry level for people who will eventually move up to bigger boats, or who just love the camaraderie of sailing together. We’re more friends than a crew doing a race.

“I guess Archie is the 2000 version of the 80’s S&S 34s.”

With her wide beam, shallow hull, huge dinghy like cockpit and clean, functional layout below, Archie looks quite different to the rounded, narrow shape of the 80’s cruiser/racers, but with more than a hundred currently cruising and racing in Europe the French built Archambault 35 is currently enjoying the sort of popularity that characterised the S&S 34 worldwide 30 years ago.

“She is a nuts and bolts boat.  She is good and solid. We will definitely finish.  The boats we will have to watch out for in our division will be the bigger, older boats like Love & War and Pinta-M.  Because of their age they rate really well and if it is on the nose they are really fast upwind. We want a messy race, with a bit of wind coming from everywhere.”

Souter has done four Melbourne Hobarts as well as his five Rolex Sydney Hobarts.  He says that, depending on the weather in any particular year, both races can be equally tough.  The difference is in the level of the competition. 

“The Rolex Sydney Hobart has a bigger reputation.  The standards are higher.  The race down the Tasmanian west coast is more like where yachting started." 

By Jim Gale, Rolex Sydney Hobart Media team

Archie Love & War Pinta - M Zephyr Hamilton Elevators