Young women in Melbourne University crew

• NEWS
• 29 Nov, 2004 06:30:00 PM

Young women in Melbourne University crew

The 60th anniversary Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race will start from Sydney Harbour in just under four weeks, but the youngest crew in the fleet, all students from Melbourne University, will set sail tomorrow on a ‘dry run’ to Tasmania.

The 60th anniversary Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race will start from Sydney Harbour in just under four weeks, but the youngest crew in the fleet, all students from Melbourne University, will set sail tomorrow on a ‘dry run’ to Tasmania.

The students, with an average age of 21, are sailing the state-of-the-art Sydney 38 One Design class yacht, Another Challenge,  over the 628 nautical mile course south in the rugged Tasman Sea.

The test sail to Hobart, in full racing mode, is almost the final stage of their 18 months preparation for the ocean classic – they have to sail the boat back to Sydney for the start on Boxing Day,  December 26.

Skipper Chris Lewin had planned to set sail at 1.10pm today (that’s the time the race will start on Boxing Day) but the late delivery of a liferaft, an essential part of the boat’s safety equipment, has delayed the departure for 24 hours.

However, he and the crew decided to enjoy a hot summer’s day on Sydney Harbour, with a beat to windward to the Heads and then a spinnaker run back to the Cruising Yacht Club in Rushcutters Bay.  

They also practiced another safety drill required from all crews before the Boxing Day start – hoisting their storm trysail and storm jib.

Today’s sail on an almost deserted Harbour was in marked contrast to the 124 or so other yachts and several thousand-spectator boats they will encounter when the 60th Rolex Sydney Hobart Race starts at 1.10pm on Boxing Day.

“We will be sailing to Hobart in full racing mode, keeping to strict watches and eating the same food we will have on the race,” skipper Lewin said. “It also will be important in achieving team work among the crew of ten over four or five days at sea.”

Among the crew of ten aboard Another Challenge are three women students,  two of them from Singapore – 23-year-old Iris Tay and Thereis Choo, 21 – while the third women is Felicity Kaufman, 21, from Melbourne.

Iris has just completed her final exams in Media and Communications at Melbourne University, while Thereis is studying Botany, and Felicity is completing a course in Landscape Architecture.

The parents of Iris and Thereis both live in Singapore and are following the sailing career of their daughters with keen interest.

All three women are dinghy sailors but their ocean racing experience has been so far limited to the Melbourne to Stanley race across Bass Strait.

“Sailing in the Rolex Sydney Hobart is a once in a lifetime experience,” said Irs whose major role on the boat is ‘pit women’,  handling halyards to hoist and lower sails. “And I can also cook.”