Eyes on the Tattersall prize

• NEWS
• 22 Dec, 2005 05:53:00 PM

Eyes on the Tattersall prize

Rolex Sydney Hobart Overall Winner Contenders Line Up

A panel of skippers from some of the top boats competing in the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart have told the media that there is no question that winning the Tattersall Cup, presented to the overall handicap winner, is the thing that counts most to the sailors who take part in the race.

“This year two boats are favoured to take line honours and after that there are probably about three or four other boats entered that pick the pieces up,” said Sirromet Life Style Wine skipper Michael Spies, who has both a handicap and line honours win under his belt. 

“There are six of us here and you could make this row four or five deep and you still wouldn’t be guaranteed you have the handicap winner.

“We have represented here small boats, middle boats and big boats and under the IRC rule all are in with not an equal chance but a realistic chance of winning the race overall.

“It proves that you don’t have to be on the rich 200 list to embrace the ethos of the race.”

Geoff Ross, skipper of Yendys, agreed.

“There’s absolutely no question the Tattersall Cup is the thing I treasure most and why we put in so much effort,” said Ross.

The group represented the range of boats that can always be found in any Hobart fleet.  John Walker’s little Impeccable is 25 years old, Yendys and Sirromet Life Style Wine are former champion IMS racers modified this year to maximise their IRC rating, while Bill Wild and Stephen Ainsworth will head south in their brand new, purpose designed Wedgetail and Loki respectively.  The boats range from 10 to 20 metres, yet every skipper believes he is in with a chance. 

Traditionally, the handicap race has favoured the smaller and midsized boats, with the maxis rarely able to capture the holy grail of Australian big boat sailing, the line honours and handicap double. 

If anything, there were two great races in each Rolex Sydney Hobart - the heroic dash for first across the line and the arm wrestle within the rest of the fleet for the Tattersalls Cup – and they had little to do with each other. 

However, this year is different.  In 2005 it is widely believed that under the current IRC system, the handicap formula used to decide the overall winner, the blisteringly fast canting keel 30 metre boats, Alfa Romeo, Wild Oats XI and Skandia enjoy a rating edge over the conventionally keeled smaller fry.

“The designers have outwitted the rule makers,” Spies said.

“Yeah, there’s no question the designers have got ahead of the rule and I expect that will be corrected next year,” Ross agreed.

“But that’s pretty normal.  Designers get paid to get a step ahead and then the rule makers try to catch up.  Its actually like life really.”

Yet neither they nor the other skippers were ready to concede the race is a foregone conclusion.

“One must realise that because of the different size of the boats the fleet is spread over a huge area and therefore the conditions that the big boats experience will be quite different from what we experience at the end of the fleet,” John Walker explained. 

At 85 Walker is the oldest competitor this year, his 10 metre Impeccable one of the smallest boats.

“One has to hope, and that’s all you can do, that the conditions favour us and that we will get a bit of a push at the end of the race and possibly gain on the big boats.”

Yendys skipper Geoff Ross, who won the Tattersalls Trophy in 1999, agreed.

“Implicit in the handicap is the fundamental assumption that you all sail in the same conditions, which is exactly what doesn’t happen on the ocean,” said Ross. 

“Impeccable is faster than Alfa Romeo if she’s in 12 knots of wind and Alfa Romeo is in zero knots.  That’s a fact.”

At some stage of the Rolex Sydney Hobart there will be a good nor-easter and equally there will be a southerly change, maybe even two.  If the nor-easter is on day one the big boats will open up an almost insurmountable lead on the rest of the fleet.  Give the big boats a southerly bash all the way to Hobart and then bring on the nor-easter on day three when they are snug in port and the smaller boats will have a field day.  Then there is the final leg into Hobart.  If you get to the Derwent River mid-afternoon there will likely be plenty of breeze to push you up to the finish line in spectacular fashion.  Get there at night and the river can be breathless, those last miles a demoralising crawl as the boats offshore hunt you down.

So luck, fate, being in the right part of the ocean at the right time, call it what you will, is crucial to winning - if you have done enough to deserve it. 

“The boats that have won on handicap in the last decade have all been top boats without exception,” said Ed Psaltis, a former winner who fancies his chances this year in his Farr 40 AFR Midnight Rambler.

“When you go through the list there’s not one boat where you think ‘gee they were a bit lucky to win’.  They’ve always outsailed their direct competitors.”

Michael Spies summed it up. 

“Basically you’ve got to win your division and, if the weather pattern suits your size boats, you should do well,” said a typically matter of fact Spies.