'Offshore Yachting's official program on sale

• NEWS
• 05 Dec, 2005 09:11:00 AM

'Offshore Yachting's official program on sale

Sixty years ago, on Boxing Day, 26 December 1946, Norwegian-born brothers Magnus and Trygve Halvorsen set sail on their first Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in their 35.5-foot slip Saga.

Sixty years ago, on Boxing Day, 26 December 1946,  Norwegian-born brothers Magnus and Trygve Halvorsen set sail on their first Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in their 35.5-foot slip Saga. 

Over the next two decades they went on to win five of the blue water classics, in boats they designed, built and sailed themselves, including three in succession with Freya.

The Halvorsen brothers will be back on the starting line for the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, not as competitors but as part of the official starting team for the CYCA’s 61st annual race south.

Magnus, now 87, recalls their intrepid first voyage into the ocean in an article he has written for the December-January edition of ‘Offshore Yachting’, the official program of the 61st Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

“We had no headsail sheet winches, a small coaming-mounted ratchet drum for the mainsheet, but ‘handy-billies’ were mostly used when muscle couldn’t cope,” Magnus writes. “We had not speedo, no wind instruments, no anemometer and, of course, no electronic navigation equipment.”

Saga was hit by a sou’wester “of storm severity the like of which was not seen for another 52 years, in the disastrous 1998 race,” he recalls.

‘Offshore Yachting’ contains a complete preview of the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, including a comprehensive guide to the fleet (although some boats have withdrawn since ‘Offshore’ went to press).

Another feature about those intrepid early sailors is an interview with John Taylor, the last surviving Tasmanian yachtsman who sailed aboard Kathleen in the inaugural race to get home to Hobart after World War II.  Editor Peter Campbell interviewed the retired orchardist earlier this year at his home south of Hobart.

In addition to copies mailed to CYCA members,  'Offshore Yachting' is on sale at Club.