Radio Relay Vessel JBW

• NEWS
• 07 Dec, 2005 08:51:00 PM

Radio Relay Vessel JBW

Cruising Yacht Club of Australia member and champion skiff sailor John Winning has made available to the CYCA his motor cruiser JBW as the Radio Relay Vessel for the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Cruising Yacht Club of Australia member and champion skiff sailor John Winning has made available to the CYCA his motor cruiser JBW as the Radio Relay Vessel for the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

John Winning is not only a successful businessman through the Winning Appliances whitegoods retail stores and a champion 18-foot skiff sailor, but he is most generous when it comes to supporting all levels of the sport of sailing, from dinghies to ocean racing. 

His latest contribution is providing the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia with his ocean-going motor cruiser JBW to be the Radio Relay Vessel for the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Winning will skipper JBW, a 20-metre twin screw displacement cruiser on the 628 nautical mile voyage south with the fleet with CYCA former Commodore and ISAF Vice-President David Kellett, a veteran of 31 Hobarts including a win aboard Sovereign in 1987, again heading the CYCA radio relay team.

For Winning this will be his sixth voyage to Hobart, the previous five as a crewmember on the maxis yachts Apollo and Ballyhoo (including line honours in 1976) and the former Admiral’s Cup yacht Love & War. 

Built entirely of timber in Sydney in 1997 and named after John Winning’s father, John Berry Winning, JBW is a masterful blend of tradition and convenience.  Alf Lean, who worked with the famous Alan Payne, drew the lines for the boat, which was built under the direction of Ian Perdreau, who will be part of the crew during the Rolex Sydney Hobart along with the boat’s regular captain, Andrew “Steak” Copley, and Mark Anderson.

The vessel has a displacement of 60 tonnes, with a deck level main saloon and raised wheelhouse. It sleeps nine in four cabins.  Winning has already made voyages to Lord Howe Island and twice to New Zealand with JBW.  “I wanted to support the high standard of safety coverage of the greatest ocean race in the world in a tangible way,” says Winning.

Although he has raced in five Rolex Sydney Hobart Races, John Winning is best known for his successes in high performance 18-foot skiffs and his support for the Historical Skiffs.  Nevertheless, his interest in sailing is vast and he is a member of almost every sailing or yacht club on the foreshores of Sydney Harbour, from the Vaucluse Amateur 12ft Sailing Club to “the two Squadrons”. He is President of the Australian 18ft Sailing League at Double Bay.

Winning has been a major supporter and enthusiastic sailor with the Historical Skiff Association whose members have re-created many of the most famous gaff-rigged skiffs of early last century.   John owns Alruth, Australia and the recently launched Mistake, each boat designed and named after early skiffs.  He won the ‘intergalactic’ championship for historical skiffs in New Zealand in January 2003.

David Kellett’s CYCA crew aboard JBW will include Colin Wildman, who has sailed in 36 Hobarts, and Colin Tipney (23 Hobart races) who is making his fifth trip as part of the Radio Relay Vessel team.  “JBW will be a most suitable Radio Relay Vessel; she is fully fitted with top of the line communication and navigation equipment,” says Kellett.

Kellett and his team will run a 24-hour radio operation aboard JBW, including two compulsory position reports (‘skeds’), a listening 'sked' and a weather ‘sked’ each day throughout the race. They will monitor the race frequency, 6516Hz, and the international distress channels around the clock. – Peter Campbell