45 years in grand company

• NEWS
• 23 Dec, 2008 02:08:00 PM

45 years in grand company

On Boxing Day a cheery, unassuming bloke with an impish sense of humour will pass an extraordinary milestone. Tony Cable will cross the start line for his 45th race to Hobart.

On Boxing Day a cheery, unassuming bloke with an impish sense of humour will pass an extraordinary milestone. Tony Cable will cross the start line for his 45th race to Hobart, a record surpassing yachting legends Lou Abrahams and the late John Bennetto with 44 races each.  

But don’t try to convince Tony Cable that this makes him anything special. 

“I’ve sailed with about 250 people, including scores of sailors who won championships, many who were great seamen, and a lot of the stars, the great legends.

“If you have any self awareness you can’t put a ticket on yourself when you have sailed with people like these. So I don’t think too much of this 45 thing.”

It is that sort of easy going modesty, and a capacity to get on with the job and make people laugh even when they are cold and dripping wet and it is still another 200 miles to go, that accounts for Cable’s longevity in the sport. 

He isn’t a sports rock star; he’s a bloke who loves to go sailing with a bunch of mates. 

“I’ve been in every big storm since 1961 – in 63 we were out there for seven days, 71 was bad, so was 77 and 84 and of course 98.  And 99 was bad too.  People focus on that but really, sailing is one of the nicest most pleasant things you can do.  That’s why thousands of people do it.  When it’s sunny and the seas are flat and there is a good breeze you think you couldn’t be anywhere better.  You should be paying to do this.”

This year Cable will be racing to Hobart on Getaway-Sailing.com, a Volvo 60 originally built for the 2001 Volvo Round the World Race.  A beast of a boat - fast, noisy, no frills or creature comforts, uncompromising.  These are not boats for greenhorns. They demand fit, athletic crews.  Cable has raced one to Hobart before, Merit, in 2002, and he is pretty chuffed that, despite giving the other crew members a few years he is still fit enough for the job.

“Discomfort doesn’t worry me – I don’t expect comfort – I’ll be trimming and grinding and on the foredeck.  I can work the boat as well as I ever did.”

Cable is no newcomer to big powerful boats.  He crewed the maxi Sovereign to line honours in 1987, came second aboard the converted 12 metre Gretal, and crewed on the maxis Condor of Bermuda, Siska and Vengeance.  All were the standout racing yachts of their era, but for Cable it hasn’t been so much about the boats as the guys he sailed with, many of whom have become lifelong friends.

For Cable there is just as much fun to be had on the smaller, less fancied stayers that make up the bulk of any Rolex Sydney Hobart fleet.

Cable’s first Hobart back in 61 was aboard Tarni, all 33 foot of her.

“I was all excited and then I read a story in the Telgraph that went through all the fancy boats, and then said of Tarni that we could expect a ‘rough ride in this narrow little ship’.  And I went to have a look at her again and I thought she really is a narrow little thing.”

In the event Tarni only made it a short way off Sydney Heads when she hit two huge waves and her roller furling shattered. Cable would have to wait another year before finally tying up to Hobart’s Constitution Dock on the steel 41 footer Sylph 6.

“This was the 17th Hobart, and I was a teenager meeting these legends.  Great seamen, mad 18 foot skiff sailors, men like Stan Darling who had won three DSCs and Jim Maloy who had a Military Cross from Kokoda.

“Boy Messenger took me under his wing.”

It was a time of larger than life characters who wore their rugged larrikinism as a badge of honour.  Cable fitted right in.  He was later to do six Hobarts on Don Mickleborough’s wonderful old 35 footer Southerly.  He was on her in 95 when the veteran yacht placed third overall.

“You had to be a card carrying member of the yahoo society to get into Don’s crew.  He never had a sensible man on board.

“When he heard that Bruce “Jacko” Jackson had been tossed out of three different skiff clubs he said ‘he’ll do me then.’”

It wasn’t much different in the five Hobarts Cable did on Phillips Foote Witchdoctor, as part of Maurie Cameron’s rum consortium. 

“Great guys.  We always had a happy hour.  Hagar, real dry farmer type, full of humour.  Maurie, very practical, full of fun, likes a grog.  Bigfoot, giant of a bloke.”

Cable concedes that ocean racing has changed since the sixties. Not so many of the crews in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart will have sailed together every weekend, year in year out. 

When he was younger there were more long, overnight 90 and 200 mile races.  It was a bloke thing.  Times have changed, and so have blokes.

“I guess boats are less comfortable, lifestyles change, there’s more things for people to do.  Then it was normal for fellows to sail together relentlessly.  Girlfriends are less tolerant now.  (The) 98 (storm) might have made a big difference.”

It is more common these days for crews to come together to do a particular race.  Cable first met his fellow Getaway-Sailing.com crew members in early December.  He expects that many of the younger guys he is sailing with this year will have left ocean racing five years from now. 

“Ocean racing has a high attrition rate.  A lot of guys get seasick and it can be very tough at times.” 

Still, as long as he keeps fit it is hard not to see Tony Cable extending his record for a few more years yet.  Why wouldn’t he?

“I have stuck with it because I have enjoyed the camaraderie. I’ve always sailed with boatloads of good sailors and seamen.

“This (record) is no special achievement.  I’m no star sailor.

“I stay in it because it’s fun.  Ocean racing generally throws up good characters.  Nice blokes you can get along with.”

By Jim Gale/Rolex Sydney Hobart media team