First South Australian entry for 2008 Rolex Sydney Hobart

• NEWS
• 12 Sep, 2008 01:19:00 PM

First South Australian entry for 2008 Rolex Sydney Hobart

Owner/skipper Dr Gary Shanks says the time is right for a ninth family-based race campaign for the legendary 628 mile race on Boxing Day. As a single boat, Rager is the most prolific South Australian race entrant in Australia’s premier blue water yachting event.

Ten years after surviving the fatal storm of the 1998 Sydney Hobart Race and finishing 12th over the line in that race, top South Australian offshore yacht Rager (racing under the name of Doctel Rager) is preparing for yet another Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Owner/skipper Dr Gary Shanks says the time is right for a ninth family-based race campaign for the legendary 628 mile race on Boxing Day.  As a single boat, Rager is the most prolific South Australian race entrant in Australia’s premier blue water yachting event.

The Shanks family has an impressive record for the famous race which is touted as one of the most recognised high challenge tick-the-box events for global adventurers.

Going to Hobart is a genuine family activity.  Gary has sailed in eight Rolex Sydney Hobarts and once again the team includes daughter Catherine and son David, who between them have sailed an impressive total of 12 Hobarts. These two completed the 1998 race aged 16 and 15 respectively. Following the storm swept race a minimum age of 18 was introduced. Oldest sibling Victoria, who has competed in two Sydney Hobarts will be shore-based this year while her husband Matt Young will again join the crew.

Doctel Rager is a notable performer in Australian ocean racing records. This will be the 14th Sydney Hobart race for the Elliott (NZ) design 56 footer and the sixth Rolex Sydney Hobart campaign since a major rebuild in 2000 that added a new keel and rudder design.

Since then the boat has featured in strong placings in the Boxing Day classic and achieved line honours wins in the Port Lincoln Classic and multiple local SA Offshore Series competitions, including a win in the 2007 Haystack Island 200 mile race, SA’s longest offshore event.  Rager still holds the race record for the Haystack Island race.

This year Rager raced to second place across the line behind maxi yacht 98ft Skandia Wild Thing in the storm ravaged Adelaide to Port Lincoln blue water classic in which half the fleet withdrew during the first five hours.

"The way we performed in the rough Adelaide to Lincoln race, this year told me the time was right to take another trip to Hobart via Sydney,” said Gary Shanks.

"We have a good balanced crew with old heads and young hands with Hobart experience, as well as a few regular South Australian crew who are first timers to the Hobart and all its unknowns."

"This promises to be a very special race. For those of us who competed in 1998 it will be a chance to honour the memory of the six sailors who died in that race.”

The Rager team is preparing with races and test trials over the coming months in SA offshore races, held in open waters between Yorke Peninsula and Kangaroo Island. She will be sailed to Sydney in early December by crew for several corporate sailing events on Sydney Harbour prior to Christmas and the big race.  Rager is based at the CYCSA, Adelaide.

The CYCA has confirmed that Doctel Rager is the first South Australian yacht to lodge its Application for Entry in the 2008 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, the formal process by which yachts seek to achieve entry.