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Your Worst Nightmare – big winds, no steering!

Your Worst Nightmare – big winds, no steering!
Hardys Secret Mens Business in the hunt for handicap honours in the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart

Your Worst Nightmare – big winds, no steering!

It is difficult to imagine anything worse happening during a yacht race than what occurred to Geoff Boettcher’s Hardy’s Secret Men’s Business yesterday as they continued the battle down the Tasmanian coast in the Rolex Sydney Hobart.

It is difficult to imagine anything worse happening during a yacht race than what occurred to Geoff Boettcher’s Hardy’s Secret Men’s Business yesterday as they continued the battle down the Tasmanian coast in the Rolex Sydney Hobart.

Off the Tasmanian coast, they were sailing under spinnaker in 35 knots of wind, reaching speeds of 22 knots. The South Australian boat had been snapping at the heels of boats 15 feet longer throughout the race.

“That’s hoofing it for a small 46 footer,” Boettcher said on his arrival in Hobart this morning.

So she was fully powered up, sailing at the absolute limit in near gale force conditions where one mistake could spell disaster. Then the steering failed.

“That was pretty interesting as you can imagine,” Boettcher said.

“The boat was fully loaded up and we had no control over where she was going.”

How did they resolve it?

“We panicked,” he said, a grin spreading across his face.

“We put a procedure in place to get the emergency tiller up and get the kite down at the same time.

“We took a bit of water but we did it.

“We ended up with just a mainsail and a tiller and we were still making 17 knots.”

Hardy’s Secret Men’s Business recovered to finish 14th across the line in Hobart.