No Limit for how much finishing means to David Gotze

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• 29 Dec, 2023 05:14:00 PM

No Limit for how much finishing means to David Gotze

David Gotze brushed off any disappointment for his yacht No Limit losing its early strong position in the overall standings of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race after it finished today.

No Limit (Vic), an RP63, finished the 628 nautical mile race with a time of 3 days 01 hour 59 minutes 31 seconds. It was the seventh boat to cross the finish line in Hobart. A little under two hours later, David Griffith’s JV62 Whisper crossed the line as the eighth finisher on line honours. Whisper’s time was 3 days 02 hours 01 minute 24 seconds.

“That’s priority number one, finishing,” said Gotze adding that priority number two was a lunch they had planned. But, with their early afternoon finish today, Gotze said their lunch had already been rescheduled to later. “We now have dinner at 5.30pm.”

Credit: CYCA/SaltyDingo

Early into the race, No Limit was looking strong in the overall standings of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) race, but then it dropped out of contention as the race wore on. No Limit is a proven race performer and was a rightful contender for overall when the Sydney Hobart began. It was 10^th on line honours and finished fourth overall last year. Gotze said this year’s race was: “Tough … wet, lumpy, plenty of wind. But the team did an amazing job. We were happy. We did the best with what we could do in the circumstances.”

Gotze was grateful for No Limit finishing, and that his crew was in good shape and spirits, notwithstanding the rigours of them having to spend an extra night at sea compared to their original expectations. The boat also stood up well to the conditions that saw rain, thunderstorms, lightning and lumpy seas. The only real damage to the boat was a broken kettle handle on the first night. Asked how this year’s race compared to his previous eleven, Gotze said: “They are all good. “It is such a privilege to be here, to do one let alone finish one. It’s absolutely fantastic. For the overall? Who knows. This is a Hobart. Anything could happen yet. We do have a few boats behind us that we wanted to be behind us. That's good.”

Credit: CYCA/SaltyDingo

One such boat was Whisper, to Gotze’s delight. It was nearing the finish when he was asked which boat was his marker. “Whisper, but they’re behind us, so that’s good,” he said. Some No Limit crew lamented having to spend three nights at sea when they had hoped to finish a day earlier; but for everyone in the fleet the first night was a torrid and tough affair. On that night, No Limit had lightning strike above them. “It didn't hit us. Somebody is looking after us,” said Gotze.

No Limit’s sailing master, David Allen, said the first night was a brutal and challenging one. Asked to compare this year’s race to his previous 10, he said: “It was very, very tough. “Decisions to change sails … They had to be snap decisions even though it's a long race. The wind shifts happened really quickly. There were lots of sails up on the foredeck.” Allen also recounted how No Limit tried to deal with a low pressure system on the first night. “There was a low pressure system, which we were sort of looking at towards Sydney,” he said. "We were trying to out run it and were out running it for pretty much a whole day. It was like a monster coming at us. It formed one of those big cigar clouds. It was chasing us down”

Written by: Rupert Guinness