Local Hero (TH)

Local Hero will be skippered by Mark Ayto and Anto Sweetapple in the new Two-Handed division.  While Ayto is at home in the double-handed world, Sweetapple is best known as the co-owner and skipper of Quetzalcoatl, a fully crewed boat which he scored a PHS win and second and third PHS in past Sydney Hobarts.  The pair dipped their two-handed toes doing the CYCA’s 2020/2021 Two-Handed series, placing second in Race 1 and was the only finisher in Race 2.  In the 2021 Blue Water Pointscore’s Bird Island Race in November, the pair placed fifth overall and backed up with fifth in the Cabbage Tree Island Race in early December.

Shane Connelly skippered this BH36 to 83^rd overall in the 2019 Rolex Sydney Hobart.  Before that, Chris Matthews bought the boat from long-time owner Peter Mosely in 2016 and finished 29^th that year.  Mosely retired from the 2015 race with hull damage, and was 54^th in the 2014 race, PHS fourth in 2012 and IRC 20^th and third in IRC Division 4 in 2010.  The BH36 did her first Sydney Hobart as Local Hero XII (skippered by Geoff Howison, a business partner of the boat’s designer, Iain Murray and builder, the late Ian Bashford) and placed 14^th.  In 1996, entered by next owner, Kevin Wood, she was 35^th.

Competitor Details