Speedwell (TH)

Wendy Tuck, the only woman to win an around the world race (in 2018), and with 13 Sydney Hobarts behind her, was thirsting for new adventure, so entered the race’s new Two-Handed Division. The Sydneysider’s co-skipper is Campbell Geeves, whose dad Colin loaned them his Beneteau 34.7 – one of the smaller boats heading south. Tuck is one of only two women to have won the Jane Tate Memorial Trophy (for the first female skipper to cross the finish line) twice. She says, “I’m grateful for the loan of the boat and looking forward to the challenge.” A winner of many awards, she has kept busy as guest skipper on Maiden’s (Tracy Edwards) global voyage in 2018 in support of The Maiden Factor Foundation while maintaining her work as a chief sailing instructor and training hard for the Hobart.

In November, Geeves and Tuck placed fourth overall in the Bird Island Race's Two-Handed Division and upped the ante taking Two-Handed line honours and Two-Handed overall victory in the Cabbage Tree Island Race, Geeves citing Tuck’s steering skills as paramount to their win. They also did a remarkable job on their 9.9 metre boat to finish 13^th overall in the open fleet in what turned out to be a big boat race. Tuck knows the Rolex Sydney Hobart race track well and, as skipper of Sanya Serenity Coast, was the first Clipper boat to cross the finish line in the 2017 race. She went on to win the Clipper Race overall, when she docked in Liverpool, UK in 2018.

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