- The Yachts
- 2021
- Whisper
Whisper
Now known as Whisper, David Griffith sailed the JV62 to fifth overall to win Division 2 of the 2019 Rolex Sydney Hobart as Chinese Whisper, after winning Division 0 in the 2019 Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race and taking line honours in the 2019 Flinders Islet and Newcastle Bass Island races. As Whisper, she broke the 2020 Adelaide Port Lincoln record and placed third overall. A new deeper keel, new fin, longer bowsprit and new sails later, Griffith scored the line/overall double in the 2021 Flinders Islet Race, then placed fifth overall in the Bird Island Race. Whisper won overall honours in the 2021 SOLAS Big Boat Challenge, cementing her Mini Maxi Division win in the inaugural Income Asset Management Australian Maxi Championship. Griffith's crew includes long-time friends - four-time America’s Cup winner Grant Simmer, and Michael Coxon, along with noted British sailor, Rob Greenhalgh.
When he was sole owner, Rupert Henry delivered the JV62 to ninth on line and ninth overall in the 2016 Hobart race. In 2018, he adapted the boat for the 5500nm Melbourne Osaka double-handed race and took line honours, smashing the 1995 record by over five days, the same year the 60-66 footers prevailed in the Rolex Sydney Hobart. Henry had purchased the yacht formerly known as Jethou from Europe and finished fifth overall for first in Division 0 in the 2015 Rolex Sydney Hobart and finished runner-up in the Blue Water Pointscore on countback to Balance after the latter won the Sydney Hobart.
Competitor Details
Yacht Name | Whisper |
Sail Number | AUS13 |
Owner | David Griffith |
Skipper | David Griffith (8) |
Navigator | Michael Bellingham (29) |
Crew | David Ward (15), Grant Simmer (19), Michael Coxon (30), Ian McKillop (2), Sam Hunt (26), Doug McGain (12), Tom Braidwood (22), Lindsay Stead (11), Kurt Sullivan (1), Cameron Gundy, Robert Greenhalgh (4), Nick Beaudoin (12), Kashi Saunders, Charles Kosecki (5), Frank O’Leary (8), Jeronimo Harrison |
State | NSW |
Club | CYCA |
Type | JV 62 |
Designer | Judel/Vrolijk (Ger) |
Builder | Green Marine |
Construction | Carbon Fibre |
LOA | 18.9 |
Beam | 4.9 |
Draft | 4.6 |