RSHYR 2024 | On board and in depth Bow Caddy Media

On board andoo Comanche © Bow Caddy Media

As we get set for the big race, here are some terrific perspectives as to what it takes to be in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

RSHYR 2024 |Onboard Comanche at the start of the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge

Here’s a unique insight into what a start line looks like from the bow of one of the world’s fastest monohulls when the breeze is up. Thanks to Matt Alen, James Mayo and the Master Lock Comanche team for having our camera on board for the One Circular Quay SOLAS Big Boat Challenge. And props to Craig Garnett on the bow of Master Lock Comanche who took the role as cameraman and lead actor in this short clip.

RSHYR 2024 | Ron Epstein Interview - Bacchanal

Ron Epstein hails from San Francisco and has been cruising and racing on The Bay for some time. In deciding to take a next step into more serious racing he commissioned the building of his new JPK 11.80 Bacchanal by Innovations Composites in Australia. The timing of the build, with the yacht completed in October this year, meant that he could also realise his ambition to sail in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Ron will be racing to Hobart with a mixed crew of Australians and some of his regular crew from the US. He explains how the project came about and also demonstrates a couple of features on the boat that will make shorthanded sailing with his wife back home on The Bay a little easier.

RSHYR 2024 | Jules Hall Interview - Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth

Experienced Two-Handers Jules Hall and Jan Scholten are racing the J99 Disko Trooper Contender Sailcloth to Hobart again. We spoke to Jules who explained some of the changes they have made to their sail wardrobe and what the current forecast (as at 22nd Dec) means for their race.

RSHYR 2024 | Paddy Broughton Interview - Love & War

Paddy Broughton has enjoyed plenty of success on the international offshore racing scene with his beautiful ketch Kialao II. And much of that success has been shared with one of Australia’s most experienced navigators, Lindsay May.

Lindsay was intending to race aboard Simon Kurts’ Love and War in the 2024 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, but found that he was not going to recover from some recent skin graft surgery in time to take part.

Enter stage left, Paddy Broughton!

We spoke to Paddy at the CYCA about this late call-up and his daily discussions with Lindsay to draw on as much of Lindsay’s encyclopaedic knowledge of this race’s weather and current as he can.

RSHYR 2024 | Sean Langman Interview - Kismet

Sean Langman loves to champion the lesser-known designers and naval architects of yachting’s history. So the opportunity to restore the diminutive 30 foot 1950s sloop Kismet, designed by Illingworth and Penrose was one not to miss. Captain John Illingworth is well known to Australians as the first winner of the Sydney Hobart yacht race in 1945 and he also collaborated in many of his yacht designs with Angus Primrose (co-designer of Sir Francis Chichester’s Gipsy Moth IV)

But Kismet was a collaboration between Illingworth and Harald Penrose, a test pilot and naval architect. Some of the stories of Harald’s 25 years as a test pilot are hair-raising, but it was his deep knowledge of lightweight aeronautical design that he brought to the design of Kismet. We spoke to Sean about the restoration of Kismet and his two-handing venture with friend and experienced offshore racer Peter Inchbold.