10:48 PM Mon 21 Dec 2009 GMT
Did you know that in the modern Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race there are in fact two races to be first across the line? There's the fight between the maxis, of course, for the J H Illingworth Trophy for line honours. Then three days later the Sydney 38's arrive.
Whereas every other division is decided on handicap, so the fastest is not necessarily the victor, the one design Sydney 38s are identical, with identical ratings. The first across the line is the winner. No correspondence entered into. Thank you linesmen, thankyou ball boys.
'We like to say there are two line honours, first boat to Hobart and then our division,' says Bruce Foye, co-owner of the Sydney 38, The Subzero Goat. 'Ours is a lot tougher. Though the big boats go fast and get there quickly, we've got totally different issues to deal with. Crew fatigue, dehydration, discipline of watches. We'll go through several weather systems, the big boats only one. So there's a lot more to it.
'People say they don't want to go south in anything less than 50 feet. A 38 footer is a challenge.'
Foye is a former rugby league player. His passion is the North Sydney, now Central Coast Bears. He brings a lot of League's body-on-the-line physical toughness to his sailing,
'The competition, the team spirit, discipline; there's a lot of aspects from my nine year career in Rugby League that you put into play. You keep going and you don't give up. You can't do that on the field and you can't do that in the race. The crews we select have got to have that kind of culture about them.
'You're on the third day and it's a cold southwester and you've got to sit on the rail, well, you know you're going to get cold and wet and you know it's tough and you might get crook. But that's the strange thing about human beings.
There's those that love it and those that don't. Nothing worthwhile is easy and winning a Hobart division is worthwhile.'
In twenty years of sailing Foye has three Rolex Sydney Hobart divisional wins and one Tattersall's Cup (1993 IOR winner with Wild Oats), along with victories in pretty much every serious ocean race around the country.
This is his third year in Sydney 38s. He won the class in 2007 and finished second last year, and he's dirty about that second. After beating down the Tasmanian coast neck and neck with Morris Finance Cinquante, one wrong tack off Tasman Island proved decisive.
'We sailed into nothing and stopped while they still had a whisker of breeze, and for four hours we watched them get a lead and that was it,' Foye laments. He says the bad decision was a product of fatigue, and the fatigue was a product of poor watch keeping discipline. 'We were on the rail and so were they, and we didn't have the discipline of keeping a watch system that made sure everyone was rested.
'You need four different things to win this division,' Foye reflects, 'the machine, the crew, the motivation and the money. First of all you've got to get to Hobart, so the boat has to be perfectly prepared. Then you need a crew with the right attitude, who will push the boat at its fastest speed all of the time. All the 38s are the same speed so point one of a knot over a day really makes a difference.
'The passing lanes in a yacht race are when a front comes or there's a change in the weather pattern, and you've interpreted the change differently to the other boat. Or it's when the wind is 30 knots downwind and you're on the helm and you get knocked down or you Chinese and you get back up and go again. That's what takes the guts and determination to put the distance on your competitors. That's when you make the break.'
Foye loves the fact that in one design racing it is the crew, not the boat that is the decisive factor. And he loves his Sydney 38. 'They're very strong boats for Hobart. (44 Rolex Sydney Hobart veteran) Lou Abrahams said the 38 is the best boat he's done the Hobart on.
The only trouble with them is you always get to Tasman Island around midnight (when the breeze famously dies and the Derwent River becomes the world's most frustrating parking lot).
'The 38 is the closest you can get to the old One Ton Cup design concept' he says. The smaller, less expensive 1 Tonners were the entry point for a lot of ocean racing sailors over the years. 'We've resurrected the tradition of the One Ton Cup. It's something to support because it is a totally different dynamic to the front part of the race.'
The Subzero Goat is the sole representative of the Royal Gundy Yacht Squadron. 'I raise thoroughbreds on a property outside Scone, in the Upper Hunter,' Foye explains, 'and Gundy is a little town near Scone famous for its Linger Longer Inn.
For the past year a big Rolex Sydney Hobart flag has adorned the veranda alongside photos of some of the world's best stallions. We're hoping the local miners will adopt us and follow us to Hobart. Subzero is a mining services company.
'We want to get back to winning, and who knows, it's not impossible for a 38 to win the Tattersall's Cup. Difficult but not impossible if the conditions are our way.
'That's what the Rolex Sydney Hobart is all about. You pay your fee, roll the dice and take your chances.'
by Jim Gale
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