The ultimate challenge

Back in Malta, wary but jubilant, I am resolved to go back 'Down Under' for more of this.

The Rolex Sydney Hobart race was an unbelievable experience what with the spectacular start in Sydney Harbour, attended by more than one million spectators, thousands of boats charging out in the ocean, maxis ABN AMRO and Maximus dismasted and crew injured, steering gear failures, rigging and radio problems, a broken front rudder, halyards snapping and a sinking boat... I am still breathless but wishing this would never end.

No wonder that all skippers I interviewed before the race were of the same opinion.

"First let's finish it, then think about winning it," they said... and how right they were.

For the second year running Bob Oatley, of Wild Oats, celebrated Line Honours victory with his crew in the early hours of December 30. He received a rapturous welcome in Hobart.

Oatley, also owner of Hamilton Island, won a rare back-to-back Line Honours victory by a clear 40 nautical miles from Ichi Ban. Skandia was a further two miles back but confirmed its status as one of the most formidable ocean racers afloat.

Ichi Ban berthed slowly before 2 a.m. Skipper Matt Allen, the vice-commodore of CYCA, was exhausted. His face full of salt and sweat, Allen said he had to face a restless night, having set the corrected time to beat for the chasing fleet.

"I think arriving in Hobart is always fantastic, but it's even better when you know you're second on the line," he said although he admitted that this feat is in no comparison with his previous Hobart wins.

Allen realised he had a tough challenge from Love and War and the well-placed Bacardi. These two boats progressed slowly but made it just in time before the following midday to beat Ichi Ban on handicap.

Amazingly, Love and War clocked in at 31 hours 35 minutes behind Ichi Ban as the 31st boat overall coming in. However, two-time overall multiple division winner (1974, 1978), Love and War, did more than enough to win the toughest race in the world on corrected time.

This was skipper Simon Kurts's 13th Hobart participation on his classic timber 47-footer.

Maltese skipper Chris Ripard left a most notable impression with his helming on Jazz. He placed 16th overall and third in his IRC 'C' Class.

While most of the big boats, and for that matter also the small ones, endured a rough time to evade the terrible storm conditions of the southerly three-metre plus waves, Ripard ploughed on safely, giving the slip to many a front-runner.

His calculated runs down south proved to be his winning instincts as he steered Jazz as fast as possible without endangering his crew or damaging the boat.

The oldest boat in the fleet, Maluka (built in 1932), was 63rd from 69 finishers. Yet, this 30-footer leapfrogged into the eighth position on corrected time having had an advantageous handicap rating of 0.904.

Lovingly restored by skipper Sean Langman, it is 70 years since Maluka first sailed from Sydney to Hobart having been shipwrecked in its first attempt a year earlier.

The loss of Mike Freebairn's classic Koomooloo, the race winner in 1968 and one of Australia's most famous racing yachts, was laden with emotion and near-tragedy.

Fortunately, the eight crew members were saved by the British Army entry Adventure before the timber-hulled sloop was sucked below the Tasmania Sea waters.

While the hi-tech maxi boats were failing the ocean stress, the other Maltese-born skipper in the race, Alex Whitworth, completed the distance on his 30-foot Berrimilla as the last but one, having beaten wooden-spoonists Gillawa after more than five days at sea.

Awaiting Whitworth and his crew were the jovial people of Hobart who cheered all the way for every boat that made it to port.

The Sydney Hobart race was a fantastic experience for me. At times, it was cold and wet, filming both the start and part of it on the high seas. But I am not finished with this Yuletide challenge. I want to go there again... at least one more time in my life.

As two-time winner Roger Hickman told me: "To finish the Sydney Hobart race earns you instant respect in the sailing world. We call it the ultimate challenge". And so it is.