Setting sail for a show of diversity

ARECORD 31 international boats are entered in this year’s Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.

This number represents nearly one-third of the fleet contesting the 73rd running of the event.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia has received 110 entries for the 628-nauticalmile race, which starts from Sydney at 1pm on Boxing Day.

CYCA Commodore John Markos said the club was thrilled with the numbers and the diversity of this year’s fleet.

“It’s wonderful to see such a large fleet with a lot of colour and interest added by the record entry of 31 overseas boats,’’ he said.

The international entries represent New Caledonia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the US, China, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Russia and the United Kingdom.

As reported earlier this week, last year’s overall race winner Giacomo, the V70 now owned by brothers David and Peter Askew and renamed Wizard, and last year’s linehonours winner Perpetual Loyal, now owned by Sydney software company founder Christian Beck and renamed InfoTech, will both contest this year’s race.

Other super maxis and past line-honours winners in the line-up will include Wild Oats XI, Black Jack and Comanche.

Mr Markos said some champions were coming with new boats, and some with classics.

“Wild Oats X will be a contender for the Tattersall’s Cup, while big sister Wild Oats XI will line up alongside three other super maxis in what is regarded as a rare gathering for the J.H. Illingworth Trophy,” he said.

Standouts included the legendary 87-year-old Dorade (Matt Brooks and Pam Rorke Levy, US); Italy’s Mascalzone Latino, owned by two-time America’s Cup challenger Vincenzo Onorato; along with Beau Geste from Hong Kong.

Beau Geste’s owner Karl Kwok will be hoping to replicate his Sydney to Hobart win of 20 years ago, when he raced a smaller Beau Geste.

Among other entries vying for the Tattersall’s Cup, awarded to the overall winner, are a record nine TP52s, including the 2008 and 2015 winner Quest/Balance, racing as Quest again.

Others of interest aiming for the trophy are the Oatley family’s RP66, Wild Oats X, and 1971 line-honours winner Kialoa 2 (then known as Kialoa II), which is now under the ownership of brothers Paddy and Keith Broughton.

There are just two Tasmanian entrants, both from Hobart: Oskana, which won the 2013 race and is owned by Michael Pritchard; and cruising/racer Magic Miles, owned by Michael Crew.

Over to you, Dover

THE fascinating story of the fleet of sailing ships that carried Tasmanian timber to many parts of the world in the 1880s will be the subject of next week’s monthly lunchtime talk presented by the Maritime Museum of Tasmania.

Hobart civil engineer and author Scott Clennett is the grandson of an early sawmiller in Tasmania’s southern forests, William Clennett.

Scott has an abiding interest in Tasmanian history and wrote Engaging the Giants, a history of southern Tasmanian sawmills and tramways. This included the links between the famous trading ketches and river steamers and towns on the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, as well as the Huon and Derwent rivers.

But the book only touched on the many larger vessels that took the timber to interstate ports and overseas to England, New Zealand, Fiji, South Africa and other countries.

The ships ranged from magnificent four-masted barques to smaller vessels, and they plied the oceans for more than 40 years from 1885, carrying timber mostly for sleepers, bridge and wharf timbers and piles.

Amazingly the trade made Dover, south of Huonville, a fully fledged customs port.

Scott’s talk on Tuesday is titled From Dover to Dover and will trace the history — and fates — of the ocean timber traders.

Tuesday’s talk will run from noon to 1pm in the Royal Society Room of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart.