Recovering soldier sets new sailing record
A new sailing record has been established for the 1,250-mile passage from Sydney to Auckland by an Australian military veteran recovering from PTSD. James Prascevic, 40, from Geelong in Victoria sailed his 36ft yacht Joey to set a new benchmark time of 12d 14h with the World Speed Sailing Record Council.
Prascevic was medically discharged from the military after serving for ten years. He served in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan and was discharged with depression.
“I bought a 4.5m fishing boat and when I was out fishing I felt completely mentally and physically well,” he explains. “I needed a challenge so I decided to take my fishing boat across the Bass Strait in order to raise awareness for mental illness. When I returned I decided, if I could do this with a motorboat, what could I do with the power of wind? So I started doing my Yachtmaster courses and bought a boat and started locally, sailing mostly solo.”
Prascevic began racing with other people and got a place doing some ocean passages on a VO60 and eventually the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. He then bought Joey, an Adams 36, and began planning the passage to New Zealand solo. “The weather window had me getting to New Zealand in 8½ days, averaging approximately 6.5 knots. I left on the edge of a low pressure system in order to try and keep the wind and for the first 36 hours I had 30 knots gusting to 35 knots and very messy seas. But eventually it calmed down and I had champagne sailing with the wind on the beam up until the morning of day seven when the weather changed and the wind died to nothing. I was becalmed for four days, only 250 miles from Auckland.
“I was never going to give up after all the effort I had put in but four days of not moving was extremely hard. Eventually the wind came in and I finished in 12 days.”