4:17 AM Sun 13 Dec 2009 GMT
While the mainstream media devotes acres to the Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours race, sailors follow the handicap race above all.
For crews in the fleet, the keys to winning the Hobart race is simple, particularly if you say it fast.
All you have to do is absolutely outsail the other boats, perhaps 12-20 in your division and hope that the weather gods deliver you to Tasman Light with the wind and time to make a fast run across Storm Bay and up the Derwent River, while your larger rivals who arrive earlier or smaller rivals later struggle on a mirror glass river, with an outgoing tide.
In 2008, the handicap race within a race that had to be won was that of the Division 1 who arrived in Hobart at 1400 on a windy afternoon, 49 hours and 628 nautical miles after the Boxing Day start. The top four boats were TP52's Quest was the best of the bunch and she won the Tattersalls Cup, for the boat sailing under IRC handicap with the best corrected time. Quest finished at 2pm, Graeme Wood's Wot Now finished ten minutes later, Alan Whiteley Cougar II was two minutes back. After some minor handicap adjustments between the boats, Quest was the overall race winner ahead of Cougar II and What Now.
See simple really.
If you have any questions on how to make it happen, you could do worse than ask multiple Sydney Hobart winning owner Bob Steel, principal helmsman Mike Green and the Quest crew. They will confirm that is ALL you have to do.
Here for the record, are the 2008 IRC Results across the five divisions .
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IRC
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by Sail-World.com
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