20 Dec
Ian Edwards and his dedicated Corinthian crew aboard the Dehler 46 Wings are set to tackle one of offshore racing’s biggest challenges.
The Rolex Sydney Hobart isn’t for feint-hearted or the sailor just seeking to attain dockside bragging rights. You have to be committed and have to have done the offshore miles in preparation otherwise you will most likely be next to useless to your crew and endure a miserable time as a bonus.
In Windshift’s varied experience of this iconic race, from swimming in a dead calm Bass Strait to getting pounded in 40, 50 and 60 plus knots it’s one the few ah ‘adventure’ sailing experiences that lives up to the hype and then some.
But you don’t have to be a hot shot pro or a grizzled ‘Hobart’ veteran to pull on the sea-boots on for 628 nautical miles of whatever the Tasman Sea has in-store for you.
Ian Edwards’s Wings is unquestionably the best-travelled Dehler 46 on the planet. “Over the last seven years we’ve done a bit over 45,000 nautical miles,” he tells Windshift. “This will be the fifth Hobart, we’ve done Transpac, we’ve done Groupama a couple of times, Sydney to Noumea, and all the other races around the New South Wales coast,” he lists.
In fact, Wings’ racing CV reads like bucket list of ocean racing’s blue-ribbon events, with some extremely impressive results. In the 2023 Transpac race from Los Angeles to Hawaii, and up against semi-pro competition Wings finished 13th Overall, 5th in Division 7 and was the 1st Foreign Yacht. Close to home the Dehler 46, a design well-known for its all-round sailing ability, was the winner on PHS, and second on IRC in the 2022 Brisbane to Hamilton Island Race.
Ian agrees though the Rolex Sydney Hobart has its own unique place among the famous blue water races.
“The Hobart race has more big moments per hour than just about any race I’ve done,” Ian confides. “In other races you’ll have issues, and you’ll have changes but Hobart per hour for the length of the race will send you more tough and changeable conditions,” he adds.
For this trip south Wings will have ten crew, three female and the remainder male. Ian believes it’s about the skill set and experience someone brings to the team as the ocean is a great leveller.
“Janease (Graham) is one of my watch leads and an outstanding all-over-the-boat person, from doing the bow to helming and even nav. It’s a matter of skills and we’ve built the team depending on who is available and where they fit in,” he explains.
Food, always a major item on any long offshore outing, will be the envy of many of the 106 boats in the 2024 Rolex Sydney Hobart fleet which ranges from 100 ft supermaxis to the 30-foot, 120 year-old Maritimo Katwinchar.
“For the main meal my wife Lindy has pre-cooked big trays of lasagne and shepherd’s pie,” Ian says. “We keep them in the freezer, then we pull them out and warm them in the oven,” he continues. “For lunch we prepare different version of wraps, with the odd accompanying sausage roll, breakfast is muselis with yoghurts, fruit cups are very popular,” he reveals.
For Windshift this a dream Hobart menu, having endured entire days pointing south on a solitary apple, augmented by the rare, sumptuous indulgence of a ham & cheese toastie or freeze-dried noodles.
Here the Dehler 46 combines the best aspects of a cruiser-racer, offering a full suite of cruising comforts such as a large, well-equipped galley, two separate and private heads and comfortable accomodations. When Windshift raced to Hobart in 2022 on llama II, another well-performed Dehler 46, the Owners cabin in the bow was efficiently converted into a sail locker and the off-watch slept fairly soundly in the large aft cabins, with a few bodies kipping in saloon.
As usual the weather will dictate the fortunes of those seeking to notch a podium result in this notoriously difficult race. The long-range weather forecast predicts north easterly winds for the Boxing Day start, building into the night then at least one southerly front on the approach to Tasmania.
It’s a major tactical challenge to be in the right place at the right time to take advantage of the inevitable weather changes, but one Ian welcomes.
“What I really like about these long races it’s not just about how fast you can pull a spinnaker down or how quickly you can change sails,” he shares. “It’s about the strategy of where you sail and how you sustain it over multiple days. That really appeals to me.”
Asked if he thinks an ordinary sailor without a lot of offshore experience is capable of rising to the challenge inherent in a Rolex Sydney Hobart he has this response: “Potentially anybody can do it. You don’t need to be an Olympic athlete,” he acknowledges but adds an important rider.
“You need to be robust at sea, and by that I mean you need to be able to do the necessary sailing tasks in tough conditions, at night, when you’re tired and you need to be able to sleep,” he emphasises.
“A few of our crew get sick but they have a burp over the side and they’re good. For anyone contemplating it [a Rolex Sydney Hobart] they need to get out there and not only develop heir sailing skills but develop their appreciation of what it takes. Having waves break over you for four hours then go down and sleep and get up and do it again,” Ian details.
“Having said all that, we love it,” he says with a laugh.
Of course, it helps when you have a boat like the Dehler 46 that’s proven itself numerous times. “We have put Wings through worse than that,” he says to my fears of a biting 30-knot southerly at the end of three days on the final run around Tasman Island, across Storm Bay and up the Derwent to finish.
We wish Ian, the crew and Wings a fast and safe passage to Hobart.
More at: windcraftyachts.com/dehler
Follow Wings in the Rolex Sydney Hobart at: rolexsydneyhobart.com
Pictures kindly provided by Rolex
