Hardys Secret Mens Business
No secret any more!
December 30, 2004.
Geoff
Boettcher and his crew of mostly amateur South Australian sailors sailed
Hardys Secret Mens Business into Hobart around midday on the second last
day of 2004, ghosting up the Derwent in very light air after being becalmed
for most of the trip up the river.
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While not the overall winning finish Boettcher would have liked, it was
still a creditable ninth over the line and a great performance for this new state of the art Reichel/Pugh 46 foot racing machine, especially considering the extremely rough conditions in this 60th Sydney to
Hobart race which saw the two maxis Skandia and Konica Minolta come
to grief in Bass Strait and many other yachts retiring to Eden. Off
the north coast of Tasmania the boat suffered damage to a ring frame
just forward of the mast but the crew was able to patch her up and
she continued to race. Hardys Secret Mens Business, by Peter Andrews.
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Boettcher
said "there's no way I was going to pull into Eden this year - I've
been there so many times previously I have been threatened with the title
Mayor of Eden". With this race under his belt he's looking forward
to campaigning the yacht hard in 2005, starting with Skandia Geelong Race
Week later in January.
There
were a number of race 'virgins' in the crew, including David Oliver who
reported via satellite phone on the third day out that the crew had spent
36 hours eating only health bars and sports drinks and that the cameraman
on board had dislocated his shoulder, which other crew members had kindly
'relocated' for him. When asked on arrival if he would do the race again,
his reply was a resounding 'Yes'.
Oliver,
34, is well know in horse racing circles in Adelaide where he runs a produce
business and shares ownership with his father of a number of race horses.
Now he is fast becoming addicted to another style of racing, this time on
the water. This was his first attempt at racing among the white horses between
Sydney and Hobart. He has only been sailing for about four years and is
continuously surprised by the speed of Hardys Secret Mens Business.
Silas
Nolan, at 22, has been sailing with the yacht and her predecessors for five
years now and has the unenviable task of bowman, which in the seas experienced
during the race is no easy job. Nolan lists among his highlights winning
the Sydney to Southport race in 2003 and Hamilton Island Race Week. He is
looking forward to being part of the crew during its busy 2005 calendar
of races.
Overall,
Boettcher was very pleased with Hardys Secret Mens Business ninth placing
over the line and eighth in Division A of the IRC rating under which she
sailed. This is the first year the overall placings have been covered by
the IRC rules and this has meant changes to many of the yachts to comply.
Boettcher will definitely be back next year!
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