The Race

January 9th, 2007

The 2006 Rolex Sydney to Hobart yacht race has been run and won and the 9 crew on board Creative inTension realised a goal that they set 7 months earlier when they made the decision to “get Esky home”.

The race began in a 12 - 18 knot southerly on Sydney Harbour, a massive number of spectator craft had filled along the shore as the boats prepared for the race south. The team on Creative inTension motored out to the heads just to see what conditions where like then hoisted the storm sails and sailed back towards the start boat to confirm as a starter for the race.

With 15 minutes to go before the start team Creative inTension had an unexpected visit from the Yacht Tracker technician who busily repaired our supposedly broken tracker as the crew began their pre start routines.

Skipper David Rees made the decision early to hold back from the line a few boat lengths when the gun went because of the possibility of yachts rounding up in the shy reaching conditions. This plan worked beautifully with a clean start. Shortly after the start the call was made to hoist the Fractional Asymmetric spinnaker and Creative intension took off, The boat was well positioned as the most windward boat in the fleet a position that would soon become a problem. As the boats pushed towards the first turning mark Creative inTension was forced high and as a result went outside the racing area. The time that was taken to turn around and re-enter the race course cost Creative inTension possibly 30 or more places. 

Once outside of the heads the crew settled into their watch system and headed out into the East Australian Current. After a few hours on starboard tack the call was made to head inshore for the night time land influenced breeze. The first night was the worst conditions for the race as was well publicised in the media. The crew still pushed Creative inTension hard but still lost over 20miles to Tasmanian rival Fruit who was further out to sea and revelling in conditions the boat enjoys.

The first morning was spent continuing south with the breeze beginning to abate. Creative intension stayed relatively close to shore around 20 to 40 miles out to sea. down the NSW coast line. With Baxy and Lisa taking on the role in the galley for the respective watch teams and the boat starting to pull back some of the lost miles on Fruit it was a good time on Creative inTension.

Creative inTension faced a southerly wind all the way down the NSW coast and into Bass Strait but the crew where happy to see that Bass Strait wasn’t it’s normal menacing self with the breeze not building much above a very staedy 25knots and by the time Creative inTension had negotiated “the Paddock” there was less the 10knots of wind.

The Breeze did build again on the East Coast of Tasmania and stage three of the race had begun. A mission to chase down “the Yellow Boat” (Fruit) in home waters was on. Creative intension was hitting her target speeds nicely but once again going into a Southerly. No sign yet of the Nor-Easter that was meant to bring us home.

Late afternoon on the 29th the wind slowly moved east allowing Creative inTension to “crack” sheets for the first time since the Boxing Day start. Before long the blast reacher was hoisted and Creative inTension was heading strait to Tasman at 9 knots. As night began to fall the opportunity arose to hoist the Mast Head Spinnaker in a light east north east breeze with the crew making the most of it.

By the time morning was upon Creative intension the Blast reacher was up and Tasman was in sight. Creative inTension was within 7miles of Fruit and looking to close the gap even further in the final 40miles of race course. As mid morning approached the crew once again hoisted the Masthead Asymmetrycal spinnaker and passed the milestone of Tasman Is and as if on cue from the sky dropped a light air craft with a well known bearded man Richard Bennett) hanging out the door with a camera for what turned out to be spectacular shots of the boat.

The Spinnaker was dropped shortly before Cape Raul as the crew sought a way through the very light winds in Storm Bay with boats up ahead going very slow this was the chance to catch up. Creative inTension finally rounded the Iron Pot under Fractional Spinnaker at around midday and went about negotiating the final 12 miles up the River Derwent. With a light northery at the mouth of the river the crew were once again facing a head wind. Once Creative inTension made it into Ralph’s Bay they where able to Hoist the fractional spinnaker again with the boat coming along the Western Shore in front of Sandy Bay.

With around 3 miles to the finish the sea Breeze took over and Creative inTension peeled to their mast head Spinnaker with Esky on the helm Creative inTension crossed the line in a time of 4 days 18minutes and 20 seconds. Esky’s smile said all that the crew needed to say when they tied up. A fantastic achievement from all the crew.

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