here we come! HOBART,

Sailors & non sailors have been asking lots of questions about our campaign with Crush in the Rolex Sydney to Hobart 2022 Race so here are the answers from Dave Spearman (after his first Sydney to Hobart).

WHAT IS CRUSH? Crush is a TP52 (52 foot long) carbon fibre racing machine which is currently the largest boat regularly racing offshore in WA. It’s kept out of the water on a hardstand at FSC and is the 26th boat owned by David Davenport. It is normally raced with between 12-15 crew and has completed three Sydney to Hobart races with previous owners.

TEAM The team was a mix of RFBYC and FSC members with a combination of experience and youthful energy (though I’m not sure where I fit into this definition!). Hence, we had world champions, SailGP coach, America’s Cup and Olympic sailors; I considered our boat to be a largely amateur offshore racing team and somewhat different to many of the PRO teams that we were racing against. It’s worth highlighting that the Crush squad in WA over the last 12 months has created an opportunity for many younger local sailors to shine and create their own pathway for the future.

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS top: rounding Tasman Island, southeast Tasmania (© Richard Bennett) middle: celebration lunch in Hobart left to right bottom: Crush manouevres at the start; sharing the pre-start area with maxi Hamilton Island Wild Oats; nothing prepared me for the sun fish facing page, clockwise from top: Dave and Mark Spearman together on Crush; finish in Hobart; Mark Spearman with the christmas ham; Team Crush

The team worked hard in the lead up to Christmas with a focus in making the boat water-tight such that the front hatch was sealed shut. I doubt if the Eastern State boat owners realise the huge effort required to truck a boat across the Nullarbor and compete in this race. We celebrated our preparation with a great lunch on 25th December, prepared by Michelle, the skipper’s wife and our number one supporter.

SYDNEY START The start had an electric atmosphere with boats everywhere and loud noise from cheering crowds, boats horns and deafening helicopters. I had never appreciated the tight manoeuvrers required in the small pre-start area especially when it’s being shared with four super maxis. A real adrenalin high which probably isn’t the ideal way to start a race which relies on a tight-knit team operating together for best results.

DID YOU GET MUCH SLEEP?

Sleeping inside a noisy drum in tight spaces with limited access is difficult though fortunately the first part of the race was down-wind, so we had a relatively flat boat for 35 hours or so. We operated with three, two-hour watches which meant that in theory we had two hours sleep in every six, except when all crew were needed on-deck. A simple pleasure was finding a blown up goon bag to use as a pillow.

FOOD Food was surprisingly good and fresh for the first 24 hours then freeze dried or meals to be heated up in a bag when it was rougher. My favourites were the morning porridge and the butter chicken curry.

WET We never experienced the treacherous gnarly conditions that are known to occur in the Bass Strait. Though very different, WA’s weather conditions had prepared us well with good safety gear and personal survival equipment. In a recent offshore race off the WA coast, we had huge spray coming over the entire boat and windy conditions this lead to several crew becoming very wet and subsequently very cold and unable to trim the sails. This resulted in many of Crush’s crew buying new heavier quality wet weather gear in preparation for our race to Hobart. surface. We heard on the radio that a boat had lost its rudder from hitting a sunfish early in the race. Shortly after, we saw a large sunfish a few metres from our hull and I wondered whether they swam around in shoals and had visions of us hitting one!

BIGGEST CELEBRATION Entering

My scariest moment was not what I had expected even though we experienced 60 knot winds just past Tasman Island as we entered Storm Bay. I’d heard lots of stories about massive waves and huge winds and even read several books about the race but nothing had prepared me for the sunfish. They don’t attack you but they can weigh around a ton, are very bony and swim slowly just under the

SCARIEST TIME

Constitution Dock in Hobart was amazingly emotional and very rewarding with a large group of family members and supporters cheering together with a big crowd. After several hours of celebrating on board and a well-deserved shower we continued to enjoy our successful race in Hobart – absolutely no stories can be printed here!

Most Memorable Moment

My best memory in this race was sailing with my son, especially as it wasn’t expected. He was on the crew of Warrior Won ‘WW’, another TP52 which had come from the US with a PRO team and a high expectation of winning. On 24th December, based on the weather forecast, they cut their crew number from 15 down to 12 which excluded Mark. He’d known that this was a possibility as he had only recently joined the team. Later when he walked down the dock to let me know, he was immediately recruited by our skipper without my knowledge – imagine my surprise when he appeared wearing a Crush shirt! He had also checked back with WW who were happy for him to race with us despite knowing that they were paying him to race against them – unfortunately we didn’t beat them, though we were ahead of them at the middle stage of the race.

RESULT The challenge was ‘to get to Hobart safely with a smile’ and hopefully lots of learnings for future campaigns. The outcome was a big tick and a smile from the skipper. Statistically we finished 16th out of 109 starters and just ahead of the four super maxis on handicap.

NOTE Team: David Davenport (skipper), Kai Colman, Kevin Costin, David Cunningham, Simon Cunningham, Ben Durham, Niall Morrow, Kenneth Riley, Adam Shand, Dave Spearman, Mark Spearman, Graeme Spence, Ken Stevenson, Mark Wheeler and Justin Wong. Shore support: Max Godfroy.

Rob Hubbard & Susie Parker