SAILING/Sydney-Hobart Race: Limerick's Ger O'Rourke and his 12-man crew on board Chieftain swept into Hobart yesterday to a class win in the Sydney-Hobart that also gained him fourth place overall in Australia's classic, 628-nautical-mile race.
The achievement - at O'Rourke's first attempt - and one of few Irish boats to have competed in the 61-year-old race, could have equalled Harold Cudmore's 1991 performance when the Cork helmsman swept to overall handicap victory in equally breezy conditions on John Storey's Atara.
But a torn spinnaker during the second night in the Bass Straits led to a violent broach and a broken spinnaker pole on the Western Yacht Club entry.
The dramatic wipe out, O'Rourke believes, lost him up to an hour in handicap time and consequently the possibility of a podium place in Tasmania.
The top-three places were snapped up by state-of-the-art maxis in the last few hours of the race, but the 40-year-old Limerick property developer held on to a class win in Division B, made up of 16 top boats.
"This was our first ocean race, so as Sydney-Hobart virgins we were very realistic about our chances here and we're really delighted to have got this result under out belts," an elated O'Rourke said.
But if the broken pole was Chieftain's low point, the high point, according to 28-year-old bowman Rory Herraghty, was the consistent high speed achieved.
In one six-hour period, speed bursts allowed them to take 22 miles out of an identical sister ship, Living Doll.
"We pushed really hard and had the big kite up for most of the time. That was the big difference. Our speed did not drop below 20 knots for 10 to 12 hours." said Herraghty.
Sydney sailor Bob Oatley, sailing Wild Oats XI, a 30-metre maxi yacht, claimed an historic treble in becoming the first boat since the inaugural winner in 1945, Rani, to take line honours, setting a benchmark elapsed time and being the overall winner on corrected time.
The 95-boat fleet that started on St Stephen's Day included many international entrants, including Britain's Open 60 Hugo Boss, skippered by Alex Thompson, a new talent in international yachting.
Thompson first made news in the 1998-99 Clipper Race when, at the age of 24, he became the youngest skipper to win a round-the-world race.
Thompson was joined by Australian and fellow Vendee Globe 2004-05 competitor Nick Moloney; Olympic silver medallist Simon Hiscocks; and Hobart-born, Team New Zealand sailmaker Dick Parker. Meteorologist Chris Tibbs, who broke the Round Ireland speed record in May, was also racing but managed only 29th on handicap.
The Sydney-Hobart, though popular with Irish crews, rarely has an Irish entry, and O'Rourke, from the Western Yacht Club, is keen to highlight his crew's amateur status, which is largely made up from his Beneteau 40.7 crew from the Shannon Estuary.
The nine-man Irish crew were supplemented by boat builder Stu Molloy and sailmaker Shane Young, both from New Zealand, but the lynch pin in the side was Germany's Jochem Visser, a past winner of the Admirals Cup, who sailed as navigator.
Admittedly disappointed that the new Commodore's Cup rules set by the Royal Ocean Racing Club will ban shifting ballast, O'Rourke's new craft may be out of next year's Irish team line-up because of his canting keel, but yesterday's class win in his debut performance serves as a memorable compensation.
The 50-foot Cookson-built boat will be shipped back from Tasmania for a full circuit in these islands starting next May at the Red Funnel regatta in Cowes.
Ger O'Rourke (skipper)
Mark Tighe (boat captain)
Andrew Deakin (driver/trimmer)
Rory Herraghty (bowman/driver)
Edwin O'Connor (pitman)
Dominic O'Sullivan (trimmer)
Gordon Spain (mid bowman)
Brian Griffin (grinder)
Cathal Corbett (mastman)
Stu Molloy (NZ driver/trimmer)
Shane Young (NZ driver/trimmer)
Jochem Visser (German navigator)
