RSHYR: Wallaby flanker turned sailor

Sean Langman and his all star crew aboard Investec LOYAL. Image copyright ROLEX/Daniel Forster.

by Rolex Sydney Hobart media team

The all-star cast aboard the 100 footer Investec LOYAL - Olympic swimming gold medallist Grant Hackett, boxer Danny Green, HSBC Waratahs captain Phil Waugh and former rugby union player Phil Kearns – are getting the taste for ocean racing, so much so they are talking about signing up for next year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart before they reach the finish line of this year’s race.

“We’ve discussed 2010,” Phil Waugh said this afternoon as he spoke glowingly of their experiences since leaving Sydney on Boxing Day.

“It got pretty heavy all of a sudden yesterday,” he said. “And the last hour has been really good.” (They were sailing at over 20 knots).

“All the guys are loving it,” he said.

The Wallaby flanker, fresh from preparing 120 Vegemite rolls for the crew before they set sail, “to put some fuel in the tank”, has settled down to a menu of curries and spaghetti bolognaise as he literally learns the art of winding winches.

He aired his new lexicon of nautical terms, informing the listening media at the Rolex media centre in Hobart this afternoon that the cable attaching the port helm to the rudder had broken, forcing skipper Sean Langman to the starboard wheel while repairs were made.

Investec LOYAL’s navigator David Dickson confirmed that a strop between the rudder quadrant and the rudder itself had chafed and broken, but a replacement had been spliced.

Dickson said their strategy coming down the coast, running before a NNE wind of 19-25 knots, was to sail under a jib top and staysail before setting a spinnaker to bring the bow down and to cross the southern end of Maria Island before making for the turning mark at Tasman Island.

Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race