| SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA-(10-12-2005) This year, the boys on Melbourne yacht Addiction are hoping for a cheerier New Year’s Eve than the one they had last year.
In 2004, co-owners Richard McGarvie and Peter Davison entered their Inglis 37 yacht for their first ever Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
They could have picked a better year.
Like a lot of modern, ocean racing yachts Addiction is quick off the wind, but pretty slow and very uncomfortable driving into it. And guess where the wind came from in 2004?
Nevertheless, despite being forced into the flat waters of Eden to repair a broken mainsail fitting, Addiction pressed on into Bass Strait in defiance of the weather forecasts.
It was a long, hard slog and while the partying at Constitution Dock got into overdrive, Richard and Peter were still urging their tired, thirsty crew across Storm Bay and up the Derwent River to the finish line.
“A bit before midnight we put out a radio call, advising that we were dry and in desperate need of champagne,” McGarvie recalls.
Finally, at 6am on New Years Day, Addiction crossed the line. An official boat roared up beside them with two bottles of champagne. Their distress signal had not been ignored after all.
“Despite everything, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves last year,” McGarvie says.
“We are really looking forward to doing it again, but we really want to be in Hobart before New Years Eve this time!”
There are currently 18 Victorian yachts amongst the fleet of 88 boats entered in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, after the Royal Geelong Yacht Club’s Chikara withdrew from the fleet today.
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