Former Kinsale sailor Steph Lyons, the Kildare horsewoman who includes experience of the Sail Training Brigantine Asgard II in her seafaring story, is continuing to add to her remarkable CV in Australia, where she works in a senior role in business while also being very active on the water - her continuing story started to be recounted in Afloat.ie on January 21st 2020
She’s lined up to be the bowman for the fourth time in the big one, the 2023 Rolex-Sydney Hobart starting on December 26th. This time, she’s on the Cookson 12 (aka the Cookson 40) known as Calibre 12. She has thus logged serious experience on some of the best Australian offshore designs from around the turn of the Century - boats which to most of us look wellnigh perfect, but those who are into the latest French round-bow scow types might think otherwise.
Whatever, that enables us to run a short vid showing what the Cookson 40 is like, not least because the boat in question is called Grace O’Malley. As for Calibre 12, she’s currently in the local ICU’s Keel Section following some recent impactive navigation, but the word is she’ll be better than ever in time for December’s peak of the Australian offshore programme.