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Displaying items by tag: Hiroshi Nakajima

The Cruising Club of America is celebrating its Centenary this year, and while the actual birth date may not fall until September, the Club is already in the midst of a busy special season which saw its recent biennial Newport-Bermuda Race attract a record fleet.

Meanwhile, one of the CCA’s keenest members, Hiroshi Nakajima, who sails from Stamford in Connecticut, has been in the midst of his own complex celebratory programme to mark both the Golden Jubilee of his own vessel - the 1971-built S&S 49ft sloop Hiro Maru ex-Scaramouche - and the CCA Centenary.

Hiro Maru crossing the finish line at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes to complete the Transatlantic RaceHiro Maru crossing the finish line at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes to complete the Transatlantic Race

Hiro Maru’s oceanic routing in recent seasons has included a Transatlantic Race, the 2021 Fastnet Race, and now the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race 2022, in which, despite her many years, she took 16th overall, tenth in class, and fifth of the overseas entries, a very good score in competition of this quality.

 Darryl Hughes’ Maybird lying serenely to her moorings in Crosshaven, which is now her home port. Photo: Robert Bateman Darryl Hughes’ Maybird lying serenely to her moorings in Crosshaven, which is now her home port. Photo: Robert Bateman

And there is one very special award which has gone straight to Hiro Maru. It’s new to the race this year, and is the DBOGA Maybird Mast Trophy for the oldest boat to complete the course. Donated by Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association Honorary Secretary Darryl Hughes, it’s in fond memory of the time in 2018 he went round in the oldest boat ever to complete the course, the 1937 Tyrrell of Arklow 43ft gaff ketch Maybird.

Round Ireland Race Organiser Hal Fitzgerald with Hiroshi Najima and the DBOGA Maybird Mast Trophy Round Ireland Race Organiser Hal Fitzgerald with Hiroshi Najima and the DBOGA Maybird Mast Trophy 

Maybird’s home port is now Crosshaven, and she may be joined there in due course by Hiro Maru, as one scenario being sketched out last winter for the boat’s continuing 2022 programme was contesting the K2Q, aka the Kingstown to Queenstown Race on July 7h, and then competing in the Classics Division in Volvo Cork Week. Whatever the outcome, despite being faced by the historic likes of Marie Tabarly’s Pen Duick VI, Ian Hickey’s Granada 38 Cavatina, and Tony Kingston’s Swan 40 Shindig, Hiro Maru was the oldest boat to finish the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race 2022. And as it happens, she beat that very distinguished yet marginally younger threesome on corrected time as well.

 Built in 1971 to a Sparkman & Stephens design by Palmer Johnson of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, the 49ft Hiro Maru ex-Scaramouche is a classic example from the era when the finest alloy yachts in America were built by boatyards on the Great Lakes  Built in 1971 to a Sparkman & Stephens design by Palmer Johnson of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, the 49ft Hiro Maru ex-Scaramouche is a classic example from the era when the finest alloy yachts in America were built by boatyards on the Great Lakes 

Published in Round Ireland

The Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is an annual offshore yacht racing event with an increasingly international exposure attracting super maxi yachts and entries from around tne world. It is hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, starting in Sydney, New South Wales on Boxing Day and finishing in Hobart, Tasmania. The race distance is approximately 630 nautical miles (1,170 km).

The 2022 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race starts in Sydney Harbour at 1pm (AEDT) on Monday 26 December.

This is the 77th edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart. The inaugural race was conducted in 1945 and has run every year since, apart from 2020, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

88 boats started the 2021 Rolex Sydney Hobart, with 50 finishing.

The Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - FAQs

The number of Sydney Hobart Yacht Races held by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia since 1945 is 75

6,257 completed the Sydney Hobart Yacht race, 1036 retired or were disqualified)

About 60,061 sailors have competed in the Sydney Hobart Race between 1945 and 2019

Largest fleets: 371 starters in the 50th race in 1994 (309 finished); 154 starters in 1987 (146 finished); 179 starters in 1985 (145 finished); 151 starters in 1984 (46 finished); 173 started in 1983 (128 finished); 159 started in 1981 (143 finished); 147 started in 1979 (142 finished); 157 started in 2019 (154 finished)

116 in 2004 (59 finished); 117 in 2014 (103 finished); 157 in 2019 (154 finished)

Nine starters in the inaugural Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in 1945

In 2015 and 2017 there were 27, including the 12 Clipper yachts (11 in 2017). In the record entry of 371 yachts in the 50th in 1994, there were 24 internationals

Rani, Captain John Illingworth RN (UK). Design: Barber 35’ cutter. Line and handicap winner

157 starters, 154 finishers (3 retirements)

IRC Overall: Ichi Ban, a TP52 owned by Matt Allen, NSW. Last year’s line honours winner: Comanche, Verdier Yacht Design and VPLP (FRA) owned by Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant, in 1 day 18 hours, 30 minutes, 24 seconds. Just 1hour 58min 32secs separated the five super maxis at the finish 

1 day 9 hours 15 minutes and 24 seconds, set in 2017 by LDV Comanche after Wild Oats XI was penalised one hour in port/starboard incident for a finish time of 1d 9h 48m 50s

The oldest ever sailor was Syd Fischer (88 years, 2015).

As a baby, Raud O'Brien did his first of some six Sydney Hobarts on his parent's Wraith of Odin (sic). As a veteran at three, Raud broke his arm when he fell off the companionway steps whilst feeding biscuits to the crew on watch Sophie Tasker sailed the 1978 race as a four-year-old on her father’s yacht Siska, which was not an official starter due to not meeting requirements of the CYCA. Sophie raced to Hobart in 1979, 1982 and 1983.

Quite a number of teenage boys and girls have sailed with their fathers and mothers, including Tasmanian Ken Gourlay’s 14-year-old son who sailed on Kismet in 1957. A 12-year-old boy, Travis Foley, sailed in the fatal 1998 race aboard Aspect Computing, which won PHS overall.

In 1978, the Brooker family sailed aboard their yacht Touchwood – parents Doug and Val and their children, Peter (13), Jacqueline (10), Kathryne (8) and Donald (6). Since 1999, the CYCA has set an age limit of 18 for competitors

Jane (‘Jenny’) Tate, from Hobart, sailed with her husband Horrie aboard Active in the 1946 Race, as did Dagmar O’Brien with her husband, Dr Brian (‘Mick’) O’Brien aboard Connella. Unfortunately, Connella was forced to retire in Bass Strait, but Active made it to the finish. The Jane Tate Memorial Trophy is presented each year to the first female skipper to finish the race

In 2019, Bill Barry-Cotter brought Katwinchar, built in 1904, back to the start line. She had competed with a previous owner in 1951. It is believed she is the oldest yacht to compete. According to CYCA life member and historian Alan Campbell, more than 31 yachts built before 1938 have competed in the race, including line honours winners Morna/Kurrewa IV (the same boat, renamed) and Astor, which were built in the 1920s.

Bruce Farr/Farr Yacht Design (NZL/USA) – can claim 20 overall wins from 1976 (with Piccolo) up to and including 2015 (with Balance)

Screw Loose (1979) – LOA 9.2m (30ft); Zeus II (1981) LOA 9.2m

TKlinger, NSW (1978) – LOA 8.23m (27ft)

Wild Oats XI (2012) – LOA 30.48m (100ft). Wild Oats XI had previously held the record in 2005 when she was 30m (98ft)

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