When retired navy officer Bob Williams applied to enter the race for the first time this year, there was never any question Oli would be going along for the 628-nautical mile ride to Constitution Dock.
“It’s not a matter of making the decision to bring him, this is his home,” Williams said aboard his vessel Sylph VI. He’s just part of the ship’s crew. He’s been with me for several years now. He’s part of the furniture."
Oli’s been travelling with Williams on Sylph for around five years and has shaken off his sea legs in that time. “He used to get seasick on the first day out but he seems to be pretty much over that now,” Williams said. “He doesn’t like the rough weather but he eventually gets used to it and finds a place to curl down and get some more sleep in.”
Oli is believed to be the first cat to contest the bluewater classic. But with the race dating back 78 years, it is impossible to be sure whether a cat may have been aboard an early vessel.
Animals were certainly taken for the journey in those days; carrier pigeons were used to send news back to shore from the inaugural event in 1945.
Sylph herself has a long history in the race, having contested the race five times before in the 1960s and early 1970s. Williams bought her in 1997 and has since circumnavigated the globe two-and-a-half times. Sylph enters the Hobart in the two-handed division, with Williams’s friend Chris Warren lined up to co-skipper.
Mr Williams jokes that he hasn’t lost a cat at sea yet. There’s no life jacket for Oli though, because he simply wouldn’t wear it. “The cat overboard routine is just to have something like a towel or a thick rope handy so that they can climb back on board.” He knows for a fact Oli can swim, because he once jumped into the ocean to avoid an overzealous dog.
The weather outlook is poor so I hope that Oli goes for the early bunk:
The 12.5m long boat is going well and has avoided trouble so far.
“We’re where we expected to be — at the back of the fleet!” Bob WIlliams said. “It’s bouncy conditions, but we’ve got a bit of breeze and we still have the fleet in sight. Oli has crashed out on the starboard settee, with his head on the pillow — he looks very peaceful”.
It’s going to be a long haul to Hobart, but they are going at a nice 6 or so knots at the moment, and things are good.
It was announced on Wednesday morning two more yachts had been forced to retire as the fleet made its way along the NSW south coast.
Scallywag was the first big casualty of the race after the Hong Kong-based sailing team’s bow sprit — which carries the yachts biggest sails — broke just hours into the race. Scallywag had been the early leader and was in a fight with Andoo Comanche and LawConnect before it was forced to abandon its campaign.
Two more vessels were forced to retire in the early hours of Wednesday morning with Sticky and Maritimo 52 pulling out. Sticky was forced to pull out with electrical damage, while Maritimo 52 had damage to rigging.
Small yacht Rum Rebellion was hit by a burst of water between Cronulla and Wollongong sending the boat on its side. Shane Connelly was taken overboard and was a few metres from the boat but was able to swim back to it.
As first reported by News Corp, Arcadia on Tuesday returned to Sydney with a torn mainsail and Rum Rebellion also turned back due to an unspecified reason.
Reigning champions Andoo Comanche and LawConnect are continuing to battle for line honours as they head towards Bass Straight.
Perennial bridesmaid LawConnect has claimed Sydney to Hobart line honours, coming from behind to pip fellow supermaxi Andoo Comanche by just 51 seconds.
LawConnect, runner-up in the past three events, edged across the River Derwent finish line in light winds shortly after 8am (AEDT) on Thursday.
It was the second-closest finish in Sydney to Hobart history after Condor of Bermuda beat Apollo by seven seconds in 1982.
The skipper of another premature retiree - Rum Rebellion - was thrown overboard on the first night after high winds caused a knockdown of the two-man boat between Cronulla and Wollongong.
Shane Connelly was able to return to the boat after attaching his tether and lifting himself back on board, but the pair opted to retire due to a potential concussion suffered by the captain.
The first three TP52s finish the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race with the New Zealand entry Caro, ninth boat to finish the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s race Friday 29 December. Even though they were the first of the TP52s and first international boat to finish, they did not achieve what they came for . . . overall victory and the Tattersall Cup.
Close behind Caro, this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race winner after a race-long challenge with the Kiwi boat was Aussie Seb Bohm’s Smuggler. There was not quite three minutes between the two which were ninth and 10th over the finish line. Behind them was the 2022 overall winner, Sam Hayne’s Celestial. Sitting in the clubhouse, fourth place finisher Philip Turner’s Alive now looks set to take overall victory and the Tattersall Cup.
Of the 16 Two-Handed crews that started racing, last year’s winner Rupert Henry and co-skipper Jack Boutrell’s Lombard 34 Mistral, was the first to finish at 8:20 am Saturday (AUS time).
There are two others who will not be in today. David Hows Silver Fern still has 104nm to sail. And the two-handed crew of Bob Williams and Chris Warren, along with Williams’ now famous Oli the cat on Sylph VI, were 52nm east of Eddystone Point at 8.15am, with 201nm between them and the finish line.
Williams and Oli have a large following and are sure to get a rousing welcome in Hobart when they do arrive.
It’s been a long haul and, presumably, a mostly uncomfortable one …
Chris O’Neill’s harrowing account of his last night at sea in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race was one that many sailors in the event could empathise with after finishing.
O’Neill is co-skippered by Michael Johnston on O’Neill’s J99 Blue Planet, a two-handed entry. O’Neill said their fifth night pitted them against bitterly cold temperatures, rough seas and plenty of wind.
“It was just relentless; just extraordinarily tiring,” O’Neill said this morning after finishing. “I’m pretty sure I’ve never been so cold in my life as I was in the last 24 hours of the race. I had every scrap of clothing I could find and I was still freezing. That was in these tiny little boats with not much freeboard, so there was a lot of water over the top of the boat.”
So, variable was the sea and wind, the Sydney owner said he and Johnston were washed overboard during the 628 nautical mile race.
“We had quite a bit of wind against the current,” O’Neill said. “Most of the waves were around five metres, but we got the odd nasty wave. At least four times we were washed overboard off the stern, just held by our harnesses. We dragged ourselves back on board.”
