A technician’s failure to install a $2 part ruined Bacardi’s last Sydney to Hobart and could have left the veteran yacht’s mast tumbling into the Pacific Ocean.
But the crew can rest easy knowing the error won’t happen again in 2024, when the most experienced yacht in Sydney to Hobart history will contest the race for a record 31st time.
Before he’d even sailed the boat back from its premature retirement last year, co-owner and skipper Brett Averay was on the phone to book repairs in preparation for this year’s bluewater classic.
“There’s a hydraulic ram at the back which stops the mast going forward. When we had that serviced, the guy failed to put one little $2 part in it,” Averay told AAP of last year’s mishap.
“There’s a spear that goes down inside the hydraulic cylinder and a piston screw on the end of it and that just gradually worked undone.
“We were lucky not to lose the mast. January was making sure that was not ever going to happen again.”
Asked whether he’d phoned the technician for a spray, Averay was diplomatic: “We don’t use him anymore.”
The incident left Averay more aware than ever that vigilant maintenance is all part of owning an older boat.
Built in 1978, the 44-footer is the veteran of a fleet comprising more than 100 yachts but it is a spring chicken compared to the oldest – Maritimo Katwinchar – a two-hander dating back to 1904.
“On older boats, things start to wear out and whatnot,” Averay said of Bacardi.
“She’s 46 years old this year.”
Competing with the young pups is a challenge, too, particularly in the downwind conditions forecast for Boxing Day.
“This race coming up will favour the lighter boats,” Averay said.
“This boat being quite heavy, it likes the heavier winds, but it likes the wind from the front, whereas the newer boats like the wind from the side or behind, which is what the forecast is.”
Bacardi is no slouch, though.
Former owners John Williams and Graeme Ainley sailed her to a second-placed finish on handicap in the 2006 edition of the race, losing out to Love & War – one of only three boats to win the Tattersall Cup three times.
The pair sold Bacardi after that, inviting Averay to make his Hobart debut on their new vessel in 2007.
Averay had sailed on Bacardi once before before he and two mates purchased her from her previous owners last year.
He might have not sailed Bacardi to a win, but for Averay it’s important to carry on the legacy of his late friends Williams and Ainley, and to continue the boat’s record-breaking streak.
“It’s had a lot of history,” Averay said of Bacardi.
“As we say, we’re not the owners of the boat, we’re just custodians.
“There’s a fair responsibility to make sure that the boat is in good condition and keeps doing the thing it does best, which is head down to Hobart.”
