Many families have holiday traditions — some are just steeped in saltwater.
While the annual Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, which starts on Friday in Sydney Harbor, is a celebrated Australian tradition, the 628-nautical mile race to Hobart, Tasmania, is a serious undertaking that negotiates dynamic weather, strong ocean currents and exposed waters.
Good years are often wet and cold, and bad years can deliver brutal conditions. Six sailors died and five yachts sank in the 1998 race, and two sailors died last year. Still, some sailors say sharing this race with family members forges bonds and makes this sometimes-arduous adventure a better, richer experience.
Of the roughly 130 boats that plan to start the 80th edition of this race on Friday, more than 40 will have two or more members of the same family onboard. This includes mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, spouses, siblings and cousins competing together and against each other.
For some families, these traditions stretch across generations and involve passing on seamanship lessons and race legacies, while for others the race represents a reunion. For others still, familial bonds pay big dividends when conditions skitter from fun to frightening.
“It’s got a complete aura about it, but it’s a fantastic yacht race” said Carl Crafoord, 65, who plans to start his 39th race aboard Unicoin, a Farr 40, as navigator with his 19-year-old son, Ben, as one of the boat’s drivers.
The Crafoord family’s three-generation race obsession began in 1953 when Carl’s father, Max, first competed. Max sailed in 29 more races, including 1993, when about two-thirds of the fleet abandoned racing because of dangerous conditions.
That was the only year that Max and Carl raced together, and it was one of only two times that Max, who died in 2007, and his shipmates were forced to drop out of the race.
The other three times they were on the same racecourse, they were competitors.
“I was ruined by the end,” said Carl of the 1980 race, which was his first, noting that he arrived in Hobart cold, exhausted and behind his father’s team.
Race baptisms aside, Crafoord said his father’s legacy motivated him to continue racing to Hobart.
“I wanted to equal his record and beat it, which I’ve done,” said Crafoord, who has won the Tattersall Cup, the race’s top trophy, four times as navigator.
These days, however, Crafoord said he was focused on teaching Ben, who completed his first Sydney Hobart race last year. “I want him to continue with the name and the legacy,” Crafoord said. “I’ll do as many Hobarts as I can right now with Ben, while I can.”
The master class could come next year: Carl and Ben are considering sailing Carl’s 40th race as a two-person team.
“I think it’d be pretty cool,” Carl said, adding that if it did not work out, he and Ben would sail together on a crewed boat.
“As my dad did with me, you know, you send the young person up the front of the boat so you can sit in the back of the boat,” said Crafoord about Ben’s learning curve. “I don’t mind that generational shift.”
Teaching seamanship to the next generation is also an important theme aboard Mudgee Concrete, a Beneteau First 50. The team on that boat plans to race this year with a crew that includes three father-son pairs, and a father-in-law and son-in-law.
While the crew benefits from leaders who have completed a combined 68 races, this year will be the first Sydney Hobart race for four crew members.
“It’s quite an emotional challenge,” said Tim MacGillivray, who plans to start his 15th race this year with his son, Jack, aboard Mudgee Concrete. “And to share it with family and good mates, it’s going to be even better this year, for sure.”
For some, this year’s race marks their family’s third generation of involvement.
“I got really lucky [and] did my first Hobart with my old man and his mates,” said Peter Britt, who has competed in 18 Hobart races. He plans to take his son, Haakon, with him on Mudgee Concrete this year. “I just want to pass that on.”
Sailboats are never democracies, and MacGillivray described an experience-based leadership hierarchy. “They’re certainly good young sailors, but they haven’t quite gained the experience that us old guys have got,” he said of the team’s first-timers.
MacGillivray said the team planned to divide into two six-person watches. “We’re going to roll our watches with the family teams,” he said. “That bonding’s got to be there.”
While the father-son bond is strong aboard Chutzpah, Bruce Taylor’s Reichel/Pugh 40, Bruce sails on opposite watches from his son, Drew.
“Our guys reckon we both perform better in absence of each other, so I’m not telling him what to do and he’s not telling me what to do,” said Bruce, who plans to start his 44th Sydney Hobart this year. He has sailed the race with Drew 31 of those times.
“We’ve probably created a record that’ll be hard to beat, a father-son partnership, because now the kids can’t start until they’re over 18,” Bruce said, referring to a rule change following the tragic 1998 race.
Drew, however, sailed his first Sydney Hobart race in 1986, when he was 16.
While Bruce said his family was proud of this record, he doesn’t see it as a big deal within the yachting world.
“I mean, we’ve always said that the only reason we do the Hobart race is to get out of doing the dishes after Christmas lunch,” Bruce said.
These days, however, geography also plays a role: Bruce lives in Melbourne, Australia, while Drew is in Hong Kong.
“I don’t see a lot of him during the year,” said Bruce, adding that racing together was an intense experience. “I think that makes that bond even more special.”
Looking ahead, Bruce, 76, said his future participation hinged on sailing with Drew and his tight-knit crew, many of whom he has sailed with for decades.
When asked if he hopes that Drew will continue racing after he retires, Bruce didn’t equivocate.
Yes, he said, adding that while his teams have finished second twice, Drew wants to win the Tattersall Cup.
“You wouldn’t have a more proud father to see him win it in his own boat,” Bruce said.
Marc and Louis Ryckmans didn’t win the 2004 race, but Louis said their father was still impressed when the identical twins finished their first and roughest race.
Of the 89 starting boats, 41 retired.
“I think we were the smallest boat to cross the line,” said Marc, noting that their crew was all first-timers. “That probably was the reason that we were able to finish the race, because people just didn’t really appreciate or understand how bad it could be.”
Louis said the brothers began their tradition of silently shaking hands upon finishing that first year.
“That handshake has always been a profound respect for Mother Nature, for keeping us safe, or for allowing us to survive,” Louis said.
The Ryckmans plan to start their 14th race this year — all of which they’ve sailed together — aboard Titlespace Yeah Baby, their Akilaria Rc2.
“There was never any question that if we did a Hobart, that we wouldn’t do it together,” said Marc, describing a very close relationship with his twin.
While Marc said the race could be a scary experience, he described feeling “rather alive” while sailing fast in big waves at night with Louis.
“It’s that shared experience that you sort of relish and sort of understand without having to communicate it to each other,” Marc said.
This, they say, is where their close familial bond plays an important role.
“There are many, many memories of frightening moments during the Sydney Hobart,” Louis said, describing big waves and 50-knot headwinds during the 2023 race.
He said that in those kinds of situations, he and Marc were good at boosting each other’s morale.
“Marc likes to just whisper into my ear the old expression, ‘This too shall pass’,” Louis said. “It does wonders for calming our nerves and anxiety.”
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