December 27, 1998 – The 1998 Sydney to Hobart fleet comprised 115 starters. Of these, only 44 yachts completed the race, after severe weather conditions struck the fleet off the south-eastern Australian coast. An unusually strong low pressure depression developed which resulted in mid-summer snow across parts of south-east Australia. The weather system built into an exceptionally strong storm with winds reaching up to 70 knots, similar in strength to a lower-category Tropical cyclone. The rising storm produced an enormous waterspout perilously close to one yacht, and ultimately caused the sinking of five boats and the deaths of six sailors.Additionally a record 66 yachts retired from the race, and 55 other sailors had to be airlifted from their yachts by rescue helicopter. Overall, the rescue efforts involved 35 military and civilian aircraft and 27 Royal Australian Navy vessels, and proved to be Australia’s largest ever peacetime rescue operation.
The following is the account of the Winston Churchill on Sunday 27 December 1998, at around 5.00pm.
Gary Ticehurst, in the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp) helicopter, is still hovering near Standaside, filming the rescues. He knows that cameraman Peter Sinclair is picking up great vision for the evening news but he also knows he should already be heading back to the mainland—he’s running low on fuel. But Sinclair is still filming and Ticehurst is reluctant to leave. Then, at 5.15pm, Ticehurst hears a desperate voice breaking through on the VHF emergency frequency.
‘Mayday. Mayday. Mayday. Here is Winston Churchill, Winston Churchill.’
Ticehurst: ‘Winston Churchill, Winston Churchill, Winston Churchill. [This is] ABC chopper. Go ahead with your position. Over.
Winston Churchill (shouting): ‘Twenty miles south-east of Twofold Bay. Over.’
Ticehurst: ‘Winston Churchill. Two Zero miles south-east of Twofold Bay. Nature of your mayday? Over.’
Winston Churchill (more urgently): ‘Affirmative. We are getting life rafts on deck, ABC chopper. We are holed. We are taking on water rapidly. We can’t get the motor started to start the pumps.’
Ticehurst: ‘Roger. How many on board?’
Winston Churchill: ‘Niner. Niner.’
Ticehurst: ‘Winston Churchill, ABC chopper. Do you respond? Over.’
Winston Churchill: ‘ Read you, ABC chopper.’
Ticehurst: ‘Roger. We will relay your mayday call. Over.’
Winston Churchill: ‘Roger.’
Ticehurst (to Sinclair): ‘Okay, Peter, we’ve got to leave. I’m running out of fuel.’
Read – The Proving Ground, by G. Bruce Knecht ’80’s gripping account of the deadly 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. “Knecht has turned out a sailing masterpiece,” says Walter Cronkite, himself an accomplished yachtsman. “The book is in the `can’t put it down’ category. It is The Perfect Storm of blue-water sailboat racing.”
Knecht, a lifelong sailor who has served on Colgate’s Alumni Corporation Board of Directors, earned an MBA from Harvard before he joined The Wall Street Journal, which has nominated him for two Pulitzer Prizes.
View – The 1998 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race film, part one of a two part film
* Noteworthy
1814 – War of 1812: The American schooner USS Carolina is destroyed. It was the last of Commodore Daniel Patterson’s makeshift fleet that fought a series of delaying actions that contributed to Andrew Jackson’s victory at the Battle of New Orleans.
1831 – Charles Darwin embarks on his journey aboard the HMS Beagle, during which he will begin to formulate his theory of evolution.
1932 – Radio City Music Hall, “Showplace of the Nation”, opens in New York City.
1978 – Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years of fascist dictatorship.