The Australian is taking part in the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race for the 30th time. In her career she has won numerous victories and set records. In Australia she has legendary status.
Adrienne Cahalan at the 1998 Jules Verne Trophy.
If in the old year’s week the traditional Sydney to Hobart (Tasmania) Regatta starts, there is almost always talk of records. The fastest time for the distance of 628 miles (1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes, 24 seconds, set five years ago by the «LDV Comanche») is mentioned, as is the record participant (Tony Ellis, 78 years, 54th race) . The fact that the regatta, which has been held since 1945, could not take place for the first time in 2020 due to Corona is proudly reported, as is the fact that more than 5,000 yachts reached the finish line in Hobart and a total of over 57,000 sailors in Sydney on December 26th have started.
However, the most amazing record belongs to a woman. Adrienne Cahalan, 58, is taking part in the classic for the 30th time. The Australian already has legendary status in her country. It’s not just the number of times she’s competed in the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race that’s causing a stir. The sailor has made headlines above all with her victories and record runs in this race.
Adrienne Cahalan – a woman of records
She has won the “hell of high water”, as the dreaded regatta is also known, several times as navigator, twice she was on the boat that won the overall victory (Tattersall Cup). She was also the only woman ever to be part of a crew that broke the world record for a circumnavigation on a maxi catamaran. Previously, she had set a 24-hour world record on a catamaran. And in 1997 she was watch captain on a yacht that broke the transatlantic record.
The lawyer and mother of two daughters completed postgraduate studies in applied meteorology almost twenty years ago and has been a sought-after navigator and weather consultant on the seven seas ever since. As a lawyer, she has specialized in maritime law. «When I was young and inexperienced, I never saw anything as an obstacle. I just hung in there and said, ‘Here I am, I can do that, let’s get started’,” said the Australian, who has been campaigning for a higher proportion of women in sailing for many years.
It is important to bring more women into the network and to encourage them to see their opportunities in this sport. She herself started sailing as a teenager; as early as 1984 she contested her first Sydney-Hobart regatta. Ten years later she took part in the Ocean Race, the round-the-world circumnavigation for crews.
The amateurs still fight against the waves for days
The winner of the 77th edition of Sydney-Hobart was the yacht «Comanche». She missed her own record by almost three hours. While the big boats with around twenty professional sailors make the headlines, amateurs and ambitious ship owners with semi-professional crews still fight for hours and days for around a dozen prizes and trophies in the various boat classes. The Tattersall Cup, which is awarded for overall victory according to a calculated time using a handicap formula, has the most prestige.
Impressions from the 77th Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
Adrienne Cahalan, who has often sailed as navigator aboard supermaxis (100 feet long), also finds her way around small boats. She proves it in this 77th edition of Sydney-Hobart. She sails as a navigator under the English flag on a boat that is only 11.8 meters long. “One should never lose sight of the fact that just reaching the finish line at the Hobart Regatta is an enormous achievement,” the Australian once said in an interview. Your boat “Sunrise” should be in the top forty in the overall ranking. In the third division, the yacht is in the lead.