Popular searches
Popular pages
Subscribe Whats On Explore Learn
David Salter

CWBF Talk: 'Sydney to Hobart Race: History, Hazards & Heroes'

Join us for a lively discussion with a group of distinguished offshore racing veterans

Sunday 3 May 2020
1–2.30 pm

Join veteran sailor and boating writer David Salter as he leads a fascinating panel discussion with yachting veterans including Sir James Hardy, Sean Langman, Vanessa Dudley, John Stanley and Dave Kellet. This lively discussion will cover the challenges and history of competitive offshore sailing in Australia focussing on the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, the yachts and individuals who have helped make it one of the world’s great ocean classics.

Note: This talk is part of the 2020 Classic Wooden Boat Festival

Main image courtesy Jim Nixon

Panellists

David Salter

David Salter is a veteran independent journalist and broadcaster who has sailed competitively for 60 years. He raced at the national level in centerboard classes and has crewed extensively offshore, including in eleven Sydney to Hobart races. Salter is the author of nine books on subjects ranging from rugby and Australian history to media ethics and the HMAS Voyager disaster. He is a long-serving Director of the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club, writes extensively on sailing, and campaigns his classic yacht Mister Christian in races every weekend on Sydney Harbour.
   
Sir James Hardy OBE Sir James Hardy OBE has a list of sailing achievements that would be difficult to match anywhere in the world. He competed in the first of his many Sydney to Hobart races in the 1950s. Hardy won a World Championship in the 505 dinghy class and skippered three Australian challengers for the America’s Cup. In 1979 he was a helmsman in the three-boat Australian team that won the Admiral’s Cup after their courageous performance in the storm-wracked Fastnet Race. Sir James has been a generous supporter of junior yachting and still sails his 1933 classic gaffer Nerida.
   
John 'Steamer' Stanley

John 'Steamer' Stanley is one of the national treasures of Australian sailing. From his beginnings as a bailer boy on 16-foot skiffs to the America’s Cup and countless offshore races and deliveries, 'Steamer' has helped forge the modern traditions of the sport. His participation in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race stretches over four decades, including handicap victories. But perhaps his most memorable race was in the tragic 1998 event when he managed to survive the sinking of the yacht Winston Churchill. In retirement, Stanley is now Honorary Historian of the Sydney Flying Squadron.
   
Sean Langman

Sean Langman is one of the most versatile sailors in the world. He races everything from 24-foot Rangers and 18-footers on the Harbour to maxi yachts and ocean-going trimarans. At the same time he took a small rigging firm, Noakes, and built it into a comprehensive boat services and hospitality organization that stretches from the Central Coast to Southern Tasmania. Langman is one of the few people now racing at the elite level who still honour the Corinthian traditions of the sport. He has competed in 27 Sydney to Hobart races but, unluckily, is yet to claim an overall victory.
   
Vanessa Dudley Vanessa Dudley is a champion sailor whose contribution to the advancement of women in the sport is immense. Offshore, she has sailed in 24 Sydney to Hobarts, including a 2nd and 3rd place overall. Her record as a dinghy sailor is even more impressive, beginning as World Junior Moth Champion in 1975. In the Lasers class Dudley won the Radial Grand Master world championships in 2013 and 2016. Off the water Vanessa has filled a succession of elite roles in yachting journalism, including editor of Modern Boating and Australian Sailing. She currently works at the RMS.
   
David Kellett AM

David Kellett AM has been involved at the highest level in almost every aspect of the sport of sailing. He has won Hobart races, been involved in America’s Cup campaigns, run a successful boat-building business, campaigned maxi yachts all over the world, and been at the forefront of yachting administration both in Australia and internationally. His knowledge and long experience of offshore racing made Kellett one of the most influential recent Commodores of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. As radio officer, he is now 'The Voice of the Sydney to Hobart Race'.
   
David Payne

Your host: 
David Payne is the Australian National Maritime Museum's curator, Historic Vessels.
   

You may also enjoy...

Habitat

Event

Classic & Wooden Boat Festival
MORE
Habitat

Vessel

Steam Yacht Ena
MORE
Habitat

Event

Ocean Talks: 2022 Series
MORE
↑