Hobart, Australia: 28th December 2016.
“It was tough, the Hobart race is always tough, but by Hobart standards it was an easy Hobart,” was Chris Dickson’s summary of the 2 days and 3 hours it had taken CQS to complete the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Race.
Ludde Ingvall’s super maxi crossed the finishing line of the race at 16:13:12 on Wednesday in seventh place, after spending the previous 12 hours creeping painfully slowly towards Battery Point in Hobart, the traditional finish in the Derwent river.
Despite the slow finish, sponsor and crew member Sir Michael Hintze was grinning from ear to ear when the boat finally docked, saying he was ready for the next race.
“It was great,” he told the waiting crowd, “the fulfilment of a childhood dream. The technology and engineering in the boat is fascinating, and we’re still learning about it.”
Ludde Ingvall the skipper, and cousin of Sir Michael, talked about the damage to their DSS (Dynamic Stability System) board, which broke early in the race. “First the tips, like on an airplane wing, broke off, which caused the flaps to tear off as well.
“That slowed us up a lot, but before they broke we could really feel the boat lift up and take off, it’s a very exciting development, and we are already talking to the designers and engineers about how to improve it.”
The first twenty four hours of the race had been fast with good east to north easterly winds, and only a brief period of light winds on the first night. It was in the early hours of Wednesday morning the wind just shut off and CQS along with several other boats had a very slow and frustrating sail across Storm Bay and up the Derwent River.