GREAT PUBLIC INTEREST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26350, 3 January 1947, Page 5

GREAT PUBLIC INTEREST

HEAVY BETS WAGERED (F.0.0.C.) SYDNEY, Dec. 31. Yachtsmen in the Sydriey-Hobart yacht race now being run are taking it so seriously that the crew of one boat backed itself for £4OOO. The crew of another backed itself for £3OOO. There was a good deal of betting in Australian sporting clubs ‘ before the race began on Boxing Day, and the New Zealand boat, N. W. Thomas’s gaff ketch Ilex, was quoted at 14 to 1. Outsiders were quoted at 33 to 1. The favourite was the 65ft Bermudan cutter Morna, owned and skippered byClaude Plowman, of Sydney, which was quoted at 4 to 1. Yachtsmen consider that the quality of the 19 boats which started.m the race, the difficulties of the 680-mile course and the deep-water experience of the crews have made the SydneyHobart yacht race a deep-sea classic fit to be compared with America’s Bermuda race and England’s Fastnet Cup. All the yachts were handicapped (or “rated”) according to the rules of the Royal Ocean Racing Club of Britain so that the size of the hull and the relative size of the sail area are taken into consideration. The actual sailing time of each yacht will be multiplied •by a factor figure and the boat which ends with the lowest “adjusted time” will win the handicap section of the race. There are two women among the crews —Mrs Jane Tate, of Bellerive, Tasmania, cook and deckhand in the Bermudian cutter Active, which her husband skippers, and Mrs Dagmar O’Brienj of Sydney, who is a deckhand with her husband in the Sydney gaff ketch Connella. The public showed extraordinary interest in the start of the race. More than 300 small craft, both power and sail, flocked round the racing yachts as they went down the harbour. Between 10 and 11 a.m. (starting time) trams from the city to Double Bay (a good look-out) were so crowded that it was-hard to get on them, and thousands of people watched from high points all round the harbour. The most cheerful crew was that on the Tasmanian Bermudan ketch, Matthew Flinders. Rudy Major, ‘one of the crew, had a cornet on board, and as Iris boat went down harbour he stood on the deck playing sea shanties and swing tunes. Major's cornet-playing is a long-standing custom aboard the Matthew Flinders. He plays whenever the boat starts in a race, and his cornet is the ship’s mascot.