First-ever 50th Sydney Hobart

On Boxing Day, a bloke by the name of Tony Cable will start his 50th Hobart – a feat that nobody has done before. 

It is a landmark for the Rolex Sydney Hobart; another colour to add to the tapestry of this extraordinary event that, like the Boxing Day Test, is as much about Australian culture as Australian sport.

And no, Tony Cable isn’t the owner of a famous yacht, nor is he a globetrotting sailing superstar, flitting from regatta to regatta. Glark (think Clark Gable), as they call him, is just a guy who loves ocean racing. He is a crew member, one of the thousands who have been the engine room of this great race for 70 years.  

Crews don’t get their berths by right of wallet or lineage, they are there because an owner reckons they are good enough, and bring enough to the boat to help it win. Hobart boats don’t take passengers; Tony Cable has been good enough, has earned his place, for 50 years.

The Sydney yachtsman has sailed with an astonishing 306 fellow crew. No wonder he can’t go unnoticed at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, which organises the race.

Cable has watched the face of Australian ocean racing change: grow up really. Once it was all blokes and booze, with the occasional girlfriend or wife reluctantly included. Now women crew are commonplace. Here is that rare sport where men and women can compete side by side.

This year will be Cable’s fifth trip to Hobart and his fifth on Damien Parkes’ Judel/Vrolijk 52, Duende.

"Duende is 52 feet, so she’s got enough speed to give us a respectable trip to Hobart. Three days, not five or six," Cable says.

"Not too long, but not too short either. The maxis do it in a day and a half.  Why would you want to do a Hobart in one and a half days?"

An early exit marked Tony’s first Hobart, back in 1961 on the 33-foot Tarni. A brand new mainsail roller-reefing fitting exploded as they sailed through the Heads. Race over; a terrible disappointment for the 19 year-old. 

Glark made up for it though, in spades. Crewed on some of the great yachts of Sydney Hobart history: Pacha, Vengeance, Sovereign, including when she won both line honours and overall in 1987, Condor, Don Mickleborough’s beloved Southerly and with the Rum Consortium rascals aboard Witchdoctor.

Forty-nine Hobarts, number 50 to come.

Now everybody asks him, why do you keep doing it?  It drives him nuts.

Cable keeps doing it because he loves it. It is no hardship, no act of selfless generosity. "I really love going to Tasmania," he says. "I love the scene, the high jinks. You can have a good race and end up in Mooloolaba or the Gold Coast, and they’re nice enough, but there’s that special atmosphere in Hobart. I’m fit enough not to think I can’t do it anymore, so why stop?"

"Nothing beats ocean sailing on a sunny day. That’s what keeps us going.

"You know you are going to get the harder stuff, but you know it will end and get nice again," Cable said.