The oldest boat in the history of the Sydney Hobart yacht race, Maritimo Katwinchar, will make her third attempt after undergoing significant modifications.
The boat was built by workers at an English brewery in 1904, using off-cuts of timber from the keg-making process. The first Sydney Hobart yacht race was still 41 years away.
Measuring 10 metres from bow to stern, Katwinchar took her name from the three daughters of the brewery owner: Katherine, Winifred and Charlotte.
She was bought and sailed to Australia by Eddie Mossop in 1951, contesting that year’s Sydney to Hobart in a fleet of only 14 yachts. There will be 104 this year.
Mossop eventually relocated to Tasmania and sold Katwinchar to Frank Barry-Cotter in 1957, when she became the family’s boat, until she was sold five years later.
Bill Barry-Cotter, Frank’s son and a highly respected boat builder, tracked Katwinchar down on Gumtree in 2015 and headed up a team that spent 14,000 hours restoring her for a second shot at the race in 2019.
The hard work paid off; Katwinchar placed second in the IRC Division 7, third in the veterans division and first in the grand veterans division.
Now, she returns as a double-hander for her third attempt, co-skippered by 45-time Sydney Hobart veteran Michael Spies and Peter Vaicuirgis.
“It is a special boat,” Spies said.
“Not too many people walk past this thing and don’t admire it.
“To be nominated as a temporary custodian of it is pretty special. This is my 46th Sydney Hobart race and it’s one I’ll probably look back on with great fondness.”
Katwinchar has undergone significant modifications since her last attempt at the race, which she sailed as a ketch – a boat with two masts.
The mizzen mast, the smaller of the two, has since been removed and the mainmast replaced.
Spies built the new carbon fibre mast himself, working almost full-time on Katwinchar for six months to prepare her for the race.
Katwinchar has also been kitted out with fresh sails and a new rudder aimed at speeding the boat up.
She is expected to complete the race in between three-and-a-half and four days.
“We’ve changed the whole thing around to be a competitive two-hander,” Spies said.
Spies plays down Katwinchar’s chances of taking a fairytale win on handicap this year, though. Conditions are likely to favour the bigger boats, with a downwind start expected before blustery conditions hit the fleet on the first night of sailing.
“A quality result might elude us just because of the weather,” Spies said.
“We really needed a slow start and a fast finish [to win overall]. Unfortunately it’s looking like a fast start and a slow finish.”
But Spies is confident of another strong performance in Katwinchar’s division.
“We’ll certainly give it our best shot and try for a good, solid place in our division,” he said.
Katwinchar’s sister ship Maritimo 100, skippered by Barry-Cotter, is one of four super maxis in with a chance of taking both line honours and an overall victory.
