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Jiang Lin makes history in Hobart
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At 60, Jiang Lin could have spent the year-end festive season with her feet up. Instead, she won one of the world’s toughest yacht races, the 630nm Rolex Sydney Hobart, with only one crew, becoming the first female to do so in the 80-year history of the event, and amid a record Chinese entry list.
Words: Bruce Maxwell; Photos: Rolex & Salty Dingo Media
When her relatively tiny 10m JPK 1030 yacht Min River, named for her ancestral homeland in Fujian Province, was confirmed winner of the premier IRC handicap prize, the Tattersall Cup, and of a Rolex Seamaster, it became the crowning glory in a rough race that saw all Asian entries finish, no mean feat in a heavy beating race that saw 35 of the 128 starters retire.
“I did not have hopes of winning,” she said in Hobart. “You think about all the 100-something boats, all the big boats and superb sailors out there. Not in my wildest dreams did I think this would come true for me. So no, I didn’t think about it. The best would be winning our division”.
Which, with the propitious sail number AUS888, she and co-crew, the French professional sailor Alexis Loisin, did as well as collecting overall honours.
Lee Seng Huang’s SHK Scallywag 100, formerly Syd Fischer’s Ragamuffin 100, kicked off the Asian challenge this year among the superyachts. Sponsor SHK is his leading investment and property firm Sun Hung Kai, although Lee also has Malaysian interests through Mulpha Australia with Sanctuary Cove, Hayman Island and other substantial holdings.
Team WhiteWave, aboard a Malaysian-built DK 46, Sail #8338, came about due to a partnership between Mark Griffith and Steve McConaghy of the eponymous boat builder in a Davidson 60 in Phuket. William Wu Liang joined them for a King’s Cup Regatta, and for this Rolex Sydney Hobart he supplied the crew from his WhiteWave Sailing Centre in Shenzhen.
An all Chinese crew was aboard the Beneteau 47.7 Marguerite, now owned by a Malaysian Chinese couple and run for the Rolex Sydney Hobart by RYA Yachtmaster and Australian Sailing Keelboat Instructor Aaron Zhou and his wife Joanne Wu.
Because yachting mostly evolved on the China Coast in Hong Kong, various Asian-Australian expats also took part, including investment banker Geoff Hill and his daughter Tash aboard the Santa Cruz 72 flyer Antipodes, and equally well-known Drew Taylor remarkably completed his 30th Rolex Sydney Hobart with dad Bruce on modest Chutzpah.
The race was first won by a Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club entry in 1973, when solicitor Bill Turnbull quietly triumphed in Ceil 111, and Karl Kwok was the first Chinese male to win in 1997 on Beau Geste. His sail number was HKG 1997.
