Sydney Hobart Tragedy

Helpless crew can do nothing except watch as one of their own, swept overboard during a capsize, drifts away in a storm.

Along with the 1979 Fastnet Race, the 1998 Sydney Hobart has become a byword for disaster at sea. Unless a writer was actually on board one of the boats and recounts personal experience, reporting on such events is notoriously difficult. G Bruce Knecht, sometime foreign correspondent of the Wall Street Journal, has risen nobly to this challenge in his book ‘The Proving Ground’. Originally published in 2001 in the aftermath of the tragedy, the book is now available via Amazon – and it should be required reading for all who go offshore to compete.

Within a framework of the race in general, Knecht has concentrated mainly on the events surrounding four boats. Sword of Orion is ultimately abandoned in the direst distress, Winston Churchill is lost, but Sayonara and Brindabella finish.

From meticulous research and endless interviewing of those involved, Knecht has produced a book that is hard to put down. Not only does he describe the events accurately, he takes the bold step of looking critically into the characters and motivations of the dramatis personae.

The book is skilfully crafted by a master and not written as a linear time line, but this has made it difficult to find an extract of suitable length for publication in Yachting World. I have eventually centred on the loss of Glyn Charles, an Olympic sailor from Britain, one of the crew of Sword. Charles joined the crew late in the day as a ‘rock star’ helmsman. What went wrong and why, as described below, brings us right on board the yacht and it makes for harrowing reading.