Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race 2024

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2023
Rupert Henry & Greg O'Shea to contest Noakes Sydney Gold Coast

Rupert Henry & Greg O'Shea to contest Noakes Sydney Gold Coast

NEWS
02 Jun, 2023 12:14:00 PM

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Rupert Henry & Greg O'Shea to contest Noakes Sydney Gold Coast

Prize-winning sailor Rupert Henry is a brave and modest man. In the tradition of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, he gives the impression of being an ingenious and pioneering sailor. The sort of character you might meet in an Adventures of Tintin novel. Last year he set off single-handed in the Route du Rhum on an ill-fated mission. Still the story of him busting a boat in the Atlantic Ocean is a kind of anomaly in his career.

“That was an aborted mission,” says Rupert Henry. “The boat started to fall part in the Route du Rhum, so I had to sail back to France after 4 or 5 days at sea.” Next month, he and sailing partner Greg O’Shea will contest the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, in his boat Mistral. In 2022 Henry and O’Shea won Cabbage Tree Island Race and at the same time made history as Mistral became the first two-handed boat to win an Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore.

When we meet, Rupert has itchy feet to get ocean racing again. After leaving his Class40 boat up on a cradle last November, ‘withering in the sun’ he sounds like a cross between a forlorn lover and an adrenalin junkie waiting for the next race. “It’s too quiet this time of year, the ocean racing scene drops off between the Coffs Harbour race and the Gold Coast race, it’s really a bit of a desert," says Henry sadly.

He’s missed the incredible sailing scene since he left France last year, on his extended stay at home in Australia.

“It’ll be almost four months between the Coffs Harbour race which we won overall on 31 March and the Gold Coast race four months later. We will have to do something about that next year.”

Exposed to the incredible scene of Class40 sailing in France, Rupert is more than ready for the next challenge.

“I love double-handed ocean sailing, it combines adventure with the sport that I like. I enjoy the competitive racing aspect of it, but it is, really, at times, challenging.” In Noakes Sydney Gold Coast he’s taking the Marc Lombard designed Mistral two-handed again and he can’t wait for what the ocean throws at him and O’Shea. “We have a done a lot of miles sitting on the side of the boat. The longest we have done is the Melbourne to Osaka race which is 6000 nautical miles,” A double-handed race that they also, incidentally, won. Come 29 July O'Shea and Henry will be back out there and looking competitive.

“The Lombard 34 is my little IRC off-shore handicap-focused boat. The boat is pretty good for double-handed sailing because it’s quite manageable and its loads aren’t too high. It performs quite well. It’s a nicely balanced boat with good design." For Rupert it’s the combination of skill, luck and tactics that makes Class40 ocean sailing such an exigent mix.

“In terms of the challenges it presents it is not too different from other things like mountaineering. You’ve got the technical aspect, you’ve got the hardship aspect. You have got the danger and the weather aspect –so it combines all of those elements.” In Europe, he agrees the man against nature mindset is more highly-prized, and that’s where the sport of two-handed sailing is booming. “The big difference is that in France, sailing is seen as a very egalitarian sport and popular pastime,” Henry explains. “A lot of European countries do reward adventure sport a lot more. That’s why Red Bull comes out of Europe, that’s why the mountaineering in Europe is so big. And I think yacht racing really captures that spirit."

He admires the pathways that are provided for off-shore racing in France and says purpose-built academies designed to train single and double handed sailors are equipped to an impressive standard. The growth in the sport there because of it - is wild.

“Putting people through a shorthanded program turns out people that can do everything on a boat and that’s what a yacht owner needs,” he adds. Henry know that having that all-rounder competency is what will provide new owners with terrific boat captains and ultimately lead to the growth of the sport in Australia.

For this pioneer, I can’t help wondering if Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Race of just 384NM might be a walk in the park for him? “It’s not very far distance wise,” he says. “But it can be challenging weather. You can sometimes get a great run if there’s a southerly blowing, or you can sometimes get pretty variable breezes which makes it tactically interesting. And it is always nice to be heading north in winter, right?”

Right! We look forward to seeing Greg O’Shea and Rupert Henry on the Mistral on 29 July 2023 and we wish them great sailing.