31 December, 2025
I recently came across a video on Youtube of the 1960 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. As I sit here the final results have been declared with Simon Kurts beautiful classic, the 52 year old S&S 47 Love and War being sailed beautifully in the trying conditions to come home 3rd overall, a mere 34 minutes behind the eventual winner Min River.
This video, recently published by the State Library and Archives of Tasmania and titled “Hard to Windward” highlights some of the most famous classic yachts to ever win the blue water classic.
Yachts including Line Honours winner the 1911 65′ cutter Kurrewa IV (Morna), which only had its record of 3 Line Honours wins surpassed by the maxi Wild Oats XI in 2008, Solo, the 56′ steel hulled wonder of which legendary America’s Cup skipper Jock Sturrock decried “Few yachts in the world could match Solo’s career as a racer, cruiser and Antartctic explorer”, and Peter Warners 86′ William Fife III designed Astor, also a 3-time Line Honours winner in the great race.
Other yachts of significance included Winston Churchill, which was skippered by Graham Warner out of Brighton, she would go on to be tragically lost in the infamous 1998 edition of the race, and corrected time winner Siandra, who won her second Sydney Hobart that year after conquering the CYAA committee member Phillip Brown’s Anitra V (then owned by Trgyve and Magnus Halvorsen) by 34 minutes in 1958.
Some of these yachts, such as Siandra, Astor and Anitra V are still sailing today, but for most their whereabouts are unknown.
The film highlights the perilous nature of the race in those days where safety controls were not what they are today. Yachts were not even required to carry a radio, and could be at sea for many days with their positions largely unknown.
A full list of yachts and results is available here.
It is great viewing and I hope that you all enjoy it.
CYAA
