J/99 Disko Trooper | Rolex Sydney Hobart 2024
Photo: CYCA | Ashley Dart.
Here’s the race report from Jules Hall on Disko Trooper Contender Sailcloth. Probably the J/99 that has done the most offshore miles, and Julkes and co-skipper Jan ‘Clogs’ Scholten are a team we could learn a lot from.
Rolex Sydney – Hobart 2024
You’re always nervous before a Hobart race. And the unfolding weather picture plays a massive part in the level of those nerves. This year it was clear from at least a week out that we were in for some serious wind on the first night, with the early forecasts suggesting 50+ knots from the north! We could also see that the NE corner of Tasmania was going to be a critical gate to navigate, with a large wind hole in the lee of the land. So it was never going to be easy!
Race day arrived hot and sunny. The CYCA was its usual crazy hive of activity. A mix of competitors, shore crew, media, family and spectators. The excitement is palpable. Knowing what we were in for, one of the hardest parts of the whole event was the two hours before departure. You just want to get on with it!
Finally we slipped lines and headed for the starting area. The northerly breeze was already in and the harbour was uncharacteristically windy for a summer morning. Check-ins completed we headed down to the heads to see what conditions were like across to the turning marks. Definitely the #4 jib!
The northerly breeze meant an upwind start. As we were starting on line 3 (of 4) that also meant plenty of disturbed air from the bigger boats ahead. We got off the line nicely, pushing to the western boundary to tack across the fleet on the favoured port tack. From there it was bouncing along the eastern shore, playing the shifts and chasing clear air. It went well and we were the first boat from our start line out the heads and to the turning mark. Mistral was marching up behind, but rating 69 points higher than us it was nice to be leading her!

Photo: Salty Dingo.
Bearing away we went straight to the masthead A3. The course to Tasman Island is 180 degrees, but the routing had us pushing a little further offshore for max breeze and to hook into the East Australian Current. With TWA of mid 130s we were fast from the get go. The J4 stayed up, nicely undersheeted, acting as a staysail and a ‘preventer of wraps’. Remarkably we were almost at Botany Bay by 14.30hrs. That’s some serious ground to cover in a small boat in 90 minutes!
By late afternoon the winds were nudging high 20s. A reef went into the main. Early evening we were starting to see low thirties. When we saw 30 knot gusts we dropped the A3 and hoisted the brand new S6.This was a moment of truth – was our hypothesis on the benefit of a fractional symmetric kite right??
With winds steadily into the low thirties and gusting higher we were screaming along. Consistently doing mid teens on the boatspeed, often surfing up 20 knots, with a max of 22 knots a couple of times. But the boat was beautifully stable and you could comfortably steer around the waves – which were starting to build. We knew midnight to 0300 hrs was max wind. By 2200 hrs the gusts were hitting the higher 30s. You know it’s windy when you’re going at 18 knots and you can feel a solid breeze on the back of your head. Although we hadn’t had any major wipeouts we decided to be a little conservative, dropped the kite and transferred to a poled out J4. As the saying goes – ‘to finish first, first you have to finish’. In hindsight we could have probably held the kite. But it would have been pretty wild!
After midnight we started to see puffs nudging 40 knots. Max TWS was 41.5 knots. But most of the time 35 – 40 knots. We were still screaming along with the poled out J4. Probably only 5-10% slower than the kite but very stable. By now we had a second reef in the main. Very easy to steer and control the boat.
As dawn broke the wind started to ease. Out came the reefs, but we could see the southerly coming towards us so opted not to re-hoist the kite. A little too conservative in hindsight but with the news of two fatalities and one man overboard the previous night, all relatively close to us, we were pretty shaken.
The southerly hit as forecast at 0730hrs. It’s so weird when that transition comes through. It happens almost immediately and you go from 25 knots behind to 25 knots on the nose. The waves take a good couple of hours to adapt. In the meantime you’ve the waves rolling into the wind, with the tops blown back at you.
The next 36 hours were all on the nose. TWS probably averaged 20 – 25 knots, with a few patches higher and some lower.
Green Cape was epic. We tacked along the shore around the lighthouse, then back into the bays towards Gabo Island. This was Clog’s 20th Hobart and it was the first time he’s been into those bays. With a couple more smaller fronts scheduled for Bass Strait we wanted to make sure we were on the inside of the shifts. It worked nicely – although it did require holding our nerve. The northern half of Bass Strait the boats to the east of us were considerably further south. But it was all about preparation for the impending transition on the NE Tassie coast.
The evening of 28th December we were blasting past Banks Strait, to the south of Flinders Island about 45nm offshore. With a TWA of 60 degrees or so and TWS of high 20s it was like having a firehose directed at your eyes. It was a black night and the temperature had dropped considerably. So it was not comfortable!
As dawn broke we could see the park up off St Helens. A remarkable amount of the fleet had sailed into the hole, all to leeward of us. Maybe it was harder for them arriving a little earlier, but we had seen a vein of wind nearer to land on the weather models and our higher route enabled us to hook into it. We sailed around a huge number of boats, fetching fast in 10 – 12 knots TWS and flatter water.
This was a critical part of the race for us. The boats below couldn’t get high enough to get into the channel of wind nearer the shore. The tables turned and what had felt like a losing routing across the paddock flipped and became the clear winner. Not only did we have wind, we were cracking sheets in flat water and going fast. Huge gains.
The 29th was a day of lighter winds for the most part. We had the kite up for a while but as evening approached the wind veered and it was back to headsails. All the boats around us were significantly bigger, the next smallest was Midnight Rambler, the very successful Sydney 36 owned by Ed Psaltis and based in Hobart. All the Sydney 38s were behind and plenty of the forty footers. We had a significant lead in IRC Division 5. The nearest boat was Love & War, but they were 10 miles behind and rating 11 points higher had to beat us on the water by an hour. They were significantly further offshore. Our positioning looked good.
Early evening we were approaching the Tasman peninsular. Although we were beating into a southerly, this was a local effect caused by the gradient westerly wrapping around the high land mass on the SE corner of Tasmania and pushing up the east coast. Close in it was almost SE, further out S and if you went even further out SW. Being the most easterly boat was a strong position to be in.
Eagle Hawk Neck is where it went wrong!
It was 20.00 hrs and we were tacking towards the shore. Midnight Rambler, Wots Next, Trouble & Strife and XS Moment were all just ahead. We followed them into the bay south of Maria Island but the pressure was dropping. We decided to tack back out. Pressure increased a couple of knots and we got some southing on the big headland at Cape Surville. We could now see consistent pressure across Pirates bay to shore and tacked back in. Again it softened as went in, but better than before. Midnight Rambler was now 2 nm ahead. They tacked on the shore and took off. As we came in it was getting dusky. And the pressure was easing significantly. Nerves were jangling.
We decided we had gone far enough and were about to tack when we got an enormous lift. We were now in an almost easterly wind, sailing course but still on port tack. Weird, but good. So we kept going.
And then the wind died. We were approx 1.5nm offshore. But the boats 2nm ahead were doing 8 knots so we assumed it was a temporary lull. Oops.
No panic at first. We still had a solid 3 hour lead on Love & War, the next J99 was 23nm behind and Min River (JPK 1030) was 40 miles offshore and behind. All we had to do was get going again. What was left of the Sydney 38 fleet followed in behind us. The J133 Ragtime was nearby but they had tacked back out to sea. And we had two other forty footers following us.
When we got a zephyr of wind, it came from the west (gradient direction). So we put up the trusty drifter and tried to get going. It died a few minutes later. Up ahead the other boats were still going well. And Ragtime was now back in pressure 3nm to leeward, further offshore. Also going well.
We were in no man’s land. Not enough wind to keep up with the boats ahead, and because of the westerly wind direction, no apparent angles to get back out to Ragtime. Fast forward three hours and we had a real problem. Love & War had seen what was happening and tacked out early, holding the less favourable southerly wind, but critically staying in pressure. Even though pushing 1 knot of current offshore (we had a small current advantage at least, 0.5 knot southerly set).
We flipped and flopped for 3 hours. The drifter working overtime. Tension mounting exponentially. And then Clogs drew on all his Pittwater skills (notorious for its fickle wind), finding a tiny vein of wind within 100m of Tasman Island. From the north! Suddenly we were off again. Pressure was 10 – 15 knots and we were using the drifter as a kite. The laneway was tiny. As soon you got more than a few hundred metres from Tasman Island it dropped and you had to gybe back. It was now approaching 01.00hrs on 30th December and it was a black, cold night. Tacking back to the huge cliffs of the Tasman Island was intimidating. But the water was deep and we could get very close to the shore, holding max wind, before we gybed out.
Love & Was was now 5nm ahead. But we could see she had slowed to 2 knots approaching Cape Raoul. We could also see the boats a couple of miles south of Tasman Island moving nicely. So we continued past the island, sailing SSW in our private vein of wind. Gybing onto starboard and heading west we were again back with bigger boats, all fetching towards Cape Raoul.
At this point in the race we were surrounded by the most incredible phosphorescence. Despite the light wind the breeze was against the current and the surface had a tiny chop – with every wavelet glowing green. From a distance they looked like hundreds of starboard nav lights and you had this sense we were surrounded by boats. There were probably only half a dozen in reality!
Rapidly catching Love & War we got within two miles. They came south to cover us and to avoid any holes around Cape Raoul. Then it was into Storm Bay for dawn. TWS was 8 – 10 knots, later gusting to 13. TWA 75 degrees.
Storm Bay is 11nm across. The wind was from the north and we were heading west north west. So it was a fetch. We had to finish within an hour of Love & War to beat her. But she’s 47 feet long and we are 32 feet. Waterline length equals speed. And this was playing into their hands all too well. Up went the BRO. Up went a jib. And we trimmed like lunatics. By now we hadn’t slept for over 18 hours. The fatigue was immense. But we had no option. The whole race was coming down to the last few miles.
We did remarkably well across Storm Bay. Love & War only gained 2.8 miles over nearly two hours of sailing. We entered the Derwent River at 0900 hours. Just as the tide started to ebb. Now onto a beat the outgoing tide made this a longer leg. Again to Love & War’s advantage. We just had to pick the shifts and currents better.
Rounding the Iron Pot we tacked into the first bay. We had the Beneteau 40, Navy One, right alongside and Toecutter just astern. There was more wind in the middle of the river, but more counter current. I’m not convinced the bays worked that well for us. We got lifted off the shore, but the wind was two knots lighter. And you had to sail through headers to get there. Luckily that was only a couple of miles, then the river widened and the current eased a little.
We crossed to the western shore just south of Taroona, enjoying an awesome tacking dual with Toecutter. The water was flat, the sun was shining and the wind was still a pleasant 8 – 10 knots. Approaching the John Garrow light we saw that Love & War had finished. We had 16 mins to sail the last 1.07nm. But it was upwind and the tide was against, nearing max ebb. It was going to be a miracle if we made it, but we convinced ourselves it was possible.
By now we had camera boats around us, drones hovering overhead and we could see the yellow finish buoys. A final tack to lay and it was best course and max hope. It took us 21 minutes to cover that final mile. And with that we waved goodbye to the division win. A position we’d had sewn up just a few hours before. But that’s Hobart and that’s the way it goes. There is just so much local knowledge required on that fickle Tassie coast.
Huge congratulations to Love & War on winning division 5. And to Mistral for winning the double handed division. They sailed an amazing race, pushing incredibly hard the whole way. There was a moment on 28th December where we wrestled the Double Handed lead back, as they navigated their own hole, but they ended up winning by a comfortable margin.
And with that we concluded another epic Hobart race. The first 48 hours were very tough, with strong winds. The final part was tough because of the lack of wind. But the one consistent is the incredible atmosphere both in Sydney and again in Hobart. The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, and their finishing partner, Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania do the most incredible job. We spent a far amount of time with the French competitors on Cocody, Mistral and Min River. Those pros have sailed the biggest events in the world and they all agreed there is no event that rivals the atmosphere and experience of the Rolex Sydney to Hobart.
Final positions:
- Double Handed IRC – 2nd (23 starters, 14 finishers)
- IRC Division 5 – 2nd (13 starters, 8 finishers)
- IRC overall – 16th (78 starters, 56 finishers)
- 104 boats started the race. 74 finished.