AUSMAID / SPIRIT OF THE MAID
Ausmaid –in her glory!
The racing yacht Ausmaid was launched in 1996 and was designed by the world renowned
designer, Bruce Farr, a Kiwi, who is responsible for some of the most famous racing yacht
designs. Ausmaid was Design #328, a Farr 47, constructed primarily from carbon fibre and
foam sandwich. She was designed light and fast and this was proven in the year of her
launching in 1996 when she took the handicap win in Australia’s Blue Water Classic, the
Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Her all up weight without crew of fuel was just over 7000kgs
and this is a yacht nearly 50’ in length. She was just so responsive in light breezes, she really
was a marvel to sail.
Over the next five years, she would compete in that race and be on the handicap podium
every year, 3rd in 1997, 2nd in 1998, 3rd in 1999 and again overall handicap winner in 2000.
Ausmaid carried this racing pedigree through several owners over this period, each of them
marvelling at her performance and the brilliant design. In 2008 she changed hands again to
an eager new owner, Bruce Absolon of Hamilton Island, and she moved home ports about
as far apart as possible in Australia from Freemantle to the warm waters of Hamilton Island.
Her first long distance race under new ownership was the annual Pittwater to Coffs Harbour
Race and Regatta in which she took 3rd place outright and the first three yachts crossed the
line in such close proximity that you could have thrown a blanket over them. In fact over
the 328nm of the race, they were equally close, day and night. In the ensuing race series at
Coffs she was on the podium for each race.
Back home at Hamilton Island she was again a success in club racing, every Wednesday
night being out on the water with a growing list of potential crew wanting to experience
some fast racing. She really was a yacht punching well above her weight.
2009 unfortunately was not to be a great year for the “Maid” in the end. The owner was a
regular competitor in Queensland’s premier ocean race, the Brisbane to Gladstone Race,
was keen to be an early entry, and in fact was the first to enter, eager to show off her
performance. It was planned for a delivery crew to take her to Brisbane several weeks
before the event, to have her slipped and anti-fouled to optimise her performance and
prepare for the race. Due to Bruce’s work commitments on the island, he wasn’t able to
make the trip and “The Maid” was entrusted to some of her regular race crew to deliver her
south. The forecast was benign and all was planned to the finest detail. One of the crew
who had flown up from Brisbane for the delivery had to be dropped off in Gladstone
following the onset of a medical condition. This wasn’t a problem as there was still
sufficient crew on board for the remainder of the trip given the very light forecast
conditions.
All was proceeding well on the final leg to Brisbane and on the 1st April, Bruce the owner
flew down to Brisbane to make the final race preparations, lodge final paperwork at the
race office and await “The Maid’s” arrival. Around 11.30am on the 2nd April, Bruce received
a phone call from AMSA, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority: a phone call that would
make him feel that his world had come crashing down. That call was, “do you know where
your yacht is? The EPIRB has been activated and been picked up by satellite and we don’t
have radio contact with the yacht”. To say a phone call like that makes your stomach drop is
an understatement. The next few hours in particular and next couple of days for Bruce
were a blur. Information was being gleaned as to what had happened with reports of a roll
over.
Despite a benign forecast of smooth seas, flat water and a light easterly of around 8 – 10
knots, a micro system had developed off Double Island Point and “The Maid” had gone
vertical on a 14metre high wave that was breaking on top of that, been flipped over
backwards and then barrel rolled down the same set of waves. At this initial stage, other
than the EPIRB sounding, there was no communication with the crew and an air search had
been initiated by AMSA. The primary aerial asset was the AGL rescue chopper based at
Maroochydore. The sea state was such that it was impossible for a sea search.
On receiving this initial news, Bruce immediately headed off to the Sunshine Coast to the
chopper base, driving through torrential rain that was part of this cloudburst system.
Phones were running hot and more information being gathered as the hours went on.
Information received was that the three crew members were OK with the skipper Chris
Wallington appearing to have some spinal injuries. When the yacht went vertical, Chris was
washed overboard but was still harnessed to the yacht. He did all the manoeuvres and
gyrations of the rolls, outside the boat being dragged through the water. Of the other crew,
Jack Hinkling got into a romantic embrace with the “coffee grinder” pedestal in the cockpit
and Trent Anstee was in the nav station down below and had wedged himself in when he
felt her reaching for the sky and knew this wasn’t going to end well.
Thanks to Mr Farr’s brilliant design, she popped up after these gymnastics with the mast in 3
pieces of shattered carbon fibre, the boom (again carbon) broken and some broken safety
lines. The hull was completely intact. Chris was retrieved from over the side and the crew
launched into well rehearsed safety drills.
The aerial search was on going and the weather was deteriorating. Finally the crew heard
the chopper nearby and started launching emergency flares and eventually one was sighted
by the chopper crew. After speaking to the chopper crew at a later time, they said after
seeing the flare they could still not see the yacht as the sea state was so violent, it was only
by tracing back down along the smoke trail that they got a glimpse of her. The first priority
was to get Chris off as he had suspected spinal injuries and this was not to be an easy task
given they would winch him off the deck of a yacht that was heaving on 10m high seas. The
rescue crewman went down on the wire and one minute would be in the air and then
dunked under water like a teabag in the big seas. The chopper was running low on fuel by
this stage due to the length of the search and the difficulty winching. The reason for not
being able to make radio contact with the yacht became patently clear, the VHF radio aerial
was at the mast top, the mast was no longer there and the crew were using the hand held
radio that had limited range. Chris was to be medivac-ed to Nambour Hospital where Bruce
would meet him on admission as he could not get to the Maroochydore base due to flash
flooding.
By now, Trent and Jack were left alone on the yacht, their experienced skipper gone. There
was still power in the yacht’s batteries to power the chart plotter and miraculously Bruce
was able to make mobile phone contact with the crew. This is even more miraculous given
that the crew’s phone was on the Vodaphone network, not necessarily renown for it’s
network coverage. Their position drifting uncontrolled towards a rocky shore was passed to
the chopper, who at that stage was unable to get airborne due to the weather and was
under increasing pressure to carry out other rescues at Pomona which had experienced
extreme flash flooding from the same micro system. Eventually the chopper got airborne
and located the yacht. The two remaining crewmen had to jump into the water as by now
the seas state was too violent to rescue them off the deck. These two crew later stated that
they didn’t know what was the scariest, the roll over or having to jump into the water
downwind of the damaged yacht and have it chase them down the wave before they were
plucked to safety.
By the time Jack and Trent had been rescued, Bruce was on his way to the Noosa hospital
where they were being taken as the chopper had to go on for more rescues that night at
Pomona. In the interim, a Coast Guard vessel had been despatched from Noosaville to go
the yachts position. There was some thought at the time that she might have to be
abandoned at sea due to the sea state. Bruce meanwhile had been in touch with salvage
experts in Brisbane and were organising an ocean going tug to leave Brisbane to try and take
her in tow. Ultimately the Coast Guard were able to take “The Maid” in tow and take her to
what was hoped to be a safe anchorage in Laguna Bay in front of the main Noosa Resort.
Even in this sheltered bay, there was too much swell for the Coast Guard to get on board to
put out anchors so instead used their own anchor and tow line for anchoring her feeling
that she would hold overnight and the situation be reassessed in the morning light.
Bruce, owner of Ausmaid observes with sadness his much beloved Ausmaid
Arrangements were made that night for a salvage engineer to come up from Brisbane the
next morning and prepare her for towing. The next morning, another day and another
fateful phone call. Bruce received a call from the Coast Guard at 6.25am the next morning
to advise that “The Maid” had broken anchor during the night and had been reported as
being washed up on the Noosa North Shore beach. Bruce went immediately to the Coast
Guard Base at Noosaville and was taken out across a very rough bar to search for her and
she was quickly located, standing proud and upright about a mile north of the bar, her nav
lights still shining. The next hurdle was to find a way of reaching her by land.
By this stage, Greg Boller, a friend of Bruce’s was on the scene. Greg had heard the news
reports in Sydney the afternoon before and immediately flew up to the Sunshine Coast to
be of assistance. Greg that morning scouted through tracks he knew to get to the beach at
times driving through a swamp with the water halfway up the doors but eventually got
through. Greg then escorted Bruce in his 4WD and the others in the rescue party to the
stricken yacht. She was just sitting there, still upright and proud, her once majestic mast
bent around under her like a broken leg being sat on, her keel obviously gone, but those nav
lights still shining brightly as if to say I’m here, I’m hurt but I’m still alive. Probably the
hardest thing that Bruce had to go through after know his crew were OK was turning off
those nav lights, it was akin to turning off the last vestige of hope or life support for your
child, that is how much that yacht meant to Bruce.
The stricken Ausmaid, but crew were now safe
Needless to say in the ensuing weeks and after the delivery crew got back on their feet and
recovered from their trauma, the entire team was feeling pretty dejected as they would no
longer be able to carry on with the proud racing history of the mighty Ausmaid. The
decision was made to “get back on the horse” and the search began for a yacht to continue
the campaign. There ended up being several possible contenders which eventually were
shortlisted down to two possible yachts. One was the original Brindabella another Bruce
Farr design which had raced extensively not only as Brindabella but also as Team Jaguar and
lately as Pirelli. The other was also a Bruce Farr design (design #378) that was at the time
named Ericsson, a Volvo 60 with an illustrious history starting out life as EF Language,
launched in 1997 for the 1998 Volvo Round the World Race, a race that she ultimately won
convincingly. She was renamed Illbruck V2 for the 2001 round the world race and part of
this name remains today as her official registration number is in fact V2. After her
involvement with the two round the world campaigns, she came down under and was
renamed “Nokia” and in her first major race the Sydney to Hobart she smashed the 48 hour
record and took not only line honours but also the handicap win. This record was to stand
for many years only to be broken by the super maxi Wild Oats XI owned by Bruce’s now
employer Bob Oatley.
Brindabella
When Bruce looked at her, she was based in Sydney under the ownership of renown
international yachtsman Iain Murray and a deal was struck. Soon after she went to the
respected shipyard of Sean Langman another champion yachtsman for a strip down and a
repaint in her new livery of “Stars and Stripes” pale blue, the same colour as Dennis
Connor’s yacht Stars and Stripes of the famous 1983 Americas Cup campaign. This colour
was later to prove to be quite ironic. She was also renamed “Spirit of the Maid” as an
enduring honour to her famous predecessor.
She began her new racing campaign at the 2009 Hamilton Island race week, only 3 weeks
after Bruce took delivery of her at the island. All the crew were amazed, astounded and
somewhat wary of the quantum jump in performance levels and wondered if the right
decision had been made. It had though and they soon got to grips with this high
performance beast often referring to her as “Battlestar Gallatica”. They campaigned her,
and continue to do so up and down the east coast with consistent results despite often
unfavourable handicaps and always with close dicing with other competitors. The 2010
Gladstone race saw her cross the line less than 1 sec and less than 1m in front of
“Wedgetail” after dicing in close quarters for 328nm. A similar result was at Coffs Harbour
in 2011 where she raced in a tacking duel with “Future Shock” for the entire race (over
380nm) never more than a couple of hundred metres apart, running in to the back of the
surf to stay out of currents. The crew sailed the big pocket maxi so close to shore at times
they had to check for board riders beside them before tacking. It was truly an exciting
spectacle witnessed by many people on beaches and headlands, that New Years weekend.
Spirit of the Maid-Volvo DT & Bruce-owner at the helm
Coffs Harbour
Over time the crew pool has grown as she requires a crew of 18 to sail her competitively.
The original core crew of Ausmaid remain to this day but not everyone can do every race
and often the organisation behind the scenes for Bruce is a logistical nightmare with the
race crew having spread over the years to be now up and down the east coast with one
even living in Dubai. Bruce originally started his offshore racing pastime with a group of Air
Traffic Controllers of which he was also one and this group has expanded over the
intervening years and spread Australia and worldwide, their common interest never waning
and also enjoying the during and very much post race camaraderie.
For Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2012, Bruce did not have to organise as many crew as
normal as yachting legend John Bertrand and a few of his mates decided to come to Hammo
for a race week on “Spirit of the Maid”. And what a week that was. This is where the irony
comes in with the yacht’s hull colour. Here we have the Americas Cup winning skipper on a
yacht painted the same colour as the one he raced against so fiercely at Rhode Island all
those years ago. The core “Spirit” crew and JB and his mates had a ball that week.
And so times move on, the memories however will never, the highs and lows are still as vivid
as the days they happened, and that is a good thing. It is a constant reminder of what has
been achieved and also the dangers that are ever present. Nature is a wonderful thing, but
also needs eternal respect as it doesn’t matter how big a vessel is, how experienced the
crew are or how famous she is, nature can come up “bite you on the bum” in one sweep
and she is not discretionary.
No grander story than the rise of Ausmaid, the fall and even greater rise of “Spirit of the
Maid”.