NYYC Members Bill and Will Hubbard in Rolex Sydney Hobart Race
The Hubbards’ Dawn Star at the start of the 2010 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race.
Photo Rolex/Daniel Forster.
Hobart, Australia — Jan 1, 2011 — It was a bright and windy morning today when boat owners, crews, friends and family gathered on the lawn of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania in warm sunshine for the official prize-giving of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2010. The race’s rich 66-year history provides for an impressive collection of race booty: intricately crafted silver trophies, hand-carved half models and unique awards.
Just finishing the race makes you a winner resonated with the father and son team aboard the US entry, Dawn Star. Keen sailors and competitors Bill and Will Hubbard – NYYC members — shared a life-long dream of sailing in a Rolex Sydney Hobart, what has become known as the world’s toughest ocean going race. The 76-year old Hubbard said of the race, “I can honestly say it was the worst race and the best race I’ve ever done—and that’s the honest to God’s truth. The second day was hell on earth. I’ve never been so unhappy and thought that I made a major error in judgment.”
Bill Hubbard, 26, said the race was, “Wet! It was a test of endurance, but we got here.” At one point during the race south, Dawn Star was hit by a freak wave and knocked down, sending two crew members overboard. “Their safety gear kept them from being lost,” admitted the younger Hubbard.
And with a twinkle in his eye, the sunburned and unshaven elder Hubbard looked back on the adventure that was the 2010 Rolex Sydney Hobart and said, “The fourth day was the most fantastic day on the water we’ve ever spent. The wind was perfect. The weather was perfect and in that night every star in the sky was out. It was beautiful.”
Before leaving Sydney, Bill Hubbard’s son, Will, sailed their Baltic 46 Dawn Star from San Diego last February to be in Sydney for the race. This was the first Rolex Sydney Hobart for the pair.
The American sailing duo has always wanted to compete in the Rolex Sydney Hobart. Bill said, “There are a couple of reasons. My grandfather was Australian, and we have a number of relatives here. Over the last 10 years we’ve competed in a number of world-class races, including the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge and the Newport Bermuda Race, and have done well. The Rolex Sydney Hobart was a natural, and we thought we must add this race. It’s one of the premier, if not the premier, rough ocean passage races of the circuit. We thought, what the heck, let’s do it.”
The father and son team won the St. David’s Lighthouse Trophy in the 2006 Bermuda Race in their previous Lively Lady II.
