BATTLING TO HOBART

Discovering Andrew Wilson has been the sort of exciting surprise that comes with editing a column like Great Seamanship. Andrew is a photographer working in Tasmania. He knows yacht and boat seafaring from keel to truck and is quick to point out that the weather in his part of the world, which he describes as the ‘Roaring Forties’, generally changes every five minutes.

This lavish new volume, Blue Water Classics, Portaits of the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, is an absolute must-have for all ocean racing fans, revealing through interviews the feelings of the event’s greatest participants. The extract below is the interview with Ian ‘Barney’ Walker from Melbourne, a true Southern Ocean warrior and one of those supremely versatile professional sailors who seem to excel in all areas of the competitive scene, having campaigned in three Whitbread/Volvo round the world races, two America’s Cups, three Olympic keelboat events and 32 Sydney Hobarts, including three overall victories.

In the book, this