Remaking history

Even so, the 32-footer was in complete disrepair. “She was very dilapidated,” recalls Bill. So much so that it took two years of painstaking work at Maritimo’s Hope Harbour shipyard on the Gold Coast to bring her back to life.

Maritimo General Manager of Operations Phil Candler and his team, led by Steve Cox, harnessed the skills of heritage boat specialist Ian Harris and master craftsman Andrew Caz, along with apprentice Joshua Seaton, to complete the complex restoration.

“We looked for the most highly qualified staff to work on Bill’s labour of love,” said Candler, who noted others on the project included legendary Hobart sailor Michael Spies, and Bill’s brother and skipper Kendal, who brought his sail-making expertise to the challenge.

It was no mean feat, but the specialist team were able to restore the 114-year-old yacht to not just her former glory, but to Category 1 race requirements, allowing her to take part the 2019 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

There was a mammoth amount of work ahead for the Maritimo team to ensure her encore performance. First, they stripped the double-ended wooden hull, took the deck off and started again with a bare shell.

“We then did a full measure of the whole boat and put it through our design software program. We found that it was already the most efficient design for a boat her size and weight, so only modifications to the keel and rudder were done in order to comply with stability requirements,” says Candler.

The restoration involved replacing the rotten English oak used in the stem, keel and sternpost. It was then rebuilt as close as possible to the original, using the same timbers that were first used. All the planking on the hull, which is Canadian cedar, is original.

The wooden shell was then sheathed in fibreglass and inside, during my walk-through, I noticed glassed ribs, all beautifully finished in two-pack paint. Originally a centre-boarder, the hull was remodelled to incorporate a fixed-bulb keel, which allowed compliance for Category 1 race requirements and added stiffness.

The original rig’s wooden spars were replaced by new tapered, keel-stepped alloy masts and a bowsprit was added. The sail plan continues to use a symmetrical spinnaker, but the great advantage with the ketch rig is, of course, the spread of canvas across the hull.

With a mizzen staysail as well, light airs favour Katwinchar, but Michael Spies noted they were happy for a variety of conditions in the Hobart, where they competed in a specially formed Veteran Division with several other classics such as the S&S 34 Komatsu Azzurro and the larger Fidelis.

Sailing’s Holy Grail

Among Katwinchar’s crew for the 2019 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race was Olympic sailor Scott Kaufman and local identity Robert Case, along with navigator Murray Spence and Michael Spies, who memorably skippered the record-breaking Nokia in 1999 and has campaigned on some of the most successful modern racers, including the TP52 Ichi Ban.

From the media boat I watched Katwinchar sail out of Sydney Heads at the tail end of the 157-boat fleet, powered up by a following light nor-easterly wind that eventually saw line-honours winner Comanche surf south at 26 knots.

Steering on Katwinchar, Michael Spies was more than happy with its 8 knots of boat speed in the lumpy conditions. As the oldest boat in the history of the race, Katwinchar was setting an incredible precedent but had illustrious competitors around her including the S&S 48 Windrose (Ashok Mani, Tas); Komatsu Azzurro (Shane Kearns, NSW); Natelle Two (Laura Roper, Tasmania); and three-time race winner, Love & War (Simon Kurts, NSW).

So successful was that first two-day leg down the New South Wales coast that Katwinchar became overall handicap leader and in line for the prestigious Tattersall Cup. But then conditions softened further south where the coast was blanketed by smoke from the unprecedented bush fires.

Successfully crossing Bass Strait, southerly winds slowed the smaller boats in the fleet that were mostly east of the rhumb line and seeking a better angle of approach to Hobart, but the plucky Katwinchar was going well at 7 knots and still ahead of its veteran rivals on handicap.

Across the oft-dreaded Storm Bay and finally up the Derwent the little ketch sped, finishing the 628-nautical-mile race on Monday night in a time of 4 days 6 hours.

Delighted skipper Kendal Barry-Cotter, who had done the race for his brother Bill whose ill health had prevented him from joining them, declared on Constitution Dock: “It’s been a privilege to be involved in the restoration of the boat with my brother. And to race it with guys like Michael Spies and the rest of our crew has been absolutely fantastic.”

The crew had to overcome frustrating lulls, bursts of belting winds and energy-sapping heat that saw temperatures soar above 40°C. For the seasoned Michael Spies, who now has 43 Sydney Hobart Yacht Races under his belt, this year’s race reminded him why the event is so hard: “It was pretty easy physically, but today just tore strips off us. It was a challenge,” he said dockside.

“Storm Bay on Monday destroyed us, and the Derwent – well, it’s the reason why this is one of the most challenging races in the world. Out there today, it went from zero knots to literally 40 knots.”

Reflecting on Katwinchar’s win, I recalled the last words Bill Barry-Cotter said to me back in December when I prompted him to share his business philosophy for the benefit of the crew. “Never give up,” he said. Just keep going no matter what setbacks you have.”

For Bill Barry-Cotter, it would seem that philosophy has paid off in spades.

Read more articles like this in the next issue of Sails Magazine.

maritimo.com.au