When great mates Paul Neilson and Ash Bartle sail through the start line at Portsea Pier on Friday, they’ll be quietly honouring a big achievement – their 20th Melbourne to Hobart Westcoaster.
The true celebration won’t begin until they make it to the finish line in Hobart after a tough yacht race that often ends with fewer boats than it started.
After many years screaming down the west coast of Tasmania together as crewmates, this time around the duo will be rivals trying to beat each other on different boats – Paul on Alien and Ash on Cadibarra.
The 20 boats competing in this year’s 435 nautical mile race – one of the main events for the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria – will set off from Portsea at 10am on December 27.
After sailing through Port Phillips Heads, the fleet will shoot across Bass Strait before tackling the wild west coast of Tasmania and the rolling swells of the Southern Ocean.
Once they’re across the bottom of Tassie, the race turns the corner and heads north to Hobart, passing Bruny Island before hitting the infamous River Derwent, where the fickle conditions have been known to upend the leaderboard and break the toughest sailor’s heart.
In the jittery lead-up to race day, Paul and Ash sat down for a chat at Hobsons Bay Yacht Club in Williamstown to reflect on their enduring friendship, and the wins and losses, through decades of ocean racing.
Congratulations on your 20th Westcoaster. How many have you done together and what do you like about being crewmates?
Paul: Ash is a good mate. We think alike, we’re both keen to race and push the boat as hard as we can. I’d say we’ve done maybe 12 or 13 Hobarts together, mostly with Angus Fletcher on Tevake I and Tevake II. Both of us as watch captains and then as co-skippers. We did a lot of ocean racing with Angus (their revered skipper who passed away suddenly almost four years ago).
Ash: Paul’s a bit of a scallywag and he’s great fun at the other end. But when you’re racing with Paul, and you get in your bunk, and you know he’s up there steering, and you know he’s more than competent to look after the boat and get it down the race track, then you know you’ll still be there in the morning. We met in the Tevake I days (1990-2000s). They were looking for another steerer and I came over to Hobbos and went for a sail with Angus and Paul and had a try out. It was like going for a job interview. Straight away I thought, this is going to work, these are the people you want to sail with. We lost Paul for a while, as you do when people go off and do their thing. He did a lot of sailing with Eric Marsh before they did the Melbourne to Osaka race (in 2013), but then he came back to Tevake.
Tell us about your most memorable races?
Paul: We always look forward to getting down the bottom of the South West Cape, because you know you’re usually going to get a good fast run, and the scenery going past Maatsuyker Island is a sight to behold. But then you’ve got to sail up the Derwent and it’s the worst place to sail in the world. It shuts down on you. You could be screaming through Storm Bay and then get shut down in the Derwent and you might sit there for hours and hours and hours, as we did on Turbulence (in 2012). We were leading through Storm Bay and got shut down in the Derwent and it costs us the race to Angus on Tevake II.
Ash: When you get to the bottom of Tasmania and the swell is big and you’re starting to crack off and come around the corner and the boat is starting to really drive, that’s when it’s great. Going across the bottom is fantastic. That’s what you do it for. There’s five parts of the race, but that bottom bit is not long enough. It’s a little boat in a big ocean.
Some race details: When was your first Hobart, who are you sailing with this time, and have you had any wins?
Paul: My first Hobart was on Tevake I with Angus when I was 20 or 21. I ditched the old man (John Neilson) on his boat to go with Angus, and the old man won it and I never heard the end of it, until he died. This year I’ll be sailing on Alien with Justin Brenan. This will be my second with Justin. We won it last year. I think I’ve won maybe four or five – with Tevake I and Tevake II, Slinky Malinky (skippered by Eric Marsh), and line honours on Spirit of Downunder (skippered by Tim and Laurie Ford).
Ash: Kevin Curtis was my first skipper on Sea Eagle, and one of the crew was Paul Roberts, who is the skipper of the boat I’m on this year, which is Cadibarra. I was 30 when I did my first Westcoaster and I think I’ve won three – one on Sea Eagle and two on Tevake.
What is it about ocean racing that creates such strong bonds between people?
Paul: You’ve really only got each other to rely on out there when things go pear-shaped. When it gets rough and nasty you’re trusting your crewmates to look after you and keep you safe.
Ash: I think in this day and age, people hide behind all sorts of things, but you can’t hide in the ocean. Everything you do is your personality and who you are. You can say what you like before you go, but when you’re in the ocean it strips all that away. It’s raw, it’s harsh.
What are your favourite sailing conditions for the race and why?
Paul: With Tevake I and Tevake II, it was always reaching and running in heavy breeze. That was the quickest for both Tevakes and our best chance of winning. The heavier the weather the better for Tevake, and for Turbulence too. The Adams and the Radfords suited those conditions. But different boats suit different conditions. Some boats like it light and go well in those conditions, but Tevake liked heavy reaching.
Ash: As Angus used to say, 30-50 knots on the nose. You want it to be blowing. You want to see what it does down there, that’s why you go.
You’ve both talked about Angus a lot. What do you most miss about him?
Paul: I miss the friendship and Angus’s attitude. We pushed the boat very hard. A lot of boats in 50 knots wouldn’t put spinnakers up. Angus would. He’d have us putting kites up, pushing the boat, pushing ourselves, to get the best result we could. I miss that, and he was a great navigator.
Ash: There’s a lot of things about Angus that I miss. He was very dry, his sense of humour. But as well-to-do and as educated as he was, he always had an ability to communicate and be a friend to the working class, which is what Hobsons Bay Yacht Club is really. He could bridge most things. I’ve sailed with a lot of people and with Angus, he could tell you what was going to happen before it happened. He just had this wily sense of what he thought was right.
What were your fastest and slowest Hobarts?
Paul: My fastest Hobart would have been in, I think, 2006 when Angus bought Tevake II and we did it in just over 50 hours. It was the first race on the boat and we blew every single sail that Angus had on board. I think he worked it out that in sails alone we cost him $1000 an hour. But we were going very fast, we were doing mid to high 20s. There were a couple of slow ones. There was one on Slinky Malinky and one on Tevake I. We finished on New Year’s Day, and one finished right on midnight New Year’s Eve.
Ash: The longest was when we got in on New Year’s Day, which was about five days, but we got absolutely smashed at the start and only four boats finished. The fastest was 51 hours on Tevake II. We had heaps of food left over because no one was eating anything. Once we were in Hobart everyone was coming back to the boat for a feed after we’d been at the Customs House.
Do you still get nervous before big races? What kind of prep work do you do?
Paul: I don’t really get nervous. You do get excited and look forward to it. I mean, it’s a race, so you’re out there to win. You always look at the weather beforehand and keep an eye on it. These days, you’ve got Predict Wind and all these different models that you’ve got access to, and during the race as well, which you never used to have. When I did my first Hobart it was all paper charts. GPS wasn’t a big thing, so it was done by charts and listening to radio weather reports. Now boats have laptops and we can look at the tracker and know exactly where our competitors are. It’s changed a lot.
Ash: The worst part is probably before the start because you just want to race. You have all this preparation and lead up, and Christmas, and trying to get the boat ready and you just what the race to start. And then everything else melts away. That’s what you’re there for. It’s you and the crew and the boat, and hopefully you’ve prepared it well and it’s going to look after you.
The question people always ask: why Melbourne to Hobart and not Sydney to Hobart?
Paul: It’s a bit more challenging in my eyes. It’s known as the wild west coast. There are very few places to protect us and it does get wild and exciting. But never say never.
Ash: I’ve started four and finished three Sydney-Hobarts. We used to do it every four years on the way home from Vanuatu. When you sail, it’s the first question anyone asks, ‘Have you done a Sydney to Hobart?’. I think you’ve got to do one, just so you can say you’ve done it. But the Westcoaster is the Westcoaster. It’s far more challenging. You’re on the west side of Tasmania. The swell around the world, clipping underneath the bottom of Tassie, is something to see.
And finally, why so many Westcoasters and will this be your last?
Paul: You do it for the camaraderie with the crew, and it’s a great race. It’s never the same, every year is always a different challenge, and the camaraderie on the boat and when you get to Hobart is second to none. It probably won’t be my last. I’ve been saying it’s my last since the 2000s and I’m still doing it.
Ash: I would say the people and the friendships you make is what keeps you coming back. I have been contemplating if this is my last because how many more do you want to do? But it gets in your blood, like Paul, it’s just what he does. So we’ll see, but it probably won’t be my last.
