Free Fatal Storm by Rob Mundle Page B

was headed by New Zealand ace and principal helmsman Chris Dickson, an America’s Cup, match racing and around-the-world racer who had come straight from taking his marriage vows in Auckland. Californian Mark Rudigerwas navigator and had guided Paul Cayard’s EF Language to a crushing victory in the Whitbread round-the-world race earlier in the year.
    Steve Kulmar and family arrived at the club, squeezed their car into the already packed temporary carpark, unloaded the gear, then prepared themselves for the annual dock dance – the ducking, weaving and dodging necessary to reach the yacht.
    “We’d never been aboard Sword of Orion so we all hopped on and had a bit of a look around,” recalls Libby Kulmar. “I hadn’t met Glyn [Charles] and some of the crew so we chatted while they were getting ready.”
    The family didn’t want to stay for the start, preferring instead to be at home in time to watch it live on television. They decided they would all go to the clubhouse with Steve, but not before Madeline took a photo of her father with the new waterproof camera he’d been given for Christmas. They met up with friends, Bob and Sue and Matt Fraser. Bob had an update on the weather – the southerly buster was definitely brewing and on current indications would greet the fleet off the south coast of NSW some time between 2am and dawn. He confirmed the anticipated wind strength in the change was around 35 knots and added that it might back to the west. The low that was looming was still an unknown quantity. Kulmar thought they would probably have a quick beam reach for the crossing of Bass Strait. But he was getting impatient. It was time to go. He walked Libby, Maddie and John back to the car.
    “We wanted to get back home, cool off with a swim then watch the start on television,” said Libby. Steve was about to say goodbye to Maddie when she produced a surprise gift for him.
    “Dad, I got this in the Christmas stocking. It’s a good luck charm for you. I’ve got one and this one’s yours.”
    She handed him a loop of thin luminous yellow cord. Hanging on it like a pendant was a small plastic ball, one-third the size of a golf ball. It was a pink piglet’s head. When you squeezed it the piglet’s mouth opened and shut and made a clacking sound.
    “You have to wear it,” Maddie said.
    Steve bent down and Maddie put it over his head.
    “Maddie, it’s beautiful. Thank you, darling,” he said as he kissed her goodbye. He waved as they drove off, and then, with the piglet pendant secured around his neck, battled his way back to Sword of Orion.
    The CYC was not the only hive of pre-race activity that Boxing Day morning. All around the harbour, other yacht clubs, marinas and private docks were buzzing with last minute preparations. In pretty Mosman Bay two well-known and well-respected yachting figures were busy getting their charges set for sea.
    Ian Kiernan, better known as “Bik”, or “Captain Yucky Poo” to his mates (he earned the latter nickname through his prodigious environmental activities), had in recent years become an Australian household name. More than a decade earlier Kiernan’s love for Sydney Harbour had motivated him to organise the successful “Clean Up the Harbour” community campaign. It soon grew into “Clean Up Australia” and then the United Nations-backed “Clean Up the World” campaign.
    “It started with 40,000 people cleaning up Sydney Harbour in 1989,” Kiernan recalls. “It has now grown to 40 million people in 120 countries cleaning up the world. I’m proud of every one of them.”
    Kiernan’s yacht, the classic Alan Payne-designed 36-footer Canon Maris , had an historic link with the Hobart race. Its original owner Jack Earl – a man whom Kiernanregarded as a father-figure and mentor – was one of the event’s founders. That link was strengthened with the inclusion of Earl’s grandson, Matthew Tomaszewski, in the Canon Maris crew. Also aboard was Jonathan