Description:
On December 26, 1998, 115 yachts set out from Sydney Harbor at the start of the Sydney to Hobart race--a grueling 735-mile race down the east coast of Australia, across the Bass Strait, and down the length of Tasmania. The Syd-Hob is widely known as the toughest open-ocean race on earth, but the 1998 race was the toughest yet. By the end of the day on the 29th, six lives were lost, over 50 sailors were rescued, five boats were sunk, and many more boats--and sailors--were damaged. A Hard Chance is another look at the Syd-Hob disaster, one refreshingly free of overarching fingerpointing. While the efforts of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in rescuing more than 50 sailors are enthusiastically praised, the Weather Bureau--which bore the brunt of the blame by some accounts--is absolved. In the end it was each sailor's decision to participate, and each skipper's responsibility to make decisions for his or her ship. ("It is one thing to willingly participate in an ocean race as a sport, a pastime or a passion. It is voluntary. None of the 1,135 participants was on board because he or she was required to be.") Journalist Kim Leighton allows the voices of the participants to shine through, lending immediacy to his narrative of a dangerous race gone seriously wrong. The text does sometimes get bogged down in technical detail, and landlubbers may feel adrift in a sea of sailing terminology ("We started to gibe as the wind shifted and we blew a spinnaker, which we replaced with a number three jib"), but the story remains compelling. --Sunny Delaney
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