Feb. 10/2023: Got a hot text this morning from an old shipmate of mine, Geoff Hill, tipping me off that he’s been prominently featured in an official Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race viddy as the living incarnation of “the true Corinithian spirit of the race.”
I can attest to this. I first met Geoff in 1992, when I was pick-up crew on the waterfront in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and was lucky enough to catch a ride on his first Antipodes, a Taswell 56, running in Jimmy Cornell’s America 500 rally. Sometime later he tapped me to crew as a helmsman on this same Antipodes in the 2000 Sydney-Hobart Race, as memorialized in this hoary old blog post. This was Geoff’s third Hobart, and it was, without doubt, a Corinthian campaign.
Geoff’s current Antipodes, a Santa Cruz 73, is a bit more aggressive than the one I sailed on. Here she is in the most recent Hobart race, rounding the corner into Tasmania’s Storm Bay
What you really want to do is watch the viddy. The whole thing if you have the time. But if you’re in a rush, you can skip to 14:38 to get to the section that focuses most on Geoff and Antipodes.
Those with an eagle eye will note that I’m in there too.
That’s me in Geoff’s book of sailing memories, second from the left, next to Geoff (far left), as we picked up our prize in 1992 for coming first in our class in the America 500.
The beginning of a beautiful friendship. I also sailed with Geoff in the Newport-Bermuda Race in 2006 (the race’s 100th anniversary), on Hank Schmitt’s Swan 48 Avocation, which Geoff and a buddy, George Snow (then owner of the famous Aussie yacht Brindabella), had chartered for the event. Once again I was a helmsman, and we came third in class.
Lindsey May was our navigator. Later that same year Lindsey skippered Love and War, an old wooden S&S 47, with Geoff and George on as crew, to an overall win in the Hobart race, taking the hallowed Tattersall Cup.
Not too shabby for a bunch of amateurs.
