Sydney to Hobart 2025: The Lessons I Am Taking Forward

I have sailed more than 126,000 nautical miles offshore, and I still treat Sydney to Hobart with respect. It is not just the conditions, it is the compression of time. You turn up, you prepare, you race hard, you manage fatigue, and you make decisions while living in a moving, wet, noisy world. The race has a way of revealing truth quickly.

In 2025, I left the race proud of the way our team showed up for each other, and equally clear on the areas we need to lift. This is not a post about perfection. It is a post about progress.

1. Crew time together is not optional

Every team says it, and I am going to say it too, because it is still true. We needed more time together as a complete crew.

You can have great sailors, great people, and a great boat, but cohesion is built through repetition. It is built in the small moments: how we brief, how we move, how we speak when tired, how we reset after a mistake, how we confirm rather than assume.

Next time we will create more time for sailing together before race week, and we will protect that time. Familiarity reduces friction. In an offshore race, friction costs speed and safety.

2. My personal fitness has to lift

This one is on me. Offshore racing is not just about strength, it is about durability. Rough living onboard takes a toll, especially when sleep is short and the boat is moving hard.

I am satisfied with my sailing decisions and my leadership, but I want more capacity in my body so I can stay sharper for longer. Fitness is not vanity in offshore racing, it is performance insurance. It affects how you recover between manoeuvres, how you handle long stints, and how resilient you are when the conditions grind.

My takeaway is simple: I need to improve my baseline fitness so the boat does not take more out of me than it should.

3. The weather briefing must belong to the whole team

Our weather route was good. I was happy with the strategic choices we made and how we approached the bigger picture.

Where we can improve is how we bring the full crew into the weather and race plan the night before. It is not enough for a couple of people to understand the model, the shifts, and the likely scenarios. When everyone understands the plan, decisions become faster and calmer, and you get better execution when it matters.

A practical change for next time: the full team needs to be in Sydney by 6pm on Christmas night. Not drifting in. Not arriving late and scrambling. If we want to perform, we need to treat the briefing as a key part of the race, not a pre-race formality.

4. A2 sail handling: set up the start properly

I should have taken the sock off the A2 for the start.

For anyone not deep in sail handling detail, the sock is a control system that helps manage the sail during hoists and drops. It is useful, but it also adds steps and time. In the intensity of a start, simplicity wins.

That is an easy improvement and an important reminder: if you can reduce complexity before the gun, do it. Starting clean sets the tone for the whole first phase.

5. Comfort is a performance tool, and yes, the bucket mattered

I was very happy with my forty dollar toilet bucket. That was a glamour.

I am not joking. Offshore performance is made up of dozens of small systems that reduce stress and conserve energy. When basic routines work, morale stays steadier, and people can focus on the sailing.

It is a light moment, but it points to a serious truth: good systems and practical comfort choices reduce cognitive load. They help keep the team in a better headspace when the boat turns rough.

6. Team care is not a nice to have, it is part of speed

One of the best parts of the race was how well the team looked after each other. That matters more than people realise.

When crews are tired, wet, and under pressure, little acts of care keep the whole unit functioning. A reminder to eat. A dry layer passed across. A calm voice when someone is on edge. These things preserve decision making quality, which preserves speed, which preserves safety.

We had a great crew. Great people and sailors. I would sail with all of them again.

7. We were building momentum before the retirement

We were coming back up the placings right up to the retirement. That is what makes it sting, but it also reinforces what was working.

We had pace. We were improving. We were settling into our rhythm. That matters, because it suggests the foundations are there. Our job now is to remove the avoidable friction so we can convert momentum into a complete race.

8. A personal thank you

A sincere thank you to Dr Dave for his medical support during injury assessment and follow up. Having calm, expert input when it counts is invaluable, and I am grateful.

The bottom line

Sydney to Hobart is honest. It rewards preparation, teamwork, and clear thinking, and it punishes assumptions.

My biggest takeaway from 2025 is that our ceiling is high, but the next step is not about bigger ambitions. It is about better basics: more time together, stronger physical durability, tighter shared understanding of weather and plan, and cleaner sail handling decisions from the first minute.

We will take those lessons, build on what worked, and come back better.