Mike is an experienced yacht racing sailor who sails with his son and a regular crew aboard his Farr 740 Sports sailing boat named "Oh Really!" and also as a general crewman on larger ocean racing craft. He took up sailing as a relaxing hobby after he 'retired' from motor cycle racing at the age of 35. By a strange coincidence, within a year he was trying to go faster than other skippers on their yachts ... and a new competitive passion had surfaced.  Five boats later, he still dreams of the next ‘bigger’ and faster yacht.

Since 2002 he has sailed on a range of offshore racing yachts, building his skills and ‘sea miles’ by helping to deliver boats from Brisbane to Sydney, from Melbourne to Adelaide and most recently from Adelaide to Sydney. Along the way he has competed in five Adelaide to Port Lincoln Race events.

In December 2008 Mike achieved a long time quest to race in the challenging ‘Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race’.  After six years of local waters racing aboard the 56 ft racing yacht  ‘Pale Ale Rager’ (owned by Adelaide doctor and yachtsman Gary Shanks), Mike was selected to compete in this classic 640 mile race starting on Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day. It was not all plain sailing!

Some images courtesy of Sail-World.com and Rolex Media

The first part of the commitment was a long-haul delivery from Adelaide to Sydney in mid December, a rugged 7 day journey with headwinds topping out around 50 knots and very heavy seas off the continental shelf between Kangaroo Island and King Island in Bass Strait. The skipper decided to head to Portland in Victoria for a day to let the heavy weather pass by.

The 2008 Sydney to Hobart was a very fast race. Rager arrived at Hobart docks after 2 days, 16 hours and 42 minutes, achieving speeds of 26 knots (about 50kph) while crossing Bass Strait, surfing down large swells and breaking seas, with some exciting white water wave piercing.  Only lack of wind near Tasman Island for about three hours, followed by a rapid change to nasty 50 knot winds ‘on the nose’ across the aptly named Storm Bay conspired to spoil what was looking like a major race upset for this 20 year old race boat.

Being part-sponsored by a brewery helps the after-race partying in Hobart – and the Coopers Pale Ale was flowing for days at the historic Salamanca Pubs.