Six-month Voyage Brings Mexicans To Starting Line
The Age
Monday December 24, 2007
A competitor from across the globe has added a distinctly Latino flavour to this year's race, writes Jacquelin Magnay.
WHEN Mexican pharmacist Marcos Rodriguez decided he wanted to take his Beneteau 40.7 from his home town of Acapulco to the exotic southern Pacific Islands, he thought about incorporating the "famous" Sydney to Hobart in his itinerary as a secondary project. He studied the rules and the requirements, the safety impositions and the boat necessities and then immediately postponed the entire trip for 12 months. "Everyone was a little afraid at first," he said.But the main cause for hesitating to enter the race was not fear, it was a small item buried in the fine print of the race rules. Rodriguez's nephew Alexis Rodriguez was just 17 and by delaying the project for a year it meant he could come on board as a crew member."We delayed it especially for him because you have to be 18 to race in the Sydney to Hobart and we all wanted to do it, it is a very famous race in Mexico," said Rodriguez.Rodriguez's will be the first Mexican entry in the 63-year history of the Sydney to Hobart. His boat Iataia, on the marina at Rushcutters Bay flying a Mexican flag, has added a distinctly Latino atmosphere to the race. Iataia was swathed in gold and green tinsel and swarming with smiling happy children over the weekend. The reason? "I don't know how he knows, but Santa Claus is coming here on Christmas Eve night," Rodriguez said beaming. Scampering around the boat were his daughters, Nuria and Sonia, his niece, Sophia, and nephew Alfredo putting a few last-minute decorations on the wheel. On Christmas Day the clan will outgrow the boat and move to a city hotel for Christmas lunch, overseen by Rodriguez's mother Leonor. His brother, Alex, sister-in-law Patricia, crew members, including 36-year-old skipper Marc Rosenfeld, Rosenfeld's wife, Daniela, and Daniela's mother, Monika, will also be tucking into the turkey, ham and pudding. And perhaps sipping a quiet nip of tequila.Postponing the "project" for the year has been fortuitous. Rodriguez said the six-month voyage arriving in Coffs Harbour in October was very enjoyable. Of the weeks at sea they experienced only four to five days of rough weather, but nothing horrendous. The most unsettling event happened when Rodriguez sustained a severe foot infection after stepping on parts of a coral reef in Tahiti. He was two days' sailing away from a hospital in Raiatea in French Polynesia, all the while his foot was blowing up like a balloon.However with the prevailing north-easterly winds predicted for this year's Boxing Day start of the Sydney to Hobart, Rodriguez will most likely not face conditions like last year's, which battered the fleet on the first night and forced two of the race favourites in Maximus and ABN Amro to withdraw.His overriding goal is to arrive in Hobart safely. "My crew want to go fast, I just want to get there," he said. "We have seen all the movies and the pictures of the race and read as much as possible. It will probably take us four days but we will probably be one of the last boats to arrive in Hobart." Even so Rodriguez, 45, has stripped more than a tonne of weight from the boat to convert her "from cruise mode to racing mode".Rodriguez has hired a 60-foot boat for his family to be part of the flotilla of spectator craft on the harbour for the 1pm start. There will also be a contingent of family and friends in Hobart for the finish - each carrying two bottles of tequila to rival the beer-swilling tradition of the other crews.Rodriguez said he had been amazed at the friendliness and goodwill shown to him by other sailors. "I used to think Australians were serious but I have found the culture of sailing here to be amazing," he said. "I have changed my opinion, everyone is happy and helpful, people come up with tips about the weather, what to wear, the routes, the sails, everything, it has been fantastic. I think this is one of the best places in the world for sailing. There is a race on any day in the evening and with or without spinnakers you can find 80 boats outside the heads."
© 2007 The Age