3 minute read
Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth is one of the wackier names to have graced the Sydney to Hobart but the boat is a chance of winning on handicap in 2024.
Jules Hall can agree his boat has one of the zanier names of any vessel to have graced the Sydney to Hobart.
"It's quite a mouthful," the co-skipper told AAP with a laugh.
But the joke could be on her competitors, because Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth is in with a chance of becoming the first two-hander to claim the Tattersall Cup as the race's overall winner.
The yacht's unique name goes back 20 years to the first boat Hall purchased as a 21-year-old.
The young Englishman had saved up £2000 and wanted to put it towards either a car or a 1950s wooden folkboat.
"I went for the boat," he said.
But the moniker can even be traced back a century earlier; at the time Hall bought his pride and joy, the aspiring seafarer had finished reading Rudyard Kipling's adventure classic Captains Courageous, published in the late 1800s.
The name of the no-nonsense captain Disko Troop caught Hall's eye, and has lent itself to every boat he's owned since.
"It's an awesome story. I thought that'd be a really fun name. Anyway, it's stuck," he said.
It's common for boats in the Hobart fleet to be named after a sponsor; the last two line honours winners LawConnect and Andoo Comanche took their sobriquets from a legal software program and an appliance retailer respectively.
So when Hall brought sailmaker Contender Sailcloth on board as a sponsor, the already out-of-the-box name became even longer.
Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth won the Hobart's inaugural two-hander division in 2021 with Hall and Jan Scholten as its skippers.
The pair first raced the Hobart together in 2005 but have become more versed in single-handed laser sailing in recent times.
Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth mightn't be as small as some of the dinghies they've sailed, but at 32ft she is one of the Hobart fleet's smallest boats, dwarfed by the four 100ft supermaxis.
This year marks Hall and Scholten's second attempt sailing her as a two-hander, with the yacht boasting a divisional win in the Flinders Islet Race earlier this year.
But the duo have their eyes on a bigger prize than just a win in the Hobart's two-handed division, Hall confident the boat could "totally" take out the entire race on handicap.
"2021 was the first year we had a double-handed division. We got fourth overall that year," he said.
"It's harder because we've got less resources and we are dependent on the weather. All boats are, big boats as well. There's a bit of luck in this. Our job is to sail the boat to its full potential.
"Our boat goes really well dead downwind and into the wind. We're not as strong reaching (when the wind blows across the side of the boat).
"Generally in the Hobart race, it's a nor'easter or it's a southerly. That's why we chose this boat."
But there will be stiff competition from within the two-handed division, with Rupert Henry's boat Mistral placing sixth overall last year and winning the last two double-handed divisions.
"For the record, the last time we raced Disko Trooper did beat Mistral," Hall said.
"We're coming in strong but they're a fantastic competitor. Rupert sails that boat extremely well."
Disko Trooper's competitors would not be surprised to see her wacky name etched into the Tattersall Cup this year, alongside such other colourful titles as She's Apples II and Secret Men's Business 3.5.
Anthony Johnston, skipper of the red-hot mini-maxi URM Group, said a two-hander could "absolutely" win the race if they make the best of a cold front forecast for the 27th of December.
"It'll be a short front but it just depends on how it impacts people at their point in the race," he said.
