At 60, Jiang Lin could have spent the year-end festive season with her feet up. Instead, she won one of the world’s toughest yacht races, the 630nm Rolex Sydney Hobart, with only one crew, becoming the first female to do so in the 80-year history of the event, and amid a record Chinese entry list.
When her relatively tiny 10m JPK 1030 yacht Min River, named for her ancestral homeland in Fujian Province, was confirmed winner of the premier IRC handicap prize, the Tattersall Cup, and of a Rolex Seamaster, it became the crowning glory in a rough race that saw all Asian entries finish, no mean feat in a heavy beating race that saw 35 of the 128 starters retire.
“I did not have hopes of winning,” she said in Hobart. “You think about all the 100-something boats, all the big boats and superb sailors out there. Not in my wildest dreams did I think this would come true for me. So no, I didn’t think about it. The best would be winning our division”.
Which, with the propitious sail number AUS888, she and co-crew, the French professional sailor Alexis Loisin, did as well as collecting overall honours.
Lee Seng Huang’s SHK Scallywag 100, formerly Syd Fischer’s Ragamuffin 100, kicked off the Asian challenge this year among the superyachts. Sponsor SHK is his leading investment and property firm Sun Hung Kai, although Lee also has Malaysian interests through Mulpha Australia with Sanctuary Cove, Hayman Island and other substantial holdings.
Team WhiteWave, aboard a Malaysian-built DK 46, Sail #8338
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