Onboard Roger Sturgeon’s Farr design Transpac 65 Rosebud during a training session in Sydney, preparing for the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 2007. The American yacht, won the IRC handicap race and, thus, the Tattersalls Cup as the overall winner of the 2007 race. Roger Sturgeon had to leave before today’s formal prize giving at the yacht club. But at yesterday’s dockside ceremony where the divisional winners were formally announced, Sturgeon was awarded a Rolex Yacht-Master timepiece, the keepsake to the Tattersall’s Cup perpetual trophy for the overall handicap win and promptly handed it to his bowman, Justin Clougher. Hobart-born Clougher – known as “Juggy” in the sailing community — now based in Newport, Rhode Island, has built an international reputation sailing on around-the-world races and in the America’s Cup. But he remains very much a Tasmanian boy. Clougher has sailed in eight previous Sydney Hobart races with the best result aboard Larry Ellison’s Sayonara for her line honours win in 1998.Local family members and his American wife Kerry, children Zoe and Graeme, were in the crowd of several hundred at Constitution Dock, when Sturgeon passed on the watch to a completely surprised Juggy, with the acknowledgement that he had been the most valuable crewman on his STP65′s Australian campaign. Juggy’s role as a wind spotter, high up the mast — as the boat negotiated the calm that slowed her for two hours just outside the mouth of the Derwent River — contributed to her win. “This is a huge shock to me,” said Juggy. “I love sailing, I love Hobart and being able to race home is fantastic, I just love it. And to bring the boat home in a strong position is just such a good feeling. I was so excited.”“I have no idea what the watch is worth, but to me you couldn’t put a price on it and I think every other sailor in this whole fleet would be the same. You can take the watch off the front but you leave me that back plate with the words on it (2007 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race).”From weather reports Rosebud knew there was a northwesterly breeze blowing in Hobart. “We just had to hope it would fill in down the river. We wanted to keep the boat moving towards the Iron Pot in any way, shape or form so we could get into that new breeze. We got it…just.”The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race marked the end of Rosebud’s Australian campaign’s unbeaten record. Earlier in December, Rosebud won the IRC handicap division of the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge on Sydney Harbour and IRC Division 1 in the Rolex Trophy Rating Series.
Words: KPMS
