Youthful Crew in Sydney-Hobart Race

19-time race veteran Bill Sykes is leading a young team aboard Wot’s Next in the 2007 Sydney-Hobart race, most from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's Youth Sailing Academy and most of them women. There are five young women, four from the Academy and watch captain Stacey Jackson. Sykes is a big believer in encouraging women in the sport. 'I work in a very difficult environment, it can be really hard, and most of the people I work with are women,' he says. 'They make up for any lack of strength by working as a team.'

Most of the young sailors are still at university. 'One is training to be a doctor, another is doing climatology, our bowman is learning mechanical engineering and getting high distinctions,' Sykes remarks, 'there is so much diversity in the group.'

The team has been together much of the year, competing in offshore and round the buoys races to hone their skills. Though the skills side of it really isn’t the point of the program. 'It’s all about shaping up, taking responsibility, focusing on the job you have to do…self coaching as much as anything, turning yourself into a more confident, well-rounded sailor and person.'

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