Michael "Spiesy" Spies entered the 2026 Rolex Sydney Hobart just days after entries opened. No surprise there: the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and Southport Yacht Club member has competed in 47 Sydney Hobarts.
What makes this campaign different is the boat. Spies steps away from the 126-year-old Maritimo Katwinchar, the Watney circa 1904 vessel owned by Bill Barry-Cotter on which he raced in both the 2024 and 2025 editions, and onto something entirely his own. The J/160, launched in 2000 and recently renamed Maritimo 160 from its former name Sugar, is 53 feet and around 20 feet longer than the 33-foot Katwinchar.
"It's perfect," he said. "We just did a couple of little subtle things to improve it here and there without losing its integrity."
Getting Maritimo 160 to the Boxing Day start is itself a substantial undertaking. First, Spies sails to San Francisco to compete in the Pacific Cup, the biennial 2,100 nautical mile race to Kaneohe, Hawaii. From there the delivery continues to Hamilton Island, where Spies is part of the Race Management team for Hamilton Island Race Week in August, before the final leg south to Sydney.
He's assembled a crew of around seven across several nationalities. Maritimo 160 won't break any speed records, but Spies is confident the team can get the yacht through the racecourse "in quite a competitive and seeming way — with a bit of luck."
A legend in the skiff and yachting world, Spies won the race on Line Honours in 1999 and IMS Overall in 2003. The 2026 campaign feels more personal than those results suggest. He calls Maritimo 160 his "forever boat," and after the finish he has his sights on cruising the northern Queensland circuit, then potentially on through Asia.
"Every regatta I've done in the last four or five decades — you finish it and you're on a plane to somewhere else," he said. "It'd just be nice to actually slow down a bit and enjoy life. It's the sort of boat that you could comfortably live on."
