The 1988 Bicentennial Around Australia Yacht Race stands among the most punishing offshore contests ever undertaken. Mark Pescott's first-hand account from aboard the 60-foot trimaran Power Brewing offers a vivid window into just how unrelenting that challenge proved to be.
At 8.08am on 8 August 1988, a small fleet of multihulls and monohulls departed Sydney on a two-handed circumnavigation of Australia. The event was modelled on the Round Britain and Ireland race, and it demanded that each two-person crew navigate the entire continent with only fixed stopovers providing any relief from the sea. What awaited them was a sustained examination of seamanship, endurance, and self-sufficiency that few offshore events have matched.
Drama arrived almost immediately. That first afternoon brought a 50-knot southerly gale, which caused Escapade to capsize, claimed a rescue boat, and before the night was out had taken a life from the crew of the monohull Boundary Rider. The race had barely begun before it had already extracted the heaviest possible toll.
As the fleet worked its way north and then turned west and south, conditions shifted from the oppressive stillness of tropical calms to sustained gales exceeding 70 knots. Boats were damaged, rigs came down, and crews were pushed to their limits at every turn.
For Pescott, one moment captured the raw power of the voyage. Off Adelaide, with the Southern Ocean running huge and a full moon overhead, Power Brewing surfed down towering seas under staysail alone in 40 knots of wind. It was sailing equal parts terrifying and extraordinary, the sort of experience that defines a racing life.
The punishment was cumulative. A violent broach eventually threatened the liferaft on Power Brewing, and skipper Phillip Smith faced the decision no competitor wants to make. With safety the overriding concern, he chose to withdraw and turn the boat for shore rather than press on toward a finish that had grown too dangerous to chase.
They were not alone in falling short. Only a handful of yachts completed the circumnavigation. Steinlager I, sailed by Peter Blake and Mike Quilter, won convincingly. The remaining finishers arrived battered but resolute, having seen out conditions that had broken others along the way.
The 1988 Bicentennial Around Australia Yacht Race remains a benchmark in two-handed ocean racing, a measure against which the difficulty of any offshore event can be judged.
