Aussie yacht navigator teams up with Brits

Cahalan, who will become the first female to do the race 30 times, will be aboard British boat Sunrise, which has scored high overall placings in most of the world's other major offshore races.

In 2021, Sunrise was the overall winner of the 2021 Fastnet and was second in the Middle Sea race and earlier this year won her division of the RORC Caribbean 600.

The fleet of 111 includes eight international entries, the first overseas-based boats to contest the race since 2019.

Cahalan is the most successful female sailor in Sydney to Hobart history with six line honours wins and two overall victories.

Five of the line honours victories and both overall wins were aboard supermaxi Wild Oats XI and she was also first across the line on 80-foot Swedish maxi Nicorette.

Sunrise is much shorter than those big boats at 38-foot and will be the smallest Sydney to Hobart entrant Cahalan has sailed on this century.

She has sailed before on other yachts with Sunrise's boat captain Dave Swete, who is lining up for his seventh Sydney to Hobart.

The other British and New Zealand crew members won't arrive till about a week before the race, but Cahalan felt their familiarity with the boat would offset their lack of sailing preparation in Sydney.

"I guess they do it all year, flying in and out of races, they don't worry about it so much," Cahalan said.

"I'm the local knowledge person, they've got a regular navigator, so I've got a little different role this year. I'll be on the deck as well as back-up navigator.

"This race is well suited to having two navigators because it's very intense and you really don't have time to go to sleep."

Not counting the cancelled 2020 race, Cahalan hasn't missed a Sydney to Hobart since 2007, when she was eight months pregnant.

"I'm very proud of my record in this race and for me I just can't imagine being on the shore watching the fleet leave without me," Cahalan said.

When Cahalan made her Sydney to Hobart debut in 1984 she recalled being one of only around five females in the race, while this year there will be more than 100.

"Now it is really becoming more and more hopefully merit-based and people don't need to ask the question anymore, " shen said.

"It's all about you just bringing your skills to the table and you are taken for who you are, not whether you've got an M or a F after you on your birth certificate."

Australian Associated Press