PROFILE: GAIL HARLAND

PROFILE: GAIL HARLAND

First Hobart.

Gail Harland grew up in the Sydney's inner-west, a fair way from the sea, but this didn't hamper her becoming a well-regarded offshore yachtswoman, reports Di Pearson.

Brought up and schooled in the western Sydney suburb of Sefton, Harland’s chosen sport was tennis. On finishing school, she travelled to university at St. Leonards where she could not help but see Sydney Harbour.

Driving her to uni one day, Harland’s father asked a casual question that was to change the course of her life forever and to result in 14 Sydney Hobart Yacht Races to date.

‘Dad asked what I’d like for my 19th birthday. I told him I’d like sailing lessons ‘ I can’t remember why it even occurred to me, but that’s what I asked for. He was so surprised we nearly had a car accident, but that’s what he and Mum gave me, and it’s the best thing I ever asked for and did,’ she says.

That was 25 years ago and the Harbord sailor has not looked back. Apart from 14 Hobart races, she has done every major ocean race out of Australia at one time or another.

On finishing the 2006 Hobart, Harland claimed the distinction of having achieved the third highest number of Sydney Hobart races achieved by any female world-wide. Only world famous Sydney yachtswoman Adrienne Cahalan and Jan Howard with 16 and 15 races respectively outrank her - a remarkable effort for anybody - let alone a girl who took her first sailing lesson at 19.

An ongoing yachting career started with six sailing lessons at Sail Australia at Lavender Bay. The first few lessons were conducted by Mark Michel, who went on to become a single and double-handed sailor of note. A second instructor, Peter Dyball, a prominent offshore racer at the time, introduced her to ocean racing.

‘Sail Australia used to hold sailing weekends away offshore so we would be as proficient as we were in enclosed waters. Peter Dyball got me started in ocean racing. We learned on a Marauder 26 and did a few overnighters to get experience.

‘They (Sail Australia) at one stage had a Cavalier 32 called Q, and I was invited to do the Pittwater-Coffs Harbour race with them ‘ it was my first offshore race and I was hooked straight away,’ she remembers.

The yachtswoman tells a funny story during an early Montague Island Race with Mark Michel. ‘I celebrated my 21st birthday during that race, so I took along a bottle of Moet and a birthday cake and as we rounded Montague, I popped the cork and brought out the cake. I could tell from the look on Mark’s face that he didn’t approve ‘ and I didn’t know any better then!’

Following on from that race, Harland went to Middle Harbour Yacht Club where she met a few sailing people like Rory Burke among others, who invited her sailing. ‘Once you do a couple of races, you tend to get asked to do more and that’s what happened to me ‘ I was really happy.’

At Middle Harbour, while sailing in their Winter Series in the mid ‘80s, she met her future husband, Andrew ‘Half-Ounce’ Parkes, an established sailor and sailmaker. The two are no longer married, but through him, Harland met Andrea ‘Gus’ Holt and high-profile sailor Michael Spies, who were to play a major role in her sailing successes.

Sailing a 12 footer in an All-Skiff Regatta at Georges River Sailing Club, Parkes introduced his then girlfriend to Holt and Spies. ‘Gus asked me if I’d like to sail on their Adams 10, Drowning Not Waving and that’s how my long friendship and sailing started with them,’ Harland says.

In the meantime, the 22-year-old had graduated from university with a Bachelor of Bio Medical Science degree and landed a job as a Micro Scientific Officer at the Royal North Shore Hospital, where she still works today, over 20 years later. ‘As soon as I got my second pay packet, I moved to Mosman, just to be closer to the water,’ she remembers.

Joining Middle Harbour YC, Harland became better known and offers to race offshore came her way. However, she did not compete in her first Sydney Hobart until 1990, and then, by luck and someone else’s misfortune.

Harland explains: ‘Felicity, one of the girls on John Walker’s Impeccable, had an injury and couldn’t make the race, so John invited me along. I couldn’t believe it. I was incredibly excited and, of course, I said yes.

‘Just after I started sailing lessons, I went to South Head with Mum and Dad to watch the Hobart yachts. I remember seeing Condor and Nirvana heading out to sea and I thought ‘wow, imagine doing that’ ‘ never dreaming I would get to do the race ‘ then John offered me that chance and I loved every moment of the race and I still do.’

Walker, at 84, is still racing hard. The oldest skipper in the latest Sydney-Hobart race, he too had a late start to offshore racing.

Harland’s position was that of headsail trimmer, something she specialises in and enjoys. Her partner Parkes had a name as sailmaker and trimmer and helped and gave advice in those early days.

A second Hobart race followed in 1992 on Bob Mulkearns’ Sweet Caroline through Rory Burke, and when 1993 came around, Harland was asked back and found Michael Spies aboard. ‘Spies was running the boat, and that started my long ocean racing association with him.’ She went on to sail four other Hobart's and additional ocean races with him.

‘I did my 10th Hobart with Spies in 2001 on his Beneteau 40.7, Shipping Central, the same year he did his 25th and we won our division, so we had a triple celebration.’ That year the two were inducted into the Hobart ‘25’ and ‘10’ Hall of Fame for their milestones and were awarded commemorative medals in Hobart.

In 2003, the pair went one better, winning the race overall with Spies’ Beneteau 40.7, First National Real Estate. ‘That obviously means a lot to me,’ says Harland, a quietly spoken self-effacing woman, who even now does not consider herself a great yachtswoman, despite her record.

‘My favourite Hobart race though was the ‘93 with Spies on Bob Mulkearns’ Sweet Caroline. There were about five of us - Spies, Angus Roxburgh and a couple of others - that kept the boat going round the clock. It was a really tough race, but we were adrenaline charged ‘ we got our energy out of nowhere and just kept going. It was freezing cold and we broke our quadrant and had to use emergency steering.

‘It was only my third Hobart and just getting the boat there in once piece was a miracle. Spies and Angus are both tough and competitive sailors, but they’re never reckless. Spies’ seamanship is up there with his competitiveness and he is very safety-conscious.’

Influences
‘I have a lot to thank Spies for. His allowing me to do so many Hobart's and helping me be as tough as I am. He remains my biggest influence ‘ he got my name in there,’ says the 44-year-old, referring to her experience and respected name as an ocean racer.

Others have influenced her sailing, too. Adrienne Cahalan and Australian Sailing editor and distinguished sailor Vanessa Dudley. Harland sailed with them aboard the fated Elle, the yacht Cahalan campaigned for the Whitbread Ocean Race in 1996.

The yacht never made it to the Whitbread start line due to circumstances beyond Cahalan’s control, but in the lead-up to the race, Harland joined the two and others including 470 Sydney 2000 Olym
‘I was being considered for a crew position for the Whitbread and would definitely have loved to do the race. It was very disappointing not to go ‘ I was the right age (34) and it was the right time,’ she muses, adding, ‘I learnt a lot from Adrienne and Vanessa; they are incredibly inspirational ‘ a huge inspiration to me ‘they are legends in our sport.’

She has sailed with Dudley in the past two races to Hobart. ‘I’ve been lucky in who I’ve gone to Hobart with. The last two I’ve done with Vanessa on Wedgetail (Bill Wild’s Welbourn 42). She’s one of the best steerers around ‘ she’s great in hard running conditions and she does all the starts.

‘The whole crew are excellent people to sail with and very experienced and organised. I consider myself lucky to sail with them and I hope it continues.’

In the 2006 race, she says, ‘Half-way through the race, Vanessa asked me how I was travelling. ‘Great ‘ I’m having a great time’, I told her. She looked at me as if I was mad.’

Harland can’t think of a worse race, because she says, ‘I love them all, I just love ocean racing. The only disappointment is when you don’t finish a race. But I still get incredibly excited when I know I’m going to do Hobart ‘ I think it’s a magic race.’

Other wins in Harland’s racing CV include the Pittwater-Coffs, Sydney-Southport, Sydney- Mooloolaba and others. A further win came in the old IOR days aboard Tony Hill’s Legend in a Gosford-Lord Howe Island race. She also contested the Darwin-Ambon Race with George Snow on his Beneteau Infinity in the 1990s.

Working life
Her job fits in well with sailing, says the yachtswoman, ‘my boss is fantastic. Every year when the rosters are done, she slots in my holidays at Hobart time straight away. I also have lots of holiday and long service leave up my sleeve ‘ and, of course, it gets used up doing races!’

Although Harland does some Sydney Harbour racing, her preference has always been offshore events, and favours the job of headsail trimmer.

Trimming is not easy in long ocean races. You need to be able to read what the skipper wants, note wind and other changes, as well as maintain concentration and strength. Not too many women fill that role and Harland, serious about her job and to keep her strength up, goes to the gym five days a week.

Her family still doesn’t understand her love of ocean racing. ‘My younger sister gets sick on the Manly ferry, so does Mum. My parents are very surprised that I’ve stuck at it ‘ they still hate me going to Hobart ‘ but I’ve still got a few left in me and I will continue to do it.’