THE SYDNEY TO HOBART EXPERIENCE Early in January I was approached by Alan the manager of Hartlepool Marina. He asked me if I knew anyone that would be willing to take part in some filming for The National Geographic television channel on 15th January. They were making a docu-drama about the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race that ended in tragedy due to severe storms. The hour long film would be shown in the summer, most of the filming had been done in Australia, but they decided to use Hartlepool to re - create the opening scenes of the race. They needed somewhere a bit stormier than Australia. What a good choice - on Monday 15th the wind was blowing 40+kts with regular 55+kt gusts,just what the director ordered. One of the stipulations was that it had to be a yacht with a white hull and about 35ft long,(this ruled out mine, with her black hull and only 28ft long). They also required a crew to sail it. I thought it over for a while and finally approached Alan a good friend of mine and the owner of a UFO 34 called 'Bellerophon' and asked if he would be interested in taking part and using his boat. Definitely! Was the response, (and he's still speaking to me even now). We met on that very windy Monday morning, myself, Alan,and his partner Lesly. We went down to the pontoon berth and checked her over (the boat not Lesly). We stuck the second reef in the main, cast off and motored into the lock. We met the four actors, cameraman and producer, none of who had any sailing experience! We helped them load the boat with costumes,(oilies)food and water and some very expensive camera equipment. We all managed to get on board and donned lifejackets and safety lines, then we motored out of the lock and ventured into the teeth of a force 8 to 9 thank goodness we put that reef in! We motored past the first piers then cleared the cockpit of actors etc, passed through the outer piers and raised the main sail, then let out about half of the self furling Genoa. We literally flew, spindrift, and solid water everywhere; it was fantastic to be out in those conditions knowing that we were in complete control of the situation. The producer then came up into the cockpit and said that she wanted action shots without any land being in the frame, this made it a little more difficult, as we would have to go out about three miles to accomplish this request. Two of the actors were staring into a bucket each and far too ill. The cameraman was like Spiderman, he was on the bow then the weather deck then the stern, he was all over the boat like a rash, and absolutely soaked to the skin! The other two actors came on deck and sat nervously on the weather rail getting soaked and earning their money (we were doing it free gratis, and for the fun of it). The producer was asking us to do things that were nearly but not quite impossible. We must have tacked about sixty times, each time having to move the cameraman and actors so we could work the winches and sheets. We managed to do all that was asked of us and more and the producer and cameraman were over the moon, a place the actors wished they were instead of on this bucking boat (I think that's what they said). We turned back and headed for the marina for a hot cuppa and something to eat. It really was a fantastic sail with the added bonus of knowing that we were in a boat that was more than capable of handling this weather and more. We got back to the lock and dropped two actors off had a break then went out again for a short shoot with a different couple of actors on board. We finally came in due to the tides and loss of light, but they got everything that they were after so were extremely pleased with the days events. This was our first sail of the year, and what a sail it was, roll on summer. We were presented with a 10 year old bottle of malt off the film crew, you would have thought that they could have given us a new bottle! Mike Fellows Comment on this article Tell us your story