The Proving Ground: The Inside Story of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race

Having competed in 7 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Races including the similar 1993 race and, knowing many of the central characters in the book, this was an exciting and telling account of what faced the competitors in the 1998 race. Bruce's story is fantastic; it not only gives the reader a feel for the conditions but also for the characters of the people who were central to the story.The most interesting aspect for me was seeing that what I had learnt about myself and my fellow crewmates in the 1993 race rings loud and true. In a situation such as the Hobart Race, decisions that are made not only determine the outcome of the race but can also save or lose lives. If you have the slightest doubt about your own capabilities and experience and, most importantly, the capabilities and experience of your fellow crew mates, don't put to sea!Its those little cracks and flaws in character that you sense about someone that, under extreme stress, can result in disaster.The book also highlights four situations where four individuals could have changed the outcome for their boat by speaking out against a clearly wrong decision but did not. Unfortunately in two of these situations, lives were lost that could have been saved and in the third, reputations and names have been destroyed forever.While the setting is a yacht race, its really a story about the behavior of people under extreme stress.Reality TV: Forget it! This is real.Hollywood; If you make this into a movie, do us a favour and do a better job than Wind, The Perfect Storm and Water World.This story deserves better!

This book should appeal mostly to people who like rollicking good sea stories and also to yacht racers who want and need to get a better understanding of the terrible tragedy that was the '98 Sidney Hobart Race.For the sea story lovers, this book is much better than "The Perfect Storm" by Sebastian Junger because a sea story (or any story for that matter) should have a begining, a middle and an ending. "The Perfect Storm" had a good beginning, a better middle but no ending. No one knows what heroism kept the Anita Gayle afloat and what cowardice or misfortune caused her to sink. Fortunately, in the '98 Sidney-Hobart race there were enough survivors to tell the story from beginning to end and author Bruce Knecht has recorded the stories in a very readable account. Yacht racing terms have been defined for the uniniated but not to the point of being pedantic. This is a most interesting account of the behavior of people under tremendous stress.For the yacht racers, Bruce Knecht has chosen to focus primarily on 3 boats. The first, a heavy, conservative cruising boat (Winston Churchill) which sank before encountering the height of the storm. The second, a 15 year old IOR design boat (Sword of Orion) which was rolled and was literally coming apart at the seams but which provided a floating refuge until the crew could be rescued. And third, a modern light weight boat (Syonara)which, although suffering structural damage and delaminations, went on to finish (and win)the race. "The Proving Ground" is a good companion book to Rob Mundle's "Fatal Storm" which is a broader over view of the whole race but which lacks the depth and insight of "The Proving Ground". I have often wondered if "The Checkbook", "The Rock Star", and "The Hired Hand" could pull their weight "out there" if it got really nasty. Well, this book answers those questions and you might be a little surprised at the answers. This book is no "Fastnet Force 10" but it comes close.

I read The Proving Ground in one night ... I just couldn't put it down. And I didn't mind that I was exhausted from lack of sleep the next day because I so enjoyed the read. Bruce Knecht not only has written a detailed account of the horrific experiences of the yachtsmen on three boats in the Sydney-Hobart race, but he has captured what it was like for the sailors to endure the ordeal ... the fear, the heroic sacrifices, the physical endurance, and the struggle over having to make decisions that could result in fatal errors (which some did). As an experienced ocean sailor, I can say that Mr. Knecht has done an excellent job of portraying life at sea on a racing boat, without getting overly technical. I recommend this book to anyone interested in a gripping adventure story with characters who are both heroic and flawed, and for the men who died, are also all too real.

This is the best book on sailing ever written. But it's so much more. The story is so griping that I read it in one evening. What the author does best is geve you a great sense of why in the world anyone would do something as insane as enter this race. Its as much a human interest story as a sailing epic- Incredible

As an experienced offshore sailor, I found Knecht's book absolutely riveting. He sets out to examine why it is that already highly-successful people (who don't necessarily have anything to prove) are tempted to put their lives at stake competing in a yacht race. He then goes on to describe and examine what went wrong, and why. He deals with the meteorology, the nature of the yachts, the personalities of the crews, and their reactions to severe stress and, in some cases, disaster. Offshore sailors know why we do it anyway: racing yachts is exciting and challenging. Knecht reports impartially on the attitudes and judgement capacities of those he interviewed. He asks all the right questions, and passes no judgement on the answers. He does not attempt to draw conclusions, and makes no recommendations. He reports, and well.Non-sailors will enjoy this book because it is so damn exciting. They will be amazed - maybe horrified as well as stirred - at some of the characters and events described. Sailors will enjoy it too, recognising events and personalities that we have all seen before, but maybe on a less extreme scale and under less extreme circumstances. Sailors SHOULD read this book because it will give them a better understanding of the well-worn maxim that "what CAN go wrong sooner or later WILL go wrong". Then they may be better prepared for that awful event, but it still won't stop them going to sea!