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CNN Sunday Morning

Recounting Sydney/Hobart Yacht Race Hurricane

Aired June 10, 2001 - 10:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE PROVING GROUND")

NARRATOR: The Sydney/Hobart was always a dangerous yacht race, but no one could ever have imagined the scale of the disaster that would strike in 1998.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mother Nature is completely unforgiving. She is neither merciless nor merciful.

NARRATOR: A storm so severe, it left dozens of yachts battling to survive a savage ocean.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Out there, there's no rules. There's no God. There's nothing.

NARRATOR: A tragedy that left six men dead and changed the lives of those who survived forever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it was Australia's version of "The Perfect Storm" if you will. Some of the world's best sailors got caught in the teeth of a storm that turned deadly during a Sydney to Hobart yacht race in 1998.

We're joined this morning by Bruce Knecht, who is the author of "The Proving Ground."

BRUCE KNECHT, AUTHOR, "THE PROVING GROUND": Good morning.

O'BRIEN: A book about that tragic race, and the topic of tonight's CNN PRESENTS program, 10:00 PM Eastern time, of the same title.

Also joining him this morning, Larry Ellison, the founder of the Oracle Corporation and a survivor of the ill-fated 1998 race. Thanks to you both, gentlemen, for being with us this morning.

LARRY ELLISON, FOUNDER, ORACLE CORPORATION: It's good to be here.

O'BRIEN: Bruce, let's begin with you. What led you to this story? KNECHT: Well, the amazing thing, when the race was happening, I was sailing in the very calm seas of the British Virgin Islands and I was cut off from the news and knew nothing about it until I got back to Hong Kong. And Little-Brown, the publisher, approached me and asked if I was interested. I think they had an idea, I live in Hong Kong, and I think they have an idea that Hong Kong is a little closer to Australia than it actually is, but by chance I was actually heading there the next, a few days later.

And the first person I saw was someone who described what it was like to be on a yacht that was hurled down a 60' wave and this yacht, called The Winston Churchill, sunk 60 minutes later. And I just heard this story and said this is a book I have to write.

O'BRIEN: Alright. Larry, I wanted to ask you what led you to the race, but before I do that let's take a quick excerpt from the documentary which airs tonight to get us started. This is Larry Ellison speaking to the cameras of the documentary filmmakers about why he races in such races.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE PROVING GROUND")

ELLISON: I assured her, you know, the Sydney/Hobart was one of these things that everyone thought was dangerous, and then therefore it was really cool, because everyone thought it was dangerous, but in fact it really wasn't. It was hard. It was very difficult. It was a real test of an above-boat crew, but it wasn't actually dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Really hard. Really cool. Not actually dangerous. What compels somebody like you to participate in an event like this?

ELLISON: Well, I had won the race in 1995 and between 1995 and 1998 I had sailed Sayonara to actually several world championships. And I thought, I have been a much -- I had improved my sailing. I was a much better sailor in 1998 than I was in 1995 and I wanted to see how much better I really was in another Sydney/Hobart.

Unfortunately, the weather got worse faster than I got better.

O'BRIEN: Interesting. Now, Bruce, in your research, as I understand it, you discovered that, you know, as in most cases, it's never just one particular event that leads to a disaster like this. Ultimately, six sailors died in this event, we should point out, but a series of events.

Tell us a little bit about how much race officials knew about this impending storm prior to the start of the race, or at least in the early going?

KNECHT: Before the race, the weather bureau had issued a gale warning. So, everyone knew there was going to be some rough weather. But it wasn't until about an hour after the race began that they put in place a storm warning. That was a little bit confusing, actually, though, because for many people in the race they thought the gale warning was the more serious warning, when in fact the storm warning is the most serious warning that they have in that part of Australia.

The problem was that the worst of the storm didn't come for 24 hours later, and by then, the decision about what to do was much tougher. Calling off the race would be very difficult, because boats were in different places at that point. Larry was much faster than the other boats because his was the largest and fastest yacht in the race. So, for him, turning back would have been a mistake.

And, in fact, one of the boats I write about is the Sword of Orion. They were tracking the weather as best they could. It turns out they were not getting very good information. They ultimately made the decision to turn back, and it was a mistake. They went right back into the worst of the storm and they were addressing waves in a terrible way and ultimately they did something that's very hard to imagine. Their yacht was turned over, rolled in a 360 degree roll in about five seconds and a British Olympic sailor was lost.

O'BRIEN: It's hauntingly like the, parallels to "The Perfect Storm" there. Larry Ellison, let's, before we go to you again, let's look at this clip. This moment when you sort of had this realization that you were literally flying, not flying but sailing into the eye of real trouble. Let's look at that clip for just a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE PROVING GROUND")

ELLISON: I kind of looked up, turned and looked at Mark and said Mark, have you ever seen anything like this? And he just shook his head. He didn't say a word. He just shook his head. And I said, I have: It was on the Weather Channel; it was called a hurricane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Ah, that moment. They don't call them hurricanes down there, do they, Larry?

ELLISON: No, but the wind still roars at 100 miles per hour and the waves still build to 80'. World champions don't mean much when you're in the eye of a hurricane.

O'BRIEN: Now, I misspoke just a moment ago. I said flying. You are a pilot and there's an analogy that you make to flying on instruments and that moment, when you sort of saw that hurricane in the abstract, there.

ELLISON: Well, yeah. I was down below and we get weather pictures directly from satellites on Sayonara and there are two lap top computers back in the navigation station. And I was sitting next to Mark Rudiger who had just won the Whitbread Around the World Race and we're watching, you know, appear before our eyes, slowly, this weather map showing this huge counter-cyclical low.

We were right -- we thought we'd just sailed through a weather front. Actually, we had just sailed into the eye of a hurricane.

O'BRIEN: Stark terror at that moment, Larry? Or are you able to look at it in a more detached way?

ELLISON: I wouldn't say I was detached. I don't think anyone was detached. Disbelief. It was surreal. We couldn't believe we were here. There's no way to get off the boat. Fear doesn't really accomplish very much. Everyone was very focused on doing their jobs. But I just think we couldn't believe we were in this kind of storm.

People sailed their whole lives. The boat Sayonara is filled with professional sailors. No one had seen anything like this before.

O'BRIEN: Alright. Of course, once everybody was in the middle of all this and professional rescue efforts had to begin, let's take a look at a clip from the documentary one more time to get a flavor for the types of harrowing rescues that were attempted down there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE PROVING GROUND")

PETER DAVIDSON, RESCUER DIVER, VICTORIA AIR AMBULANCE: When we first got out there, to actually look down and see these guys in this sea state the way it was, we wondered between ourselves whether we could do anything for them. We knew that if we didn't do something, and reasonably quickly, that they weren't going to last much longer.

I thought the waves were big in the helicopter, but to get down to their level where they were and see these mountains of water, got hit by a couple straight off, it was just absolutely terrifying.

After five or six guys, I just thought, this is impossible. This is just not going to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wave, mate, wave. Look at the size of this.

NARRATOR: Suddenly, after eight attempts, the raft was within reach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gee, he got there. Well done, guys.

NARRATOR: It had taken 20 precious minutes just to get the diver to the first man to be rescued.

DAVIDSON: We got all launched out of the life raft like a rocket and the feeling of actually having one guy, it was just absolute elation to know that you've come out there now and it hasn't all been in vain.

NARRATOR: The rescue was finally underway. One man was safe, 11 more awaited their turn. But as one disaster was averted, somewhere out in Bass Straight another was just beginning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Now, folks, those aren't Hollywood special effects. George Clooney wasn't in there at all. That was the real thing. Bruce, as I look at that, I'm really sort of amazed that anybody got rescued given those conditions.

KNECHT: Well, the amazing thing. You mentioned there were six people who died in the race. What's amazing to me is that the number wasn't actually higher. There were 55 people who were lifted form their boats from a helicopter. Now, in Australia they call these guys tea-bags or shark bait.

Now, each one of these guys comes down from his helicopter into 50, 60, 70' waves, whatever they were, with hurricane force winds. As you saw from that clip, it was incredibly difficult for them to get the raft let alone to an individual person. For that to have happened 55 times and for none of the helicopters to get into trouble and for none of the rescuers to have perished in that, I think is remarkable.

So, one of the amazing things to me is that the toll wasn't higher.

O'BRIEN: Larry, I'm sure there were moments when you felt you might be a tea-bag or shark bait during all of this. I'm just curious, and this is the question on everybody's mind, why? Is it like Hillary and Everest, because it's there?

ELLISON: Well, you know, I think Hillary and Everest were wrong. It's not because it's there. It's because we're there and we're curious if we can do it.

The Sydney/Hobart is the most demanding ocean race in the world, but this is the first time it's ever turned deadly. You know, we're all anxious to test our skills against Mother Nature and against each other in a sailboat race. But no one, I don't think anyone would have gone out if we had known this kind of hurricane was waiting for us.

O'BRIEN: Alright. Larry Ellison, the captain of Oracle and Sayonara. And joining us from Los Angeles, Bruce Knecht, the author of "The Proving Ground," the book. A documentary by the same name will air tonight on CNN at 10:00 PM Eastern time. We promise a compelling hour of television. Gentlemen, thank you both for being with us on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

KNECHT: Thank you.

ELLISON: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: All right.

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