13/08/2019
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/62736488/tas-yachtsman-no9-issue-web
Extract from the Tasmanian Yachtsman no9 issue:
"The maritime state of Tasmania will field a bigger fleet, including last year’s overall winner Alive and a first-timer in the Sparkman & Stephens 48 one-off called Windrose that was salvaged and painstakingly restored by Launceston yachtsman Ashok Mani.
Part of the winning USA team for the 1961 Admiral’s Cup, Mani noticed the beautiful S&S lines of the rotting Windrose on a mooring in Langkawi five years ago and had the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club haul the boat out before the ocean swallowed it for good.
He spent two years refurbishing and bringing the classic back to near-original, including replacing 80% of the planks and frame due to their poor state. Each frame was different so the shipwrights at PSS shipyard in Satun, Thailand, had to individually steam each one.
“The next step for her was firewood; you can’t have a classic S&S consigned to firewood,” Mani said from his Singapore base. “I think I’ve got her back to the place that she was when she was launched in New York back in 1959 – she still weighs 13.8 ton.
“This boat has never raced south of the equator. The Sydney to Hobart is one of those races, like the Fastnet, it’s my personal Everest. My wife thinks I’m mad, my friends think I’m mad. I’m going to be cold, wet and miserable for four days, and I hope so because that’s when boats like mine get ahead [on corrected time]. I want 30 knots on the nose.”
Mani studied at the Australian Maritime College in Launceston to become a Master Mariner and met his Tasmanian wife there when he returned to complete a Masters. He mostly works in Singapore but with his family living and running a vineyard in Launceston, he’s proudly registered as a Tasmanian entrant for the 2019 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, his first."
