Experienced Western Australian sailors Trevor and Dan Taylor are one of three father/son pairings entered for the 2013 Melbourne-Osaka Race which starts in April. Trevor shoots a grin at his son; “He’s the culprit. He got us involved”.

“I’ve always been interested in in offshore but also in short-handed offshore”, says 25 year old Dan. “It adds another element of man versus Mother Nature”.

The two were taking a short break at Sandringham Yacht Club while their Marten 49, Optimus Prime, was being prepared in the yard.

The Taylors started in dinghies and catamarans but their interest in blue water sailing began with a Humphreys 50 in the 1990s. Having done a Sydney-Hobart in that, they went on to campaign the legendary Farr 50 Ausmaid, which they modified extensively before getting into their current boat four years ago.

Their expectations? “To win!” quipped Dan. “I’ve no idea”, said Trevor. “We’re a competitive pair so we’ll be having a crack at it”.

“It was interesting watching the Volvo Ocean Race this year, which went from China to Auckland around the same time of year”, said Dan. ”On the tracker there’s a month’s worth of weather data for that region which I’ve looked at pretty closely. It looks like a lot of fun”.

While they have both done three Sydney-Hobarts, just getting to the East coast presents a challenge for the Taylors. On their way to the ’08 Hobart, they went through 36 hours of winds in excess of 50 knots.

“We threw out a drogue and it snapped a 2 inch line so we surfed for the best part of 36 hours. I know the old girl will put up with it so that’s the contingency”, said Trevor.

So what needs to be done to get Optimus Prime ready for a 5500nm double-handed race?

“Really, not a lot’, said Trevor. “Put some furlers on spinnakers, adjust a few jibs so I can furl them, putting on an extra couple of electric winches and putting in a generator”.

“It was originally set up for a lot of short-handed offshore cruising anyway”, said Dan. “Everything comes back to the cockpit. The cockpit’s nice and small…it’s not too hard to reach everything”.

With their extensive winter campaign behind them, the Taylors plan to spend a lot of time training before coming back to Melbourne in late January, ready to race to Osaka.

“It’s all new and that’s a good thing. That’s what life’s about”, said Trevor.

“Time on the water”, said Dan.

Thanks to John Dynan for this article.