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

Although he was already fifty feet from the boat, Brownie didn't have any trouble spotting Glyn. He looked small, and utterly helpless.... Glyn was already having a hard time keeping his head out of the water, and everyone quickly reached the same unthinkable conclusion--Glynn was going to die and there was nothing to do but watch.... Steve Kulmar was more shaken than anyone. When he first came on deck, he believed Glyn was looking directly back at him.

Of the 115 boats that started under clear skies in Sydney, just 43 would finish. Six sailors lost their lives, and a further 55 were plucked from the storm after the fleet had been decimated by unforecast hurricane winds and 80-foot-high waves.

Knecht's style is novelistic, though measured, with a strong journalistic sensibility marshaling what must have been at times appallingly poignant eyewitness testimony into a coherent account of the disaster. His intended focus is beyond the headlines, and by concentrating on the experiences of a handful of individual crews, The Proving Ground succeeds in conveying the agonies of their desperate, sometimes futile struggles to survive--and offers some insight into what drew them to the sea in the first place, and why so many of the survivors have felt compelled to face it again. --Alex Hankin, Amazon.co.uk

Product Description
On December 26, 1998, 115 sailboats set out on the annual race from Sydney to Hobart; only 43 would make it to the Tasmanian city, and six sailors would be dead, the race having turned in the worst modern sailing disaster since the 1979 Fastnet Race. Combining the best elements of The Perfect Storm and Barbarians at the Gate, The Proving Ground is a gripping narrative that follows the fates of three yachts, including Sayonara, owned by Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle and the worlds second richest man. From the chilling explanation of how an Olympic sailor came to be catapulted from a yacht and why its crew could do nothing to save him, to the dramatic journey of two leaky life-rafts, The Proving Ground is an exhilarating read. Knechts research, which included eight trips to Australia was unprecedented and exhaustive, involving extensive discussions with both Larry Ellison and Lachlan Murdoch and every survivor with two other yachts. The Proving Ground is destined to be a sporting disaster classic like Into Thin Air and Fastnet Force 10.

Proving Ground contained a lot more descriptive information in terms of the characters, but ... I found his concentration on particular personalities in the book very disconcerting.

It was baffling that he could practically write what Glyn Charles was thinking ... when Glyn was unable to speak for himself. These assumptions and supposition are quite offensive.

I also found Knecht's intricate descriptions of the powerplays involved with some of the pivotal characters alarming. Bob Koethe, Steve Kulmar, Richard Purcell and Glyn Charles, specifically.

While I do not doubt his authenticity in describing the interplay, I found the inclusion in such detail perplexing. My aim was to read the facts, not to become embroiled in the dramatic tension on board certain yachts in such dire conditions.

At times, I almost felt a compulsion to "take sides" with some people, opposing others, which I roundly resisted. It is, after all, Knecht's presentation and everyone interprets events, thoughts and words slightly differently.

All in all, not bad, but not great.


Best book i've ever read   April 26, 2004
 1 out of 5 found this review helpful

I've read this book 3 times, and everytime it's great. It's the best book i've ever read, so far.


Great Subject; Bad Writing   January 20, 2004
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

I read this book immediately after finishing another account of the 1998 Sydney-Hobart race by Rob Mundle (an Australian), titled: Fatal Storm. I thought both versions were worth reading because they focused their attention differently (Knecht spent much more ink on Larry Ellison; Mundle focused on the yachts and people most relevant to this particular race). Knecht was much more blunt in revealing difficult personalities, interpersonal tension and controversy -- particularly with regard to the Sword of Orion. Mundle was more polite -- or perhaps more prudent. It's risky to portray someone negatively who endured such an ordeal (especially when the writer wasn't there), regardless of whether they died or survived. While I found Knecht's take on the people interesting, I suspect it was part of his overly dramatic writing style. He writes like a mass-market action-fiction writer, trying to create drama and intrigue where either: 1) there is none; or 2) the facts speak for themselves. Funny -- this is not unlike American news media today (which is why I watch the BBC). He writes about a "character's" thoughts and actions is such an excruciating level of detail that it's not believable. Too much poetic license ruins credibility. This is a great subject, but read Fatal Storm first.


Mr. Knecht nailed it!   January 12, 2004
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Anyone who has ever been on a competitive sailing yacht and been in nasty weather will read this book in an afternoon, unable to put it down. The book is written with tremendous insight and puts you in the danger and makes it feel real. Great book and a quick fun read for any sailor.


In the words of Forster, only knecht   October 1, 2002
 7 out of 10 found this review helpful

The sea was so vast, and the ship was so small.
Man and everything made by man is finite.
-Richard Winning, owner of the Winston Churchill, reciting a seafarers' prayer at a Memorial Service

At the outset, let me just say that the Brothers Judd full disclosure policy requires me to acknowledge that Mr. Knecht is a fraternity brother of mine and if the book stunk, I'd not say so. In fact, the first few pages had me a little worried because there's some rather pedestrian prose and one of the yachts in the race was owned and skippered by Larry Ellison, of Oracle, who seems early on like he's going to be the center of attention in the book. This would be unfortunate because he's a difficult man to root for, at least as presented here, often in his own words. Actually, most of the yachtsmen seem fairly unlikable. It sometimes seems like every one of them thinks he's the only competent guy on board. But any initial concerns disappear once the storm hits and as the action at sea picks up so too does Mr. Knecht's writing.

The Sydney to Hobart race is apparently quite a big deal in Australia; from the sound of it, nearly the whole nation stops to watch the start on Boxing Day (December 26th). In 1998, 115 unsuspecting boats set out but only 43 made it to Hobart (Tasmania). Seven boats were abandoned and another five actually sank. 55 men were rescued. Six men died. The race had run into hurricane conditions, a cyclone sporting 80 mile per hour winds, and the sleek, ultra-engineered boats seem to have been particularly unsuited to such weather. In short order men were in the water and it is mostly them that Mr. Knecht follows and it is there that the book becomes genuinely thrilling, and terrifying.

The crew of the Winston Churchill, which was capsized by a 60 foot wall of water that broke over it, ended up in two life rafts. The other crew whose ordeal Mr. Knecht chronicles had been aboard the Sword of Orion. The hours, even days, these men spent in the water make for painful reading. One of the indelible images from the book is that of survivors recalling the sight of the bobbing heads of crewmates just a hundred yards away and knowing there's no way to get to them. The stories of these men and, as in The Perfect Storm, of the rescuers, make for a substantial portion of the book and it's outstanding.

A shorter concluding portion, featuring various courtroom hearings, unfortunately serves to remind us that, with some exceptions, these sailors just aren't a terribly sympathetic lot. Mr. Knecht presumably chose to write about Larry Ellison because he's a well known figure and a major businessman (Mr. Knecht writes for the Wall Street Journal), but he becomes kind of emblematic of the hubris that plagues them all :

I could have bought the New York Yankees, but I couldn't be the team's shortstop. With the boat, I actually get to play on the team.

Note he's characterizing himself not just as any old player but as the shortstop. Likewise, Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert, who sailed on Ellison's boat, Sayanora, has this to say :

There are people who in their makeup need to take risks. [...] Every once in a while I just have to do things that require me to make
judgments about how far I can go.

It takes a nearly superhuman effort on the part of the reader not to wish that it had been their boat that foundered. In this regard the book has a significant structural weakness in common with The Perfect Storm in that we spend too much time with people we don't care about and not enough time with some of the most compelling people in the book, the rescue workers who risk their own lives to save such men.

On balance then, Mr. Knecht has written a book that's well worth reading and is truly gripping throughout the bulk of the action. That less might have been better does not diminish the quality of what's best here and at its best the book is very good.

GRADE : B+