"I will always have happy memories regarding the Philp family; after all, it was the race of '46 that, unwittingly, set me on course for many adventures in Australia's greatest ocean race. With the help of notes written by Colin Philp, Jock recalls the adventure to Sydney and back: "On arrival in Sydney, we dropped anchor in Rushcutters Bay, at 2145 hours, exactly seven days after leaving Hobart. Summing up our impressions, we found that we had learned quite a lot about the yacht, which would stand us in good stead for the race and what was especially important, we had our sea legs and had shaken down." At 1100 hours on December 26, the fleet of 19 yachts crossed the starting line off Bradley's Head, in a light NE wind. Southern Maid was fourth over the starting line and heading back to Hobart only twelve days after setting sail for Sydney. Only three of the inaugural fleet had reappeared to take their place in the fleet: Winston Churchill, Mistral II and Wayfarer. The race was dogged by foul weather and eight yachts retired when a 55 knot gale hit the yachts in Bass Strait whipping up 25-foot seas. The Southern Maid was the fifth yacht to cross the finish line and placed seventh on handicap overall. "We were all pleased with our achievement in a yacht launched only a month prior to the race, and we all knew, given more preparation time it may have been a lot closer. "Together with the other competitors we had had many trying periods of calm and our records showed that we were becalmed for a total of over thirty hours. This was to be typical of many Sydney to Hobart races due to passing through so much latitude. "Looking back at the race it was obvious that we suffered from lack of experience with the boat. The storm sails had never been set and we had insufficient experience with the reefing gear. We had never been matched against another yacht of comparable size and speed before, which is the only test by which a yacht's performance can be judged and the effects of various adjustments to sails and rigging assessed."