"In the 1967 sydney to Hobart, I was invited as sailing master on John Gilliam's 40-foot sloop, Weatherly. She was a steel version of Freya. I had met John back in 1954. He had bought Wild Wave from the Keats brothers and I was on board for the delivery trip to Melbourne. I don't remember seeing the deck wet once, and I found John to be extra-good company both ashore and afloat. Mollie and I visited him and his wife Edith several times when they moved to Sydney." Weatherly finished twenty-fourth in the 67-strong fleet, a record number of entries, and was placed twenty-third on corrected time. Lass O'Luss (sailed by P.S. Psaltis), finished marginally behind her. Salacia, sailed by Arthur Byrne finished a creditable fourth overall. New Zealand yacht Rainbow II (a Sparkman and Stephens design), owned and skippered by Chris Bouzaid won the event on handicap and the French yacht, Pen Duick III, skippered by Eric Taberly, took line honours. The race was marred at the start when a marker buoy off South Head broke free and drifted across towards North Head. This totally confused many of the competitors as they crossed the starting line and sailed for the Heads, but once through the Heads and into the Tasman the race to Hobart was on. "The following year in 1968, I was again invited to join John Gilliam as co-skipper of Weatherly. John's son, Greg, who in 1987 had been voted Queensland's Yachtsman of the Year, joined the crew, as did my son Greg, making it a double father and son team. This was Greg's first sydney- Hobart. We had earlier teamed up for the Montague Island race before sailing in this event." A north-easterly at the start, followed by a strong 40-knot sou-westerly change, scattered the fleet on the second night out. Thunderstorms and heavy seas across Bass Strait forced the retirement of several yachts. The American yacht Rage, was dismasted and retired to Eden. However, towards the end of the race as the fleet rounded Tasman Island they were beset with calms all the way to the finish. For many it was reported to be a frustrating race: Hedley Calvert, ownerskipper of Huon Lass, ran into calms in storm Bay, Frank Hickman, owner skipper of Nell Gwyn called it an "uneventful trip", as did the Gabrielle III crew. Also, Billy Thompson, navigator on Salacia, reported that they had been becalmed off Tasman light for seven hours. Huey Long had brought his new 73-foot Ondine II out from the United States to take line honours, although her elapsed time was almost a day slower than that of the record-breaker of the same name in 1962. Australian boats however, were equal to most overseas entrants and took the first four places on corrected times.