The 2018 race – the 8th edition – has been considered to be one of the most challenging by many of the repeat competitors, serving up wild weather in Melbourne, cyclones and monsoonal rain off Queensland and extreme wind patterns from glass outs to gales and storms across the latitudes for the 5500 nautical mile race.

Tom and Daniel prepared the boat for several months prior to the race and found unique creative ways to use the products we had supplied. The deck refit brief was to avoid moving parts as much as possible, hence the use of friction rings, soft blocks and MXEvos. They built a purchase system for the vang with friction rings, a  simple, light and inexpensive solution. Instead of the classic mast deck blocks they used our MXEvo shackles, again they managed to avoid moving parts and they had the ability to divert the lines without re-running them.

Tom Crabb sailed the boat through the currents of the inland sea and high shipping traffic to Yawatahama earlier on this week. Once the rig was removed a couple of days ago, Runaway was put on a cradle and loaded onto the cargo ship. She will be heading back to Australia express to Port Lincoln next week.

The whole experience has been an incredible learning curve for us in terms of creativity and ways to think differently. We are very proud to have been part of this project for Tom and Daniel.