days he piloted a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter through a vicious storm over the Irish Sea, searching for disabled and sinking yachts and plucking survivors from the decimated fleet in the Fastnet Race. Fifteen competitors died that year along with two other sailors who were accompanying the fleet on a non-race yacht.
“I was actually on leave…summer leave because it was August. I was sitting at home in the garden talking to some friends when the phone call came. They said, ‘Look, there’s a problem with the Fastnet Race. Can you come on out and help?’. Off I went and I think we were about the third Sea King to launch out of the air station at Culdrose.”
The rescue effort was a distressing yet poignant climax to an impressive career which had begun at the age of 17. Lea had joined the Royal Navy in 1964 despite harbouring a desire to head for the skies rather than the sea. Eight years later his dream was realised when he was assigned to train with a Sea King squadron. In 1981 he came to Australia with his wife, Gill, and their two young children, Daniel and Joanne.
“I came on an exchange posting for just over two years,” he said. “It was an opportunity we really looked forward to accepting. I did 10 months on the Sea Kings and then 15 months as an instructor with 723 squadron. It was a very enjoyable period in our life, so much so that when we went back to the UK the lifestyle that I’d experienced in Australiabegan to nag at me. In the end it got to me so much that I had no alternative but to sit down with my wife and children and talk about living in Australia.”
Subsequently Lea re-established contact with the Royal Australian Navy and, after two years of negotiation, was offered a permanent job with the primarily land-based Sea King squadron at HMAS Albatross at Nowra, south of Sydney. He would go on to become the Chief Pilot and Commanding Officer.
In mid-1990, when they arrived in Australia, Lea and his wife were feeling confident about their new life. The children weren’t so sure.
“After a few months however my eldest son, Daniel, said ‘Dad, I want to stay here now’. Australia was home.”
Just three years after arriving in Australia, Lea was called on to act as a guardian over the Sydney to Hobart fleet in the punishingly rough 1993 event. Having enjoyed a considerable amount of dinghy sailing over the years, the Sydney to Hobart rekindled an interest and he began to follow the race each year. When it came to the time for the 1998 race Lea was on leave, not stand-by, from HMAS Albatross.
“I remember hearing there might be a bit of dodgy weather around for the yachts but thought, oh we’re covered, [even though] we only get twelve hours notice on an emergency. Sunday was a normal day for me. I went kayaking on the local river in the morning as I often do. In the afternoon it was the usual gardening…that sort of stuff. At around seven o’clock the phone rang. The message was simply ‘come on in’. Luckily I hadn’t had a drink…so I was at the base by 7.30pm.”
Lieutenant Commander Tanzi Lea was again on his way to becoming a hero.
Rob Kothe was a relative newcomer to the Grand Prix level of ocean racing, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to be a winner.
“I was always interested in sailing, so much so that in the fifties and sixties I was one of the young kids who listened to everything I could on the radio that had anything to do with sailing. I always listened to the call of the America’s Cup on radio. You’ve got to be nutty to do that sort of stuff. The problem was that I lived out in the bush, on the other side of the Great Dividing Range, at Tumbarumba, down towards Canberra. I couldn’t go sailing in the seventies so I was a sail plane competitor – a glider pilot. When I came to Sydney I realised that sail planing was out and sailing was in.”
Kothe would later learn, as he increased his profile at the CYC, that he and fellow member George Snow, the
“I was actually on leave…summer leave because it was August. I was sitting at home in the garden talking to some friends when the phone call came. They said, ‘Look, there’s a problem with the Fastnet Race. Can you come on out and help?’. Off I went and I think we were about the third Sea King to launch out of the air station at Culdrose.”
The rescue effort was a distressing yet poignant climax to an impressive career which had begun at the age of 17. Lea had joined the Royal Navy in 1964 despite harbouring a desire to head for the skies rather than the sea. Eight years later his dream was realised when he was assigned to train with a Sea King squadron. In 1981 he came to Australia with his wife, Gill, and their two young children, Daniel and Joanne.
“I came on an exchange posting for just over two years,” he said. “It was an opportunity we really looked forward to accepting. I did 10 months on the Sea Kings and then 15 months as an instructor with 723 squadron. It was a very enjoyable period in our life, so much so that when we went back to the UK the lifestyle that I’d experienced in Australiabegan to nag at me. In the end it got to me so much that I had no alternative but to sit down with my wife and children and talk about living in Australia.”
Subsequently Lea re-established contact with the Royal Australian Navy and, after two years of negotiation, was offered a permanent job with the primarily land-based Sea King squadron at HMAS Albatross at Nowra, south of Sydney. He would go on to become the Chief Pilot and Commanding Officer.
In mid-1990, when they arrived in Australia, Lea and his wife were feeling confident about their new life. The children weren’t so sure.
“After a few months however my eldest son, Daniel, said ‘Dad, I want to stay here now’. Australia was home.”
Just three years after arriving in Australia, Lea was called on to act as a guardian over the Sydney to Hobart fleet in the punishingly rough 1993 event. Having enjoyed a considerable amount of dinghy sailing over the years, the Sydney to Hobart rekindled an interest and he began to follow the race each year. When it came to the time for the 1998 race Lea was on leave, not stand-by, from HMAS Albatross.
“I remember hearing there might be a bit of dodgy weather around for the yachts but thought, oh we’re covered, [even though] we only get twelve hours notice on an emergency. Sunday was a normal day for me. I went kayaking on the local river in the morning as I often do. In the afternoon it was the usual gardening…that sort of stuff. At around seven o’clock the phone rang. The message was simply ‘come on in’. Luckily I hadn’t had a drink…so I was at the base by 7.30pm.”
Lieutenant Commander Tanzi Lea was again on his way to becoming a hero.
Rob Kothe was a relative newcomer to the Grand Prix level of ocean racing, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to be a winner.
“I was always interested in sailing, so much so that in the fifties and sixties I was one of the young kids who listened to everything I could on the radio that had anything to do with sailing. I always listened to the call of the America’s Cup on radio. You’ve got to be nutty to do that sort of stuff. The problem was that I lived out in the bush, on the other side of the Great Dividing Range, at Tumbarumba, down towards Canberra. I couldn’t go sailing in the seventies so I was a sail plane competitor – a glider pilot. When I came to Sydney I realised that sail planing was out and sailing was in.”
Kothe would later learn, as he increased his profile at the CYC, that he and fellow member George Snow, the
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