Hobart and the Alaskan coast are as probably as far apart as you can get with a lot of water in between. And this sailor is on his way.
What makes this journey unique is his slender boat, Ratu, that was built in 1961 on banks of Tasmania’s Huon River, using the local King Billy pine for the hull. And the entire journey – even from inching out of tight berths and negotiating slow harbours along the way – will be entirely by wind.
There are no motors on Ratu, diesel or otherwise. That’s the way Tasmanian adventurer Two Dogs likes it.
Two Dogs aboard Ratu. Picture: John Feder
In recent weeks, Ratu’s bright yellow hull has been seen cutting across Sydney Harbour, testing and tilting ahead of the big voyage to come.
Two Dogs’ name was changed and is official on licences, passports and all kinds of documents. It still cracks a wry smile when he is called for appointments.
“Sometimes it’s Mr Dogs or they say Mr Ratu,” he says (he also shares his last name with his boat). “But they say it and it’s really fun.”
Two Dogs has been sailing all his life. Indeed he took both state and national championships in sailing dinghies up and down the Derwent river as a teenager. That experience set him up to be on the water for life.
“I learned that the point – ideally when you’re really young – is to be really good at one thing. What it teaches us is that if you can be good at something and if you apply that, you can probably be good at anything,” he says.
And it was later in life that he crossed paths with a tired 31-foot wooden boat that had seen far better days over its six decades. But he set about meticulously restoring it. He has since worked and remade every centimetre and surface over the years, mostly from local fittings.
“You didn’t stand anywhere near the boat in the first week. You had to be 30 feet back in the boatyard. I was just tossing stuff off,” he says. The boat was renamed Ratu: “It’s a he, not a she,” Two Dogs adds.
It’s a crisp, clear morning as The Weekend Australian joins Two Dogs on Sydney Harbour.
There is barely a breath of wind, but Ratu pulls away floating on air, not water, and is soon picking up pace, tacking toward Bradleys Head.
With a distinct yellow hull, the restored yacht Ratu has been a sight across Sydney Harbour in recent weeks.
Two Dogs’ slender frame is dashing up and down the deck, trimming the sail, winching sheets and tapping the tiller, all seemingly in the same action. It all comes naturally for a single-handed sailor.
“If you’re moving, you’re sailing,” he says.
Ratu is 2m (6.5’) wide, giving its yellow hull a skinny look as it cuts through the water. He has been tested through Bass Strait, notorious for mountainous waves. Two Dogs describes them as “hills with breaking tops”.
The adventurer has some unlikely backers, including up-market Australian suit maker M.J. Bale. But there is a deeper connection beyond Two Dogs’ own dapper linen suit.
After the summer of bushfires three years ago M.J. Bale was looking at ways to reduce its carbon footprint from the farm to the suit.
Two Dogs last year cycled M.J. Bale’s zero-carbon wool into Hobart and then sailed to the mainland.
The suit-maker worked with one of its specialist farms in Tasmania, and the Sea Forest project to add seaweed to the diet of the sheep from Kingston farm, south of Launceston.
The lower-emissions wool was created – but the next challenge was getting the fine wool from the farm to a mill in Geelong to then to be turned into fabric.
“I must have had about 10 sailors who had agreed to do it with us but they all pulled out at the last minute saying it’s too treacherous. It’s too dangerous,” M.J. Bale’s head of brand, Jonathan Lobban, says.
“I was starting to think ‘we can’t do it’. And then I heard about this one guy. I was told his name is Two Dogs – I didn’t even think about it. I just thought: ‘He’s perfect’.”
Lobban managed to pin down Two Dogs, who was sailing a boat from Western Australia to Queensland at the time. Two Dogs jumped straight away and offered to pick up three bales of wool more than 200km from the farm and take them down to his boat, Ratu, which was docked in Hobart – all by bike.
Two Dogs then loaded up Ratu, bike and all, and sailed across the Bass Strait. “He’s an incredible sailor,” Lobban says.
That project started out 12 months ago but it is from there that Two Dogs widened the mission to head to Alaska. He spent several months preparing Ratu at the Royal Geelong Yacht Club last year. He arrived in Sydney last month and is now ready to head off again.
“People always ask me: When are you leaving? I tell them I’ve already left”.
For Two Dogs the aim is to draw attention to looking after the health of the oceans. And this is the best way he knows how. Others on board and aligned with his vision include the emerging Australian carbon market exchange and index provider C2Zero, founded by former Macquarie banker Roger Cohen.
And while he is powered purely by wind and his instruments are analogue over digital, Two Dogs isn’t eschewing technology.
Two Dogs Ratu on Sydney Harbour. He is being quietly supported along the way by up-market Australian suit brand M.J. Bale. Picture: John Feder
Deep in the cabin Ratu will be connected to the world, no matter how isolated, with satellite phones and internet. Even as a highly experienced sailer Two Dogs uses hi-tech algorithms to predict long-range wind patterns and help map out a safe passage. For those following his journey there’s Facebook and Instagram via his address Team Two Dogs.
Nor is there intention to go deep into the freezing Bering Sea or further north where ice could threaten his boat made of Tasmanian wood. But Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands loom as a point on the horizon. His intention is to head through the tropical Pacific Islands, past Hawaii and make it to Washington State by the end of August, which is the northern summer.
The calm Sydney Harbour is a world away but Two Dogs is making preparations and waiting for a final health check following a minor medical procedure. And he is ready to keep moving. He points east.
“I can’t wait to sail down there out through those heads and pretty much aim for Alaska”.