'I'd rather get kicked in the head by an All Black than face three southerlies'

Few sailors in the 2025 Sydney to Hobart fleet know the brutality of elite sport better than ex-Wallaby Michael Martin.

“Apparently one of my famous quotes is I’d rather get kicked in the head by an All Black than face three southerlies in a Hobart. That’s pretty well close to the mark,” Martin told AAP.

But the six-time Test winger still sees similarities between his old life lining up alongside the Ella brothers in the early 1980s, and sailing the high seas in Australia’s most famous off-shore race.

“Certainly the start is like a Test, the bristle of the start,” Martin said.

“You’re on the frontline with all the big boats. It’s got a good aura, it gives you a shiver down the spine, then getting into it. I certainly don’t miss getting kicked in the head.

“The thing about Tests, or the start of the Hobart, it’s a world-class event and it’s very competitive. There’s certainly a sense of adventure.”

That adventure is what keeps drawing the 70-year-old third-generation roofer back to Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day.

This year marks Martin’s 12th Hobart, and eighth skippering Frantic, the TP52 he bought ahead of the 2012 race.

The TP52 is a competitive class of yacht suited to off-shore racing, so named for its ability to go trans-Pacific with a moderate-sized crew.

In 2022, Sam Haynes skippered the TP52 Celestial to overall handicap victory.

But hoisting the Tattersall Cup is not on the bucket list for Martin, who is heading up an all-amateur crew of 14 or so mates, some experienced, some not.

“We’ve got a group of maybe 30 or 40 guys that rotate and go on the boat and we usually have a good time,” he said.

“We like doing a lot of island races, like to Lord Howe, Auckland, Noumea. That’s what my boat’s suited for, the adventure of going to another island near us. That’s what we enjoy, surfing waves.

“It’s like a big surfboard, full crewed with the spinnaker up, surfing waves in the trade winds. That’s what it’s all about for us.”

Martin has tried to include some of his old Wallabies teammates in the past, but it’s never stuck.

“They used to come on one time and they reckon I’m crazy, so they don’t come back again,” he said.

But in Martin, there’s at least one former rugby player who’d rather be rocking with the waves than sitting at home watching the footy.

“I feel more comfortable in the ocean than I do on land,” he said.

“Driving down the freeway with a tradie on your backside when it’s wet scares the crap out of me, so just coming back from New Zealand, three-up with the auto-pilot on, I feel very comfortable in the middle of the ocean, despite blowing 30 or 40 knots.”