Sydney to Hobart entrant has close ties with Riverina medicine

Yacht Helsal 3 - which was a divisional winner in three consecutive Sydney to Hobart events - is jointly owned by Gundagai rural doctor Paul Mara and Wagga orthopaedic surgeon, Adrian van der Rijt.

It will sail in this year's race under the hashtag #destinationrural.

Crew will include Junee GP Darren Corbett and Wagga resident medical officer Ramandeep Kaur, as well as Dr van der Rijt and all of his children.

"When people think about Wagga, they think about cricketers, runners, cyclists and a lot of these sort of things. I think we've added a category: we're having off-shore sailing," Dr Mara said.

"We're trying to brand that. We want to bring that sort of country feel to the Sydney to Hobart."

Before he started sailing, Dr Mara had always wanted to take part in the famous race.

"Having done one, I wanted to do another one and the best way to do that was to become involved in a boat," he said.

"We wanted to charter a boat and this one - Helsal 3 - was recommended. It just sort of happened.

"Helsal is quite an iconic Australian racing boat. It was built back in the early 1980s and it's had a number of iterations.

"It's what was called a pocket maxi. They were the boats that were very competitive in the Sydney-Hobart at that time. They were traditional style boats.

"Now a lot of the boats are computerised and have all sorts of sophisticated stuff. Well, this is a traditional style racing boat. It still does very well in its pedigree.

"It's got a very good success rate in terms of finishing. It's such a very, very tough, solid boat. It's finishes the Sydney to Hobart. It doesn't break like a lot of the other ones.

"A few years ago we had very nasty weather on the Sydney to Hobart and Helsal got through that very well. A lot of other boats pulled out.

"This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race and 170 yachts have entered. We are seeking to co-brand Helsal 3 with a local rural organisation or business for the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race," Dr Mara said.

Since acquiring Helsal 3, Dr Mara began to develop a program that allowed medical students from Wagga to crew the yacht in races in Australia.

Ramandeep Kaur, who will crew in the Sydney to Hobart this year, first sailed aboard Helsal during the annual UNSW rural clinical school trip to the Airlie Beach Race Week.

"She caught the offshore sailing bug and has competed in a number of offshore races in Tasmania and NSW," Dr Mara said.

"Over the past five years Helsal 3 has taken medical students from the local clinical school to the Whitsundays.

"Our aim has been to show students that a career in rural medicine and living and working in a rural or regional area does not limit professional or personal opportunities," said Dr Mara.

"I'd always had this idea of showing people as students that you could actually be a doctor and still live in the country and not be restricted.

"That was the fundamental sort of thing. Then we took them for the first year, and that was such a success, they asked me if I could do it again.

"Now, you can't hold them back from applying. There is just sort of this expectation they are going to go up there sailing."

Associate Professor John Preddy agreed the trip was one of the highlights of the year for students and indeed is one of the great things attracting students to Wagga.

"They learn to work together as a team and grow as people," said Dr Preddy.

"We have had great support from local doctors and local specialists. This year we also received support from the MLHD as part of their strategic plan to improve [the] medical workforce, particularly for smaller towns in the district."