Written by Member Peter Thiel
“After last year’s devastating fires at Lahaina and the cancellation of the race it was back on this year. Tattersalls was represented again at the Maui Channel Swim this year with 2 teams – Tattersalls Masters and Tattersalls Sociales as well as by Brendan Maher who was swimming solo.
Tatts was looking to extend its unbeaten run of 14 wins. The Olympic Club put in a fast team this year and the race was very tight for the first hour with the teams side by side. A better line from Randy our local navigator (who has still not been able to replace his boat after it was burned in the harbour last year) saw Tatts draw away eventually taking the race by just over 10 minutes to make it 15 years straight. The Tattersalls Sociales team with captain Cesar Puertolas and Andrew Davis (previous 2 times solo finisher – one of them Breastroke!) had a great swim and were 2nd in the Grand Makule division. Brendan Maher was swimming extremely well and looking strong, but 3 shark encounters over an hour saw him getting pulled out of the water – shaken but ready to swim another day.
The swimmers headed over to Waikiki for the Roughwater swim 2 days later, and the overall win went to Tatts representative Ned Wieland in a sprint up the beach to beat his younger brother Duke. It was noted at the presentations that an Australian has won the race for the last 17 years and the good news is that it’s been a Tatts representative every year!
If you are thinking of swimming the Maui Channel, next year would be a great opportunity. Contact Peter Thiel if you are interested.”
