Twenty nine years ago, David Lyons designed and sailed in the harsh 1993 Sydney Hobart on the winner, Cuckoos Nest, owned by Nigel Holman.

This year his son and daughter competed in their first Rolex Sydney Hobart on separate yachts – State of Origin style.

Alex Lyons raced south on Ray Hudson’s XP44, XS Moment BNMH, from NSW, but a start line incident nearly cost them the race, but for a bit of ingenuity in the famous race.

The 29-year-old explains: “There is a window beside the navigation station that was broken during a start line incident, so we had to put sail repair tape over the outside of it. I helped cut up a piece of cupboard in the head (toilet) to glue over the top of the window.

“We thickened the glue with crushed up gingernut biscuits. That was Mick Welsby’s idea. He’s a carpenter and the other bowman on the boat. We crushed the biscuits up using the bar that you put through the mast for the mast jack – mortar and pestle style.”

Alex, who started sailing at 11 in Sydney, was thrilled to arrive in Hobart with the window still intact.

“The final night was the ultimate test of the repair. It was on the starboard side and we were on port tack for at least 12 hours. It held,” he recalled.

“Then we were becalmed off Maria Island too long – three hours – during a transition. Then we had a perfect 10-15kt sou’ easter and we raced across Storm Bay with a Code Zero and finished at sunset.

“We got a huge…