Meet Sydney to Hobart LawConnect entrant Payal Pattanaik who is scared of the ocean
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Meet the Sydney to Hobart entrant who didn’t even know where the Tasmanian city was and is afraid of the ocean: “What did I sign up for?”
- Payal Pattanaik won his job from Sydney to Hobart in an office fluke
- The Sydney-based sailing fledgling wasn’t sure where Hobart was until recently.
- Pattanaik, born in India, had a fear of the ocean that she has now overcome.
Two years after arriving from India, Payal Pattanaik has conquered his fear of the ocean and will be aboard the supermaxi LawConnect for the Sydney to Hobart race.
She wasn’t sure where Hobart was until recently, but Indian-born sailing novice Payal Pattanaik overcame her fear of the ocean and accepted the challenge of tackling the Sydney to Hobart race in a supermaxi.
Two years after arriving from India, Payal Pattanaik (pictured) has conquered his fear of the ocean and will be aboard the supermaxi LawConnect for the Sydney to Hobart race.
She wasn’t sure where Hobart was until recently, but Indian-born rookie Payal Pattanaik (pictured) overcame her fear of the ocean and accepted the challenge of tackling the Sydney to Hobart race in a supermaxi.
Pattanaik works for one of the companies owned by LawConnect’s owner, Christian Beck, who, through a lottery every year, reserves a few places on the ship for some of his employees.
Software engineer Pattanaik has only been in Australia for two years and has never been back to India.
“I didn’t read the full description on what exactly the race is about, so I just signed up (for the lottery) and put my hat in the ring,” Pattanaik told AAP.
“Then my name came up, I thought I’d win a prize or something and go sailing, then I read it was from Sydney to Hobart.”
Pattanaik will join 19 other crew members aboard the LawConnect supermaxi (pictured) for the Sydney to Hobart race
“Because I didn’t know where exactly Hobart was, I googled and saw it was in Tasmania and I was like ‘oh, what did I sign up for?'”
“I suddenly thought ‘OK, why not, let’s do this and challenge yourself.’
“For sure he was scared of the ocean and when you get a free shot, I don’t think anyone should miss out on that and get the advantage of being in an iconic race.”
He was part of the LawConnect team for this month’s Cabbage Tree Island race and spent more than 13 hours in the water.
Pattanaik has been appointed to the candle handler job and is also part of the team responsible for looking after the live streaming content coming out of LawConnect (pictured)
Pattanaik has been appointed to the sail handler job and is also part of the team responsible for looking after the live streaming content coming out of LawConnect, the first Sydney to Hobart boat to provide such a service throughout the race.