About

Wine-Dark Sea is a Lyons 49 owned by Peter Lowndes and Courtney Murphy (soon to be Lowndes).

She was built in 2002 by Mackman Yachts in Queensland for Geoff Hill as Strewth. In recent years WDS has undergone some mods to make her more competitive with similar newer boats. This includes a new Axxon carbon fibre mast and small bowsprit. She has also ditched the furler in favour of a single, reefing, hank on headsail.

She was orginally purchased by Peter Lowndes and Sarah Goddard-Jones in 2010. After a few years of racing in Sydney, WDS started cruising further afield in 2016. In 2017 Peter and Sarah sold up to live aboard for a 2 year circumnavigation of Australia. Things didn’t quite go to plan but they did make it as far as Darwin before trucking the boat back to Sydney in Janurary 2018.

Tragically Sarah died in a SCUBA accident in 2019. That and COVID put the brakes on any adventures for a few years before trips north resumed in 2022, 2023 and now 2025.

In late 2022, Peter met Courtney who quickly got swept up in the joy of sailing and ocean adventuring. In a moment of weakness/stupidity Courtney suggested Wine-Dark Sea do a Hamo to Hobart campaign in 2025. So here we are. It is her first Hamilton Island Race week and Sydney-Hobart race under Peter’s ownership.

To read about our current and past adventures here’s our blog page https://winedarksea.blog/the-blog/

You can also follow us on FaceBook and Instagram.