Sunshine & Shadow
Page 25
Just being able to take my place in the crew meant enduring months of gruelling strength and fitness training on the Harbour and in the gym, where I was punished by my good mate Mike Misson and a super-fit group comprising personal trainer David Felice, former boxer Mick Ostini, Steve’s good friend Sas Nyamat, as well as ‘team psychologist’ Julian Stewart, who had spoken so eloquently at Steve’s funeral – as we sailed out of Sydney Heads on 26 December we were all covered in bruises and cuts.
My fellow crew members included some elite athletes – world boxing champion Danny Green, Olympic gold medal swimmer Grant Hackett, current Australian rugby player Phil Waugh and former Wallaby Phil Kearns, TV personality Larry Emdur, and a group of hard-core sailors – and I wanted to prove to Steve that I could hold up my head among these men.
The voyage across the Tasman was every bit as tough as I knew it would be. Getting used to being on board, sailing as a team under pressure and moving about the bucking and slippery deck, was not easy. One of the crew, Peter Calligeros, told me I reminded him of a giraffe on a piece of soap. We battled broken sails, storms and seasickness but I felt Steve with me the whole way. Bass Strait is usually the roughest part of the race with its trademark huge seas but suddenly a massive gust of wind came from nowhere and caught our sails and barrelled us across the Strait. It was as if he had picked us up in his hand and was powering us along. I sent out a message to Steve: ‘ Thanks, mate.’ We came fourth in the race.
I met some great people sailing in that race and I’m sure some will be lifelong friends. One such is Joe Akacich, a.k.a ‘Black Joe’, a big-hearted man with an incredible zest for life. Joe has a talent for summing up people quickly and then bringing out the best in them, which came in handy in our situation: twenty guys working hard and doing our duties in the confined spaces of a boat. Black Joe helped me and everyone else in that crew. He made sure we all contributed, and that each of us made the most of the experience. I have a lot of respect for this champion bloke. I’ll never forget Black Joe’s booming voice calling out, ‘First spreader ... second spreader ... third spreader ... hold !’
Having recently destroyed Roy Jones Jr in less than one round, Danny Green struck none of us as someone who would be anxious about sailing. But Danny had a deep fear of the open sea and thought there could be no better way to overcome that fear than sail in the Sydney to Hobart Classic. You should have seen his face the night of the big storm. There we all were, perched on the front of the boat in the howling wind and driving rain, pulling a sail down as mighty waves crashed over the bow. I could just make out Danny and his eyes were the size of dinner plates and he was telling anyone who could hear him, ‘I’m shitting myself, fellas!’ I’d first met Danny a couple of years before and my summation of him as one gutsy man turned out to be correct. On the voyage, Danny proved himself to be a witty and easygoing bloke who contributed 100 per cent.
Grant Hackett is an Olympic champion and a gold medal bloke. He is so modest for someone who has achieved so much. Among the many funny moments ‘Hacky’ and I shared was when we were down below pulling in a spinnaker and I lost my grip and elbowed him straight in the nose. With his bleeding nose and hair sticking out he resembled a creature in Alien and I thought he was going to rip my arms off and hand them back to me, but of course he was cool. Anyway, he got his own back just an hour later when he lost his grip on the sail and his elbow smashed me on the cheekbone and I landed on my arse. We both laughed and had a hug, as if to say, ‘One-all. We’re square.’
Whenever there was something very heavy to lift the call would go out, ‘Where’s Waughy?’ Phil Waugh is built like a tank and immensely strong. He’d grab the weight, whatever it was, his eyes would glaze over, he’d exert himself, and the job would be done. Waughy was always saying, ‘Sorry, Dacky,’ because he was forever stepping on me, poking me in the eye or doing something else to cause me pain. He gave his all.
And so did Phil Kearns. He was a Trojan on board and, like Danny Green, was so quick with a one-liner.
Kearnsy is a gifted mimic and quickly learned to take off Black Joe to a tee. We’d think it was Joe yelling orders to us, only to crack up when we realised it was Phil.
Larry Emdur is a witty and charming bloke. He shot some outstanding footage during the race and in doing so has given all of us something we’ll treasure in the years ahead. Larry did his absolute best and gave his all.
Taking part in that race was one of the best things I have done in my life. I am proud that I took it on, and that I let nobody down. I know in my heart that the whole experience was a gift from my brother.
In the months since his death, a number of Steve’s friends have contacted me and come into my office and told me their stories of how Steve had helped them and how they would miss him.
In his short life, my brother blessed all who knew him with his love, time and support. Through all the ups and downs of his life, his spirit never stopped shining. Steve was like your favourite song, the one you never want to stop listening to: sunshine on your back, the Woolloomooloo days, life was beautiful then.
I will miss you, my love.
[ALISON]
afterword
We lost Stevie in April last year, and none of us will ever be the same. I was shocked and destroyed when he chose to leave us. He seemed happy. He seemed to have found his niche in life. After all the dramas he was calm and peaceful. He was in love with Hilary, his partner, and doted on her daughters. He had beaten alcoholism. He was close again with James and me. He always had a way of sabotaging himself – ‘Life is too good, I don’t deserve it, how can I stuff it up for myself?’ When things were going well he was at his most vulnerable. The world is a quieter, duller place for his passing. It’s funny; I felt so safe with Mum and she died, and I felt safe with Stephen and he died.
I believe we’ll all meet again somewhere, but in the meantime ...
Although Mum and Stephen have gone and I love them and miss them every day, I’m doing okay. They drop in on me every now and again. Genevieve calls me ‘HONI’, an acronym for ‘Her Of No Issues’, but I’m not sure if that’s true!
There is only one positive to come out of Steve’s death. It is the large group of amazing people I have inherited, so to speak, because of our love for my brother. He brought us all together so beautifully. We are all so different. What we have in common is that we adore Steve. That’s an amazing gift to leave. I am so very proud of him. I am so very proud of both my brothers. Now you know their stories, I hope you will be proud of them, too.
acknowledgements
LARRY WRITER
This book is the end result of scores of hours of interviews with James and Stephen Dack in 2008 and 2009. It was a journey that was inspiring, outrageous and enjoyable and – having read the book, you’ll understand why – so very sad. I believe that James’s and Stephen’s intertwined experiences combine to be one of the great Australian stories and it was a privilege to help them tell it.
I thank, of course, the brothers Dack for sharing their lives with me. And Sunshine & Shadow could never have been written without the blessing and support of Alison Dack, Stephen’s partner Hilary and her daughters Joey and Adele, Bruce Collins and Johnny Lewis. All, in their different ways, love Stephen and James.
As this book was going to press, Johnny Lewis, Australia’s finest boxing coach and a mentor of the brothers since they were boys, sent in the following thoughts. He wanted his feelings on the record.
The story of James and Stephen Dack is about two young boys who both rose above a childhood that dealt them sorrow and grief. With the tragic death of their mother at an early age, James was forced into the role of father, big brother and best mate to Stephen and their younger sister, Alison.
James, with steely grit and a no-nonsense approach, went on to become an icon in the real estate profession, selling some of the highest-priced homes in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. But James never forgot where he came from, continually donating funds to t
he Woolloomooloo Police Citizens Youth Club and the local primary school. James is married to Mary and they have two children, Emily and Riley, who make up a beautiful family.
Stephen became a very talented rugby league player, making the New South Wales schoolboys representative side alongside such stars of the future as Andrew Ettingshausen and Greg Alexander. He went on to be graded with the Eastern Suburbs Roosters. Stephen then turned his dedication into boxing, and became an amateur champion and represented Australia in overseas tournaments. During this period of his life, Stephen also combined being a street-sweeper for Sydney City Council with studying Law at university. He went on to be a qualified solicitor with his own practice.
Stephen took his own life in April 2009. Personally, I have been left with an emptiness that I’ve never experienced before. I doubt if I will ever get over this loss of life. Stephen meant so much to me. He never said a bad word about anybody and he was loved by so many. So many times I saw him give money and food to the homeless people of the Darlinghurst–Woolloomooloo areas. He was the most decent, generous and humble person I have ever known.
—Johnny Lewis
about the author
Larry Writer’s previous books include The Australian Book of True Crime; Razor, the Ned Kelly Award-winning story about Kate Leigh, Tilly Devine and Sydney’s razor gang wars of the 1920s and 30s; Pleasure and Pain, Chrissy Amphlett’s biography; and Never Before, Never Again, about the St George rugby league team that won a world record eleven consecutive premierships in the 1950s and 1960s. He is a former senior journalist, editor and London bureau chief with Australian Consolidated Press and Time Inc Magazines. Larry lives in Sydney with his family.
Published in 2010 by Pier 9, an imprint of Murdoch Books Pty Limited
Murdoch Books Australia
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Publishing Director: Kay Scarlett
Publisher: Colette Vella
Editor: Karen Ward
Designer: Hugh Ford
Text copyright © James Dack and Stephen Dack 2010
The moral right of the authors have been asserted.
Design copyright © Murdoch Books Pty Limited 2010
Every reasonable effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright materials in this book, but is some instances this has proven impossible. The author(s) and publisher will be glad to receive information leading to more complete acknowledgements in subsequent printings of the book and in the meantime extend their apologies for any omissions.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Author: Dack, James, 1961-
Title: Sunshine and shadow [electronic resource] : a brothers'
story / James and Stephen Dack with Larry Writer.
eISBN: 9781742662060
Subjects: Dack, James, 1961-
Dack, Stephen, 1965-2009.
Men--Australia--Biography.
Real estate agents--Australia--Biography.
Lawyers--Australia--Biography.
Brothers--Australia--Biography.
Other Authors/Contributors:
Dack, Stephen, 1965-2009.
Writer, Larry.
Dewey Number: 920.710994