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Complex Sydney-Hobart Handicap Challenge Makes Simple Battle for Line Honours Attractively Straightforward

23rd December 2019
Racing for line honours: the SuperMaxis Comanche (Jim Cooney), Wild Oats XI (Oatley family) and Infotrack (ex Rambler 100, Christian Beck) making knots for Hobart in the 2018 race Racing for line honours: the SuperMaxis Comanche (Jim Cooney), Wild Oats XI (Oatley family) and Infotrack (ex Rambler 100, Christian Beck) making knots for Hobart in the 2018 race Credit: Rolex/Studio Borlenghi

There’s nothing like the spectacle of a flotilla of fighting Supermaxis streaking away southwards from the start of the annual Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race to snap us out of the Christmas torpor. In fact, with the time difference between Ireland and Australia, for many, the Christmas will still be meandering along as things get going in Sydney Harbour in what is, for us, the small hours of Thursday morning.

But whether it’s going to be a fast-moving spectacle remains to be seen. At least the wind is forecast to be in the easterly arc, giving hope that the smoke haze of the Australian bush fires will have been blown inland to leave the handsome harbour looking its picture-postcard best. And in recent days the temperatures have dropped to much more civilized levels to enable newly-arrived crews – such as the very Corinthian sailors who will be racing the First 40 HYC Breakthrough – a more reasonable chance of acclimatizing themselves.

hyc breakthrough crew2The HYC Breakthrough crew after completing their 24-hour test are (left to right) Simon Knowles, Kieran Jameson, Jonny White, Rick De Neve, Luke Malcolm, Wendy Tuck of EastSail, Darren Wright, Colm Bermingham and (foreground) Emmet Sheridan

But at this stage the wind predictions for the race are still far from precise, and as previous races have shown, volatility is the name of the game. So when one of the race’s proven stars such as Mark Richards, longtime skipper of the Oatley family’s 100ft Supermaxi Wild Oats XI, quotes a forecast, it’s difficult to resist the temptation to assume he’s throwing shapes to confuse his rivals as his skinny flying machine aims for her tenth line honours win.

For what it’s worth, today (Monday) Richards said:

“Today’s forecast indicates we will start in a light to moderate north-easterly, and then have a change out of the south during the first night. If you position your yacht in the right spot for that change, and your opposition doesn’t get it right, then you might gain 50 or 60 miles over them. That’s the big challenge.”

wild 2019 oats3Despite being dismasted with significant deck damage just six weeks before the start, top contender Wild Oats XI is race-ready again
Makes it so simple, really. But in a race which is also being predicted as being as much about brain as brawn, all the navigators - such as Offaly-born Adrienne Cahalan on the Judel Vrolik 62 Chinese Whispers (ex-Jethou, with the crew including Howth’s Shane Diviney) - are taking about several “transition stages”, and the challenge of reading them right.

So in a fleet now of 157 boats, ranging in size from 33ft to 100ft, the possible successful permutations in the IRC overall handicap race for the coveted Tattersall Cup are only something which can be disentangled as the race proceeds, whereas the raw race for line honours is something which becomes clear from the get-go.

Like it or not, the SuperMaxis get that initial attention, and in truth they deserve much of it, for like virtually all the rest of the fleet, there isn’t a “new in 2019” boat among them. Australians are maniacs for modifying boats. Thus when we talk of the hundred foot Wild Oats XI racing for her tenth line honours win, we’re talking of a boat which started life as a 90-footer, but has been undergoing modification ever since, so much so that the recent potential disaster of being dismasted with significant deck damage just six weeks before the start not only was an opportunity to demonstrate the Wild Oats campaign’s powers of resilience, but the round-the-clock repair and replacement work facilitated opportunities for yet further mods.

In fact the only hundred footer which is still largely as originally designed is Jim Cooney’s Comanche (the “Boat from Ballivor”), but others like Peter Harburg’s Black Jack have received some surgical enhancement. For this year’s race, the lightwind flyer Black Jack is racing for the Yacht Club de Monaco, thereby bringing up the overseas entries to eight, and the crew includes America’s Cup legend Brad Butterworth and other mega-talents more usually associated with George David’s all-conquering Rambler 88, so if the wind stays as light as some forecasters suggest, Black Jack might well be one to watch.

In the body of the fleet, we find the Howthmen with their First 40 HYC Breakaway, registered to the ownership of Darren Wright HYC, and proudly flying the Irish tricolour. It’s a brave campaign, for the reality is that the entire crew are Sydney-Hobart Race virgins. When you’re in a fleet where people like Dublin-born sailmaker Noel Drennan on the Maxi 72 URM is doing his 32nd Hobart Race, while Adrienne Cahalan is on her 28th, this blank slate does loom large, but they seem to have been blessed into the quickest possible experience-acquisition programme since they arrived.

This has been facilitated by Wendy Tuck, the first woman skipper to win the Clipper Round the World Race overall – she did it in the 2017-2018 edition. These days, she has a key introductory role with EastSail, the Australian organization which arranged the transfer of Breakthrough, and she sailed with the Howth team in their mandatory 24-hour offshore test which fast-tracked them into the Hobart lane.

kieran support team4Kieran Jameson with his support team in Sydney
Since then they’ve been test and training sailing as much as possible while the shore team of Ian and Judith Malcolm have been dealing with the myriad of essential requirements. Nevertheless, it’s something of a leap in the dark, and HYC Breakthrough will have been a big achiever if she does well against the other First 40s – seven of them – and the similarly-rated Sydney 38s, while anything remotely like a class podium position would be massive.

Sydney hobart raceThe classic Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race of 628 miles is an unusual mixture of open water sailing followed by inshore work approaching the finish in the Derwent River to Hobart
Meanwhile, in the exalted heights of the superstars, the combo of owner-skipper Matt Allen and Howth ex-Pat sailing master Gordon Maguire with the superb Botin 52 Ichi Ban 2 are still seen as a good all-round bet for the Tattersall Cup. But as ever, after close-fought battles out in open water, the final place may well be decided by the time of day or night you enter the Derwent River, with its tricky diurnal wind patterns, in order to get to the finish in the heart of Hobart.

rshr derwent finish6The “Derwent Drift” – with spectator craft disturbing the almost windless water – is part of the Sydney-Hobart package. Photo: Rolex/Studio Borlenghi

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WM Nixon

About The Author

WM Nixon

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William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland for many years in print and online, and his work has appeared internationally in magazines and books. His own experience ranges from club sailing to international offshore events, and he has cruised extensively under sail, often in his own boats which have ranged in size from an 11ft dinghy to a 35ft cruiser-racer. He has also been involved in the administration of several sailing organisations.

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The Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is an annual offshore yacht racing event with an increasingly international exposure attracting super maxi yachts and entries from around tne world. It is hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, starting in Sydney, New South Wales on Boxing Day and finishing in Hobart, Tasmania. The race distance is approximately 630 nautical miles (1,170 km).

The 2022 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race starts in Sydney Harbour at 1pm (AEDT) on Monday 26 December.

This is the 77th edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart. The inaugural race was conducted in 1945 and has run every year since, apart from 2020, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

88 boats started the 2021 Rolex Sydney Hobart, with 50 finishing.

The Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - FAQs

The number of Sydney Hobart Yacht Races held by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia since 1945 is 75

6,257 completed the Sydney Hobart Yacht race, 1036 retired or were disqualified)

About 60,061 sailors have competed in the Sydney Hobart Race between 1945 and 2019

Largest fleets: 371 starters in the 50th race in 1994 (309 finished); 154 starters in 1987 (146 finished); 179 starters in 1985 (145 finished); 151 starters in 1984 (46 finished); 173 started in 1983 (128 finished); 159 started in 1981 (143 finished); 147 started in 1979 (142 finished); 157 started in 2019 (154 finished)

116 in 2004 (59 finished); 117 in 2014 (103 finished); 157 in 2019 (154 finished)

Nine starters in the inaugural Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in 1945

In 2015 and 2017 there were 27, including the 12 Clipper yachts (11 in 2017). In the record entry of 371 yachts in the 50th in 1994, there were 24 internationals

Rani, Captain John Illingworth RN (UK). Design: Barber 35’ cutter. Line and handicap winner

157 starters, 154 finishers (3 retirements)

IRC Overall: Ichi Ban, a TP52 owned by Matt Allen, NSW. Last year’s line honours winner: Comanche, Verdier Yacht Design and VPLP (FRA) owned by Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant, in 1 day 18 hours, 30 minutes, 24 seconds. Just 1hour 58min 32secs separated the five super maxis at the finish 

1 day 9 hours 15 minutes and 24 seconds, set in 2017 by LDV Comanche after Wild Oats XI was penalised one hour in port/starboard incident for a finish time of 1d 9h 48m 50s

The oldest ever sailor was Syd Fischer (88 years, 2015).

As a baby, Raud O'Brien did his first of some six Sydney Hobarts on his parent's Wraith of Odin (sic). As a veteran at three, Raud broke his arm when he fell off the companionway steps whilst feeding biscuits to the crew on watch Sophie Tasker sailed the 1978 race as a four-year-old on her father’s yacht Siska, which was not an official starter due to not meeting requirements of the CYCA. Sophie raced to Hobart in 1979, 1982 and 1983.

Quite a number of teenage boys and girls have sailed with their fathers and mothers, including Tasmanian Ken Gourlay’s 14-year-old son who sailed on Kismet in 1957. A 12-year-old boy, Travis Foley, sailed in the fatal 1998 race aboard Aspect Computing, which won PHS overall.

In 1978, the Brooker family sailed aboard their yacht Touchwood – parents Doug and Val and their children, Peter (13), Jacqueline (10), Kathryne (8) and Donald (6). Since 1999, the CYCA has set an age limit of 18 for competitors

Jane (‘Jenny’) Tate, from Hobart, sailed with her husband Horrie aboard Active in the 1946 Race, as did Dagmar O’Brien with her husband, Dr Brian (‘Mick’) O’Brien aboard Connella. Unfortunately, Connella was forced to retire in Bass Strait, but Active made it to the finish. The Jane Tate Memorial Trophy is presented each year to the first female skipper to finish the race

In 2019, Bill Barry-Cotter brought Katwinchar, built in 1904, back to the start line. She had competed with a previous owner in 1951. It is believed she is the oldest yacht to compete. According to CYCA life member and historian Alan Campbell, more than 31 yachts built before 1938 have competed in the race, including line honours winners Morna/Kurrewa IV (the same boat, renamed) and Astor, which were built in the 1920s.

Bruce Farr/Farr Yacht Design (NZL/USA) – can claim 20 overall wins from 1976 (with Piccolo) up to and including 2015 (with Balance)

Screw Loose (1979) – LOA 9.2m (30ft); Zeus II (1981) LOA 9.2m

TKlinger, NSW (1978) – LOA 8.23m (27ft)

Wild Oats XI (2012) – LOA 30.48m (100ft). Wild Oats XI had previously held the record in 2005 when she was 30m (98ft)

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