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Howth Yacht Club's Breakthrough Battles on in Sydney-Hobart Race as Ireland Basks in Reflected Big Boat Success

28th December 2019
 Ichi Ban, Division 1 winner and likely overall winner in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, headed towards the distinctive Organ Pipes rock formation in the approaches to Hobart. In changed wind and weather conditions, Darren Wright’s First 40 HYC Breakthrough is working on a tactic of being closer inshore Ichi Ban, Division 1 winner and likely overall winner in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, headed towards the distinctive Organ Pipes rock formation in the approaches to Hobart. In changed wind and weather conditions, Darren Wright’s First 40 HYC Breakthrough is working on a tactic of being closer inshore Credit: Rolex

As the daylight of Sunday morning strengthens along the east coast of Tasmania, Irish interest in the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race 2019 turns towards Darren Wright’s First 40 HYC Daybreak in Division 6.

We can re-focus confident in the knowledge that if you take every possible permutation of Irish linkage into account, we can claim an interest in the indisputable Line Honours Winner (SuperMaxi Comanche, with Jim Cooney of County Meath), the Division 1 (and probably overall) winner Ichi Ban (sailing master Gordon Maguire of Howth), and the Division 2 winner Chinese Whisper (navigator Adrienne Cahalan of Offaly and crewmember Shane Diviney of Howth).

But only 21 boats of the 157 starters are now comfortably finished. Out at sea – sometimes very far out at sea - the smaller craft have been having a frustrating night of it with winds all over the place and very confused seas as they’ve tried to make to windward in what was expected to be a brief southerly.

rick trophy cabinet2HYC Breakthrough navigator Rick De Neve in the Trophy Room of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in Sydney before the start of the race to Hobart. The Howth-based Rick’s day job is as an international jetliner captain
Brief it may be, but at one stage there was plenty of it, and HYC Breakthrough was down to No 2 and a reef in the main as she crashed through the night. Navigator Rick De Neve reports that they’re trying to make some westing to be better placed for an eventual wind swing back to the northeast which seems to be filling in more quickly towards the coast, but meanwhile the windward slugging in a southerly has had a distinct hint of the Antarctic about it after taking their leave from Sydney in a serious heatwave.

For the time being, their westward tack has impinged on their overall and class placing, though even as we write, HYC Breakthrough is getting up to speed again. Until they took the plunge, they’d been 5th in Division 6th and second overall in the Corinthian Division, but at 1830 hrs Irish time they were (hopefully temporarily) back at tenth in class.

Philosopher YachtCrazy name, successful boat – the Tasmania-based Sydney 36 Special Willie Smith’s Philosopher has become the boat to beat in Division 6

Even at that, they have seen off several First 40s which were giving them a hard time in the early stages of the race, but at the front of the class the Tasmanian-based Sydney 36 Special called Willie Smith’s Philosopher (Australian boat names really are something else) is setting a ferocious pace which will be very challenging to overcome, even with more than a hundred miles still to race.

Race Tracker here 

Published in Sydney to Hobart
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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