sydney to hobart yacht race retirements

• F1 Australian Grand Prix

Scallywag retires, Rum Rebellion skipper thrown overboard in Sydney to Hobart chaos

There's been plenty of carnage during the Sydney to Hobart, with wild weather on the course leading to a number of early retirements in the iconic sailing event.

After a dramatic start on Tuesday that saw supermaxis Andoo Comanche and Scallywag avoid a massive collision, the latter vessel has since withdrawn from the race overnight.

Elsewhere, the skipper of another premature retiree - Rum Rebellion - was thrown overboard on the first night after high winds caused a knockdown of the two-man boat between Cronulla and Wollongong.

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Shane Connelly was able to return to the boat after attaching his tether and lifting himself back on board, but the pair opted to retire due to a potential concussion suffered by the captain.

"The safety drills and systems all worked, and we could sort ourselves out," Connelly said upon his return to Sydney.

The crew of the aforementioned Scallywag also opted to withdraw from the course, with their social media account revealing the damage caused by the treacherous conditions.

At this stage, Sticky, Maritimo and Arcadia are the other notable retirees, while the smallest boat in the race - Currawong - has also turned back to Sydney on Wednesday afternoon.

Last year's winner Andoo Comanche and the highly-rated LawConnect are in the lead heading towards Tasmania in the bid to claim line honours. 

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2023 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race: Final Day Results and Overall Winner Revealed

The 78th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race concluded with 71 boats finished, leaving 14 racing and 18 retirements, including the octogenarian David Henry's campaign due to rig damage. Tasmanian entry, Alive, skippered by Duncan Hine, secured its second victory in five years as the overall winner of the race.

The conclusion of the prestigious Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and the victory of the Tasmanian entry, Alive, signifies the culmination of efforts and perseverance in the challenging race, impacting the participants and sailing community.

• 71 boats finished the race
• 14 boats are still racing
• 18 retirements occurred
• 71 boats finished, 14 are still racing, and 18 retired
• Alive, skippered by Duncan Hine, was declared the overall winner
• Octogenarian David Henry's campaign ended due to rig damage

Teams and participants will likely evaluate their performance and strategies in preparation for future races, drawing inspiration from the outcomes of the 78th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

The culmination of the 78th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and the victory of Alive highlights the resilience and determination of the participants, inspiring future endeavors in the sailing community.

The summary of the linked article was generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence technology from OpenAI

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Andoo Comanche takes out Sydney to Hobart as supermaxi makes race history

Australian supermaxi Andoo Comanche secured a fourth line honours victory in the gruelling Sydney-Hobart ocean race Wednesday, but fell short of setting a new course record.

The 100-foot yacht, skippered by John Winning Jnr, triumphed in a nail-biting finish in the early hours of Wednesday after leading the blue water classic for much of the race.

It completed a quartet of line honours wins for the boat in the prestigious event since 2015 under a third different owner.

Andoo Comanche crossed with a time of one day, 11 hours, 56 minutes and 48 seconds -- about 20 minutes in front of rival supermaxi Law Connect -- and just under three hours short of its own record.

The current race record of one day, nine hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds was set by the same Comanche boat under a different skipper in 2017.

Winning Jnr was part of the team that won the event in 2016, but said it was something special to skipper his own crew.

“To do it in a campaign that I was part of putting together is really quite exceptional,” he told national broadcaster ABC.

Last year’s defending champion Black Jack crossed third, followed by Wild Oats, which fell behind after tearing one of its sails earlier in the race.

The 109-strong racing fleet set off from a sun-splashed Sydney Harbour on Monday afternoon, charting their way through the 628-nautical mile course (1163km) to Hobart.

Favourable weather early in the race raised the prospect of toppling that mark, but the strong winds faded as the boats barrelled towards the finish line in Hobart.

The Bass Strait, which separates Tasmania from the mainland, can unleash perilous conditions.

A deep depression proved catastrophic for the fleet in 1998, when six sailors were killed and 55 more were rescued after five boats sank.

Race officials on Tuesday evening said only three of the starting fleet had been forced to retire so far.

One of them, 40-foot yacht Yeah Baby, withdrew less than four hours into the race after reportedly colliding with a massive sunfish.

Dozens of smaller yachts were still in the water Wednesday morning, competing for the handicap prize, which compensates for boat size.

READ BELOW FOR A FULL WRAP OF ALL THE ACTION FROM THE RACE!

Comanche held a consistent lead of 20 nautical miles throughout the afternoon as it moved towards the Derwent with LawConnect telling the Nine papers they expect to arrive at Constitution Dock in Hobart at around 2am AEDT.

As darkness neared, Wild Oats XI fell back into fourth having suffered sail damage overnight while reigning line honours winner Black Jack was third, some five nautical miles behind LawConnect.

FOLLOW THE LIVE RACE TRACKER HERE

Comanche led the fleet into Bass Strait in the early morning, but slipping well behind LDV Comanche’s race record from 2017. Three of the four supermaxis (100-plus-footers) ran well east of the rhumbline to take advantage of marginally stronger winds, before turning back towards the coast of Tasmania around midday.

There were two retirements on the first day, with two-hander Avalanche the first to pull back to shore with a damaged bowsprit after a collision with Llama II just outside the Sydney Heads. Llama II escaped with only superficial damage.

Yeah Baby then retired in the evening after sustaining rudder damage near Wollongong due to a collision with a sunfish, but returned safely to Sydney.

Koa then became the third retirement after breaking her rudder, and is set to be towed to Eden on the NSW south coast, leaving 106 yachts still in the race. Enterprise Next Generation put in a request for redress after helping their stricken rival.

WILD OATS COPS DAMAGE OVERNIGHT

Hamilton Island Wild Oats came within 0.3 nautical miles of Black Jack around 2am overnight in the hunt for third position, before Black Jack surged in the early morning.

The pair traded positions throughout the day, with Wild Oats taking a line significantly closer to rhumbline.

It followed a wild start where both Comanche and Wild Oats were forced to take penalty turns following a series of near-misses in Sydney Harbour (more below).

Wild Oats - hunting a record tenth line honours win - then suffered damage to one of their two largest sails overnight.

Their veteran crewman Chris Links told NewsLocal a seam across one of their large downwind sails split, requiring running repairs on deck.

“It is not an easy job,’’ Links said.

“It has a cable in it and we had to do the repair on deck.

“It took around one and a half hours to repair.’’

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Watch live on-board action from LawConnect below.

WILD START CAUSES CHAOS

“Protest, get the flag up, that was f***ing bull***t,” someone yelled on Andoo Comanche in the first two minutes after being cut off by rival supermaxis LawConnect and Black Jack.

URM and LawConnect were also “inches” away from crashing into each other, according to URM skipper Ashley-Jones.

Less than a minute later, one of the crew was heard barking: “you’re asking for a clusterf***, we’re going to be in a collision,” and labelled one rival a “f***ing idiot”.

Comanche hit a turning mark as it exited the heads and was later spotted flying a protest flag of their own, after another boat protested them.

On Wild Oats, which took two penalty turns, skipper Mark Richards could be heard yelling “furl, furl, we are going to do a 720 (penalty turn)”.

Wild Oats famously lost the win in 2017 upon arrival in Hobart, after being handed a one-hour penalty for a rule breach over an incident with Comanche.

That race saw the record time set, with 2022’s Comanche roughly eight nautical miles behind the 2017 edition’s pace late on Monday night and falling further back overnight.

EARLY RACE UPDATES AND PREVIEW (via AFP)

More than 100 yachts set sail Monday on the Sydney-Hobart race as favourable winds raised hopes for a record time in one of the world’s most punishing ocean events.

Fans gathered at coastal vantage points and on spectator boats in a sun-splashed Sydney Harbour, which hours earlier had been shrouded in a thick fog that halted all ferry traffic.

The starting cannon fired to release 109 yachts on the 628-nautical mile (1,200-kilometre) blue water classic.

Crews dashed to get out of the city’s harbour on the first leg of the race down Australia’s eastern coast and across the treacherous Bass Strait towards the finish line in the Tasmanian state capital.

A final weather briefing on race day predicted “fresh to strong” north to northeasterly winds in the next day or so, giving the fastest, 100-foot supermaxi yachts a chance to challenge Comanche’s 2017 record of one day, 9 hours, 15min and 24sec.

Mark Richards, skipper of nine-time line honours-winning supermaxi Wild Oats, said his crew was buoyant after preparing for exactly these conditions.

“We put all our eggs in one basket and we put all our money on black for a downwind forecast and we have ended up getting it,” he told public broadcaster ABC.

“I think Wild Oats is going to be very fast,” Richards added. “The world is going to find out who is the fastest boat downwind.”

Wild Oats is competing for line honours against three rival supermaxis: Andoo Comanche, last year’s line honours winner Black Jack, and LawConnect.

Weather is a critical factor in the race, which was first held in 1945. Though the supermaxis are expected to be powered by northerly winds to a quick finish as early as Tuesday, slower mid- to small-sized boats will still be in the water in the following days facing possible gales and changes in wind direction.

In 1998, when a deep depression exploded over the fleet in the Bass Strait, six men died, five boats sank and 55 sailors were rescued.

Black Jack took line honours last year after a tight tussle with LawConnect, ending years of frustrating near misses to cross the finish line on the River Derwent after two days, 12 hours, 37min and 17sec.

Ichi Ban, which is not racing this year, was the 2021 winner of the overall handicap prize, which takes into account the yachts’ sizes. The boat pipped rival Celestial in a race where dangerous waves and weather conditions saw many withdraw.

International boats are making a return after the race was cancelled in 2020 for the first time due to the pandemic, and Covid hit the fleet last year.

Entrants come from Germany (Orione), Hong Kong (Antipodes), Hungary (Cassiopeia 68), New Caledonia (Eye Candy and Poulpito), New Zealand (Caro), Britain (Sunrise) and the United States (Warrior Won).

Sunrise is a proven ocean racer, winning the 2021 Fastnet Race in Britain, while Caro has been tipped to take out overall handicap honours, although skipper Max Klink played down his prospects ahead of the race saying: “I do not think we are the favourite.”

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‘Devastated’: Man overboard, more boats out of Sydney to Hobart

A total of nine vessels have been forced to retire from the Sydney to Hobart with one skipper revealing a “devastating” update.

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Nine casulties have now struck the Sydney to Hobart fleet.

It was announced on Wednesday morning two more yachts had been forced to retire as the fleet made its way along the NSW south coast.

Scallywag was the first big casualty of the race after the Hong Kong-based sailing team’s bow sprit — which carries the yachts biggest sails — broke just hours into the race.

Scallywag had been the early leader and was in a fight with Andoo Comanche and LawConnect before it was forced to abandon its campaign.

Two more vessels were forced to retire in the early hours of Wednesday morning with Sticky and Maritimo 52 pulling out.

Sticky was forced to pull out with electrical damage, while Maritimo 52 had damage to rigging.

Small yacht Rum Rebellion was hit by a burst of water between Cronulla and Wollongong sending the boat on its side.

Shane Connelly was taken overboard and was a few metres from the boat but was able to swim back to it.

“We are both well and the main thing is our systems and drills all worked well,’’ he told News Corp.

As first reported by News Corp , Arcadia on Tuesday returned to Sydney with a torn mainsail and Rum Rebellion also turned back due to an unspecified reason.

Reigning champions Andoo Comanche and LawConnect are continuing to battle for line honours as they head towards Bass Straight.

Tuesday’s retirement was a gut-punch for the Scallywag crew which had already declared the 2023 Sydney to Hobart would be its last.

News Corp reported skipper David Witt and his crew were “devastated”. The vessel has returned safely back to Sydney.

The team earlier confirmed their sad news via its social media channels.

SHK Scallywag 100 has retired from the 2023 Sydney Hobart with a broken bow sprit. The team are obviously very disappointed given the great progress we were making but thankful no one was injured & that we could safely recover. The team are making their way back to Sydney. pic.twitter.com/fuFApS3DvT — Sun Hung Kai Scallywag (@scallywaghk) December 26, 2023

The five retirements mean there are 98 entries remaining of the 103-yacht fleet that sell sail from Sydney.

Scallywag was also involved in early drama when rival Andoo Comanche flew a protest flag alleging SHK Scallywag had tacked too close as the pair exited Sydney Harbour.

Scallywag subsequently performed a 720 penalty turn to exonerate the vessel from facing a potential disqualification.

The race tracks the eastern coast of Australia southward from Sydney, crossing the Bass Strait, before continuing along the eastern coast of Tasmania and finally reaching Hobart.

Widely considered one of the most challenging yacht races in the world, teams competing in this year’s event — the 78th edition — also risk facing thunderstorms, hail and gale-force winds through the race.

The Bureau of Meteorology, whose representatives briefed the competitors ahead of the race, said there was a high degree of uncertainty for the forecasts over coming days.

With the Bass Strait crossing often the hardest part of the race, teams can expect a larger southwest swell and strong winds.

“This year there is easterly winds and easterly swell forecast, as well as thunderstorms, which will make conditions challenging on Tuesday and Wednesday. These conditions are forecast to ease from later Wednesday,” the bureau said.

Some 113 vessels will be competing in this year’s event.

The record for the race was set in 2017 by LDV Comanche, a 100ft maxi yacht, which completed the event in just over 33 hours.

RETIREMENTS IN THE 2023 SYDNEY TO HOBART

Arcadia – Retired – mainsail damage

Currawong (TH) – Retired – electrical issues

Maritimo 52 – Retired – rigging damage

Pacman (TH) – Retired – runner damage

Rum Rebellion (TH) – Retired – minor injury

SHK Scallywag – Retired – broken bowsprit

Sticky – Retired – electrical damage

Georgia Express – rigging issues

Millennium Falcon - Retired - crew illness

Tumbleweed (TH) - Retired - crew illness

Luna Blue - Retired - damaged equipment

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Sydney to Hobart yacht race, day one reports from the bluewater classic as it happened

Sport Sydney to Hobart yacht race, day one reports from the bluewater classic as it happened

One of the three main contenders for Sydney to Hobart line honours, SHK Scallywag, hits early trouble with a sail problem, but it's a close race with LawConnect ahead as the fleet heads south entering night one. Look back on all the action.

Live updates

Race tracker.

By Andrew Mcgarry

Follow your favourite entry in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race tracker

Wrapping things up...

We've ticked past 6pm AEDT, and the latest positions remain the same.

LawConnect sits 13 nautical miles east of Kiama, leading by 2.9 nautical miles from Black Jack.

Scallywag is a further 0.9 nautical miles behind, with Stefan Racing in fourth, 7.9 nautical miles behind LawConnect.

However the third and fourth place boats are going faster than their rivals, with Scallywag at 14.9 knots and Stefan Racing at 15.1 knots, compared to 12.9 for LawConnect and 13.3 for Black Jack.

These are small margins, but it suggests Scallywag is back making the most of the wind. If the crew can keep that going for the rest of the evening, they might be a lot closer to the lead by the end of the night.  

Hmmm ... some weather approaching!

As we speak, LawConnect and the leading boats are just passing Kiama on the NSW Coast.

So far things have been relatively straightforward, aside from Scallywag's sail issues.

However ...

A quick scan of the BOM radar shows there is some heavy weather (well some heavy rain at least) heading the way of the fleet (see attached map):

Tracking individual boats

can you explain how on the tracker i can monitor a yacht i bet on ive got ichi ban -Scott

Scott, I have been having the odd-bit of trouble with the tracker this afternoon, trying to isolate particular boats has proved interesting.. 

However, if you go to the standings page on the website, and click the tab saying "Fully Crewed IRC", that should give you the updated placings on handicap, and the estimated finishing times.for whichever boat you want.

For example, Ichi Ban on the latest standings is 15th for line honours, 17.9 nautical miles behind LawConnect.

On IRC, Ichi Ban is 53rd - at this point the estimated race time is three days, 19 hours six minutes and 51 seconds, giving an arrival time of Dec 30 at 8:06.51am. On corrected time, (the right hand column), the overall time would be five days, seven hours, 55 minutes 27 seconds.

In comparison, the leader on IRC (for now) is LawConnect , estimated to finish at 6:51pm on Dec 28, for a time of two days, five hours, 51 minutes 46 seconds.

On corrected time, this gives LawConnect an overall time of four days, 10 hours, 38 minutes 54 seconds.

As the winds and circumstances change, so will the overall standings. But for now, Ichi Ban has a LOT of room to make up.   

So far, so good ...

At this point of the race, a quick update.

Officially we had 88 boats to start with - 71 eligible for line honours and 17 two-handed boats, allowed in the race for the first time.

As of the latest figures, all 88 are still in the race, which means no one has had a significant problem or damage to the boat. That's good to hear!

There was some talk with the forecasted southerly winds this afternoon and tonight that there might be some retirements in the fleet.

Who's to know? At this stage it may be that the winds aren't quite as strong as expected, but there is plenty of time for that to change. Also, for smaller boats particularly, it may be the accumulated wear and tear of hitting bigger waves that causes problems overnight.

We shall see.

First updated standings as of 4pm AEDT:

Here is the top 12 on line honours, with LawConnect having a DTG (distance to go) of 596.3 nautical miles, ahead of Black Jack , with a DTG of 597.8 nautical miles. So LawConnect as of 4pm AEDT had a lead of 1.5 nautical miles. That appears to have changed since, but this gives a snapshot of where the leading boats were 20-odd minutes ago:

The hours into the race, the leaders are a solid distance offshore, halfway between Helensburgh and Wollongong.

LawConnect still leads, and has extended the margin over Black Jack to 1.4 nautical miles. It's relatively middling going for the leaders, with LawConnect's speed at 13 knots, ahead of Black Jack's 12.5 knots.

Behind them, Scallywag is clear again in third, 2.6 nautical miles astern of LawConnect - it is moving at 12.3 knots but does not seem to be able to get too close to the leaders. There is no more word on the state of their sails and whether they have been able to get the main headsail going again.

Stefan Racing is in fourth, a further one nautical mile back from Scallywag.  

Coasters Retreat and the origins of the Sydney to Hobart

Michael Troy has written a great feature on the small community of Coasters Retreat, near Pittwater in Sydney.

In the 1940s Coasters was home to several sailors - some famous, some not so but all with interesting stories.

The home of Selwyn “Dicko” Dickinson was the meeting place for the sailors, and where the idea that turned into the Sydney to Hobart we know today was conceived.

This group broke free of the Royal Prince Alfred Club and began sailing at Broken Bay and elsewhere as a rebel club. This turned into the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, and an original nine boats who “raced” to Hobart as a cruise, with the big prize on offer of a dozen bottles of beer and a jam tin mounted on a wooden block.

You can find out more about the sailors from Coasters Retreat in Michael Troy’s feature here.

Flashback to the start...

As it stands, there are 10 boats - including race leader LawConnect - within 4.5 nautical miles or thereabouts at the front of the race.

Always happy for a shoutout

Hi Andrew 🙂 -Natty

Hello Natty, glad to see you on the blog - hope you can stick around for a while, as the further we get down the coast this afternoon, the more likely it is that we will start to sort out the relative strengths of the leading contenders.

Let's hope that the expected "bash and crash" of stronger winds that are pushing against the fleet doesn't lead to too many problems on board boats.

As we've seen already with Scallywag, problems can occur even in relatively light winds, and when the windspeed gets turned up, things can go really wrong.

A quick snapshot from the tracker shows where things stand at this point. 

You can see Scallywag two back from the leader - Stefan Racing is just to its left, although the name isn't registering.

The orange boat icon on the left is the pace for the race record of Comanche in 2017.

We've got an early challenger from outside the supermaxis!

We have focused so far mostly on the three supermaxis - with good reason, since the last time a supermaxi did not win line honours was in 2004.

But as things stand, we have another boat in the mix.

Race leader LawConnect is travelling at 17.6 knots, followed 1.8 nautical miles back by Black Jack (11.8 knots).

While Scallywag is going a little faster at 12.6 knots, it has been overtaken for third place, at least for the moment.

Stefan Racing, the Botin 80 boat skippered by Grant 'Wharo" Wharington , is going nicely at 11.5 knots, a little over 1.8 nautical miles behind the leader, Stefan Racing is - to use a racing analogy - saving ground a little closer to the coast.

The question of how the leading boats will handle the winds this afternoon and evening will tell us a lot about who is in prime position to win the race.

The small orange sail you can see in the previous pic tweet from SHK Scallywag is the storm jib.

With far less surface area on the sail to work with, it means the boat cannot take full advantage of the wind available.

This is why things are going to be difficult ...

This colour-coded map shows the wind speed and wind direction in the waters off the NSW coast right now.

The arrows show that the wind is coming from the south directly north, so the fleet is heading into the teeth of what wind there is.

The green colour marks around 15 to 20 knots (27.8 to 37 kmh).

The orange colour shows winds that are between 25 and 30 knots (46.3 to 55.5kmh).

So the area the fleet is heading into is mostly orange, which means it will be more difficult to make headway into the wind.

This map shows why there will be not the slightest chance of a race record, and indeed the likelihood is that the leaders will not reach Hobart inside two days. 

The official standings will not kick in for another couple of hours, but at this stage is appears that LawConnect is a decent way in front, travelling at a tick over 14 knots.

Most of the boats are heading out to sea to get the best of the wind, rather than hugging the coast. The only entry that is keeping closer in is No Limit in about ninth spot right now.

Black Jack is moving at 13.3 knots, with Scallywag still suffering from the lack of its preferred sail, going at 11.3 knots.

The wind is not that strong at this point - we are expecting things to shift reasonably soon, with strong southeasterlies making life tough for everyone.

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Watch: near collision and early retirement in sensational start to rolex sydney hobart yacht race.

Protests, twists and drama galore at start of Rolex Sydney Hobart

There’s been a dramatic start to the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race with a near collision, shouting, swearing and calls for a protest.

In spectacular and crazy scenes, two race favourites were forced into penalty turns in a wild opening to the 77th race.

WATCH IN THE VIDEO ABOVE: Protests, twists and drama galore at start of Rolex Sydney Hobart

The overwhelming race favourites were the big four supermaxis - LawConnect, Black Jack, Andoo Comanche, and Wild Oats - and they were all vying for the early lead as the boats headed up Sydney Harbour.

But Andoo Comanche was involved in a very close call with Wild Oats and both supermaxis did penalty turns amid shouts of ‘protest’.

Andoo Comanche did a penalty turn after bumping a turning mark while Wild Oats decided to do one after great confusion and debate.

Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race begins

“Furl, furl, we are going to do a 720 (penalty turn),’’ Wild Oats skipper Mark Richards shouted.

‘“I honestly think we’re in trouble.”

During all the chaos, there was also an early retirement after Avalanche damaged its bowsprit and made the call to pull the pin.

Wild Oats XI has returned to the race this year and is looking for a ridiculous tenth line-honours title.

Earlier, Andoo Comanche’s skipper John Winning Jr had opened up on what what to expect and avoid based on his previous experiences.

Finishing the Sydney to Hobart is one challenge, but surviving the post-race celebrations involving alcohol-fuelled, sweaty and unwashed sailors can be another ordeal, according Willing Jr.

He didn’t hold back when fronting the media a few hours before the race’s start about what awaited those intrepid enough to venture into Hobart’s Customs House, the traditional post-race meeting place.

“Will McCarthy off Black Jack has already announced that he is in charge,” Winning said.

“Last time at Customs house when I was there, I think he got me into a headlock and brought me back into the bar and said ‘you’re not going anywhere whippersnapper’.

“He’s a veteran of Customs House and he says we’ve got to follow his lead and I’ll be doing my best to try and avoid him.

“It will celebrating, just be good spirits and having fun and hugging our loved ones and seeing the family and hopefully some sleep and praying for a shower.

“It stinks when you’re down in Customs House when you’re in there with all those sailors that are getting off straight off the boat.

“If you ever go down there to Customs House, if you are there, put some sort of nose plug on.

“There’s a lot of sweaty sailors that have been at sea with no deodorant and no showers for days and it just gets worse and worse

“We grow with the smell from here to there so it doesn’t really matter to us too much. But I remember one day when I was on Loyal I went away and had a shower and came back in clean clothes and ‘phooor, what is that?’ it was like walking into a pig farm.”

Winning said it seemed less likely that his boat’s 2017 race record of one day nine hours 15 minutes 24 seconds would be broken.

“The conditions are just a bit lighter than it was yesterday and we’re going to be early to the transition down the bottom, which is going to hurt us a little bit, we might not see as much wind the whole way down as we thought,” Winning said.

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Full Standings available approximately three hours after the start.

OFFICIAL ROLEX SYDNEY HOBART MERCHANDISE

Shop the official clothing range of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in person at the Club in New South Head Road, Darling Point or online below.  

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Last Sydney to Hobart yacht arrives with 18 minutes left of 2022

A ny other day, they would have slipped quietly into Constitution Dock. But when 70-year-old Kathy Veel and 62-year-old Bridget Canham crossed the Sydney to Hobart finish line - the last of the fleet to do so - at 11.42pm on New Year’s Eve, it was as if they’d heralded the early arrival of 2023.

A crowd in the thousands who had packed out the Hobart shoreline to ring in the new year chanted “Currawong, Currawong!” as the two-hander made its way past the packed-out Taste of Summer festival and around Constitution Dock.

Cheers came from the water, too, where boats had lined up to greet the nine-metre yacht as it pushed up the River Derwent.

After a lap of honour around the thrilled spectators, interviews on the boat, and the well-deserved popping of a giant bottle of champagne: the fireworks. Veel and Canham watched from the 1973 vessel that had carried them south.

You couldn’t have written a better ending to a story that stretched five days at sea, 630 nautical miles, and a day of waiting in Eden as they waited for bad weather in Bass Strait to pass.

“You wouldn’t believe the stops we pulled to get this happening,” said Canham. “The biggest challenge we had was getting here before New Year’s Eve,” she said. “We’ve been working our butts off to get here. And it’s paid off.”

Veel said the experience was “unbelievable”. “[It was like] nothing I’ve ever had ... in my whole life, she said. “When you heard people going, ‘Curr-a-wong!’, I thought, ‘What?!’

“I’m really proud of what we’ve done.”

The sailors described the weather conditions down the coast as “brilliant”.

“The boat behaved so well, it was just magic,” said Canham, a retired nurse.

The sailors are among the oldest to compete in the Sydney to Hobart race, and certainly the oldest in the race’s new two-handed fleet section. But Veel, a retired teacher now living in Bullabarra, near Katoomba, said they didn’t want to be defined by their age - nor their sex.

“It’s not, to be honest, how we think of ourselves,” said Veel in the lead-up to the race. “We’re sailors who happen to be women rather than women who sail.

Veel purchased the boat last year, and ran a GoFundMe page to raise financial support so the pair could purchase the necessary supplies to enter the race.

In 2021, Veel was named Blue Mountains Volunteer of the Year for her work with the not-for-profit sailing-based Making Waves Foundation.

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Race is on to win 2024 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race

Over 30 boats will be on the start line for the 2024 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race this Friday when monohulls, a multihull and two-handed entries will share the start line off Barrenjoey Headland for the 1pm start.  

Respected sailor, Theresa Michell, has joined forces with Paul Beath and his J/99, Verite, for their first major two-handed race together. Newcomers to the Pittwater Coffs, Beath did the 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart in two-handed mode with another co-skipper. He and Michell’s first two-handed training session was a four-day return trip from Hobart.

“It was all upwind. Not particularly pleasant,” Beath remembered. “One of the reasons she is doing this race with me is because she sailed with me fully crewed in the Sydney Gold Coast race and the rest of the Blue Water Pointscore last year and we get on well.

“And this race is at a nice time of year,” the Novocastrian said of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club’s (RPAYC) 226 nautical mile race.

Although she halted racing at the end of the 1990s to raise a family, Michell’s credentials are outstanding in both two-handed and fully-crewed sailing, as a skipper, navigator and crew.

She contested the 5500 nautical mile two-handed Melbourne to Osaka race in 1999 on an Adams 10 that she also skippered in the 1998 Double-Handed Trans-Tasman Challenge from Sydney to New Plymouth in New Zealand. She has sailed on the international scene, done Sydney Hobarts and sailed an Olympic class dinghy.

“This is a new team in a new race and we think it’s a good distance. We’ll get our systems together and get organised,” Beath commented.

“It will be a demanding race because of the currents and fluctuating conditions.”

The pair are expected to be competitive against all-comers, including other two-handed entries such as Chris O’Neill, who returns with Blue Planet after finishing the race seventh overall last year.

“We also won PHS and were second in ORC – and these results were exactly the same in the two-handed division,” he said.

This time he will be co-skippered by Tom Johnston, who helped him to sixth in the two-handed division of the 2023 Sydney Hobart.

“It’s a fun race and a good location in Coffs, it’s not too strenuous and importantly, there’s been sufficient time between this race and the Sydney Hobart – I’ve forgotten all the pain,” O’Neill said wryly.

Among the latest fully crewed entries for the 38 th  ‘Pittwater to Coffs’ is David Griffith’s record breaking JV62 Whisper, which will likely battle Geoff Hill’s Santa Cruz 72, Antipodes, for line honours. Whisper is also a favourite for the overall win, but due to the many weather vagaries at this time of year, the race really is wide open in all classifications.

On his quarry, Whisper’s owner says: “With her long waterline length, if Antipodes gets reaching conditions, she is quick, she will take off. We’re in pretty good shape though and the boat’s in perfect order.”

Griffith says his crew will also hold them in good stead. Among them are Rear Admiral Lee Goddard, Michael Coxon, Dougie McGain, Michael Fountain and Brett Van Munster. 

“Either way, it’s a wonderful race and the Alfreds do a great job,” Griffith said. “Everyone loves a destination race and Coffs Harbour is a great destination with lots to do.”

Others chasing overall glory are regular DK46 rivals Khaleesi (Sandy Farquharson/Rob Aldis) and LCE Old School Racing (Mark Griffith). At the Nautilus Marine Insurance Sydney Harbour Regatta in early March, the latter placed second in the Open division on home turf, while Griffith’s boat, from RPAYC, was second. Another DK46, Nine Dragons, was declared the winner. 

Pierre Gal has entered the Asia catamaran Stealth 12.60 named Fez. The French expat, who lives on the NSW north coast, is a name locally and internationally, competing in the America’s Cup for France and has Australian victories too.

Incidentally, Gal won Division 4 of the 2019 Sydney Gold Coast race with Mistral, the same Lombard 34 that won the 2023 Pittwater Coffs race for two-handed sailors, Rupert Henry and Greg O’Shea last year.

Follow the fleet on the race tracker at:  https://yb.tl/pittwater2024

For all information go to:  www.pittwatertocoffs.com.au

Di Pearson/RPAYC media

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