Rolex Sydney Hobart Race – Winning your division + Div List & Ratings

by John Curnow on 26 Dec 2016 Everyone certainly tries to determine which division of the Hobart is the one that will get anointed each year. There a number of key components to it all, and they end up becoming folklore. For example, in order to finish first, first you have finish. There’s the race to the Heads, then Tasman Island, then the Iron Pot, and it all gets reset each time before you cross the finish line at Battery Point.

Ultimately, it is Huey, the God of Wind, who selects the group most likely to have the best corrected time under the IRC rating system. The winner of that gets the coveted Tattersall’s Cup. In 2016 the prevailing weather systems would seem to favour Division One. Contained in there are the 50-somethings (non-canting), and that means the fabled TP52s.

Matt Allen’s, Ichi Ban, is likely to be the quickest of the lot off the breeze, but may not have enough of an advantage upwind over the others. So if the Southerly arrives and it stays for a while, she may have her work cut out for her. Early on, like abeam Botany Bay, she was already streaking ahead and stalking the bigger Chinese Whisper. Here’s the thing, at 1.399 she’ll have to do well, for even though the 62-foot Chinese Whisper is in Div0, and has a rating of 1.49, the relativity of it all is important.

Last year’s winner, Balance, is off 1.373 to use golfing type parlance, the Chinese entry, ARK 323 is 1.364, and Ragamuffin is 1.345. So there is a big spread, and depending on the final weather system that prevails, even Patrice at 1.288 is to be considered. Should the Southerly stay in, then look to Triton, who is 60 feet long to become a contender. Another rule comes in to play, and that is get in front, stay there and keep building a margin!

The supermaxis can go for Line Honours and a record. There were more than enough interesting items on the start, with Scallywag holding out Wild Oats XI who got boxed in against the exclusion zone and came back to duck everyone’s stern. Even ‘Ricko’ on board commented on the bad start. Scallywag did suffer from not having the water ballast in, but still did a great job to go around the sea mark in third, behind Beau Geste, who did a real dark horse on them all.

Yet it was Perpetual Loyal that shone and showed them all where the marks were. She was built for reaching around the globe after all. A poor kite set by them, Scallywag and a couple of others were notable, and did not help Loyal who had to unfurl/re-furl and go again, with Wild Oats XI doing a better set and accelerating quickly, but there was enough of a buffer for it not to alter the top two positions.

Black Jack went around in fifth place behind WOXI. Peter Harburg’s modified VO70 not only looked good, it put the hammer down, and by the time they were approaching Wollongong they were virtually at the same speed as the supermaxis and but a mere 2nm astern. Alas it is very early on, but if they get more of this and less of the header later on, then it could well mean that Huey has decided to tap Div0 on the shoulder and they could be duking it out for the outright win.

That being said, it could mean Alive, Giacomo and Maserati all come in to play. Time will tell. For the ‘new’ CQS it was not a good day. Because of the furling headsails they chose to hold up at the line and then bare away to power up, getting scarily close to being OCS in the process. It did not go well getting out of the Harbour with, with one tack near the Sow and Pigs leaving them with keel on the wrong side and looking all out of shape. Abeam Wollongong they were about a knot and half off the pace of their rivals and sitting in eighth place overall.

So there is a lot to unfold as the weather plays its hand in the great race. Presently it gets cloudy sooner rather than later in the piece and that means different wind under different systems, so the navigators will be watching the satellite imagery very closely. So the window got its frame, now has panes and we’ll get to work on the first coat of paint. Matt or gloss? We’ll see… Now the chopper footage of it all will be very cool indeed, and no doubt the photographers like the legendary Richard Bennett, as well as Rolex’s own armada will be very fired up.

For now, the nature of the Southerly change on the first night is still far from clear. Also, the remnants of the Tropical Cyclone currently over the top of Western Australia will appear in the Great Australian Bight at some point, but the blocking high-pressure system in the Tasman Sea will have influence over that. Very light rain crept in over Victoria today and will get to the leaders in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. More than that is a little bit like Nostradamus for now.

Time will tell, so keep your head out the companionway hatch, for it has been many, many years since this set of conditions has been the overarching scenario for the race. Warm temperatures on the South-East corner landmass of Australia mean one thing at this time of year. Change! And hopefully not bushfires!!!

Ultimately then if you are looking for smiles yourself, then do keep a weather eye here on Sail-World.com for all the latest intel on the great, inspiring, captivating and very historic, blue water classic… The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.