Rolex Sydney Hobart - Race record under threat six hours after start

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/NZ on 26 Dec 2016 The race record of 1 day 18hrs 23 minutes set by Wild Oats XI in 2012 looks to be in peril six hours after the fleet started in a fresh NE breeze in Sydney Harbour.

Latest projections from the routing function of Predictwind shows the record being chopped by up to four to six hours.

The southerly front which customarily visits the fleet on the first night has been replaced with an area of light winds which the fleet must negotiate before hooking into a fresh easterly flow for a fast passage across Bass Strait and down the Tasmanian coast tomorrow.

The supermaxi fleet has not followed the optimum course produced by the Predictwind routing application, which pushed them offshore early in the race. But in the last hour the race leaders, Wild Oats XI and Loyal have moved offshore to avoid an area of light winds which is showing off the NSW coast.

Two hours after the race start, the Volvo 70, Maserati reported that they were experiencing the 30kt NE winds as per the forecast.

Of the boats of New Zealand interest, CQS was positioned in the middle of the start line and appeared to be deliberately stalled as the clock ticked down.

It was reported from CQS that they had had to make a crash tack to avoid another boat, at that moment the engine that drives the hydraulics stalled, and they were unable to swing the keel across as the boat tacked. This left them heeled to an extreme angle and going very slowly.

In an incident similar to that experienced by solo round the world sailor, Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss, CGS reported that the tip of their DSS board on the port side had broken off, “we don’t know if we hit something, or it just broke off with the water pressure, but it’s gone', said skipper Ludde Ingvall.”

Karl Kwok's Beau Geste racing under the burgee of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron had an excellent start, being the second boat to the rounding mark off Sydney Heads, and beating three of the four supermaxis to the buoy, before setting a course for Hobart. At 2030hrs NZT, five and a half hours after the race start Beau Geste was lying in fifth place on the water, with 522nm to sail to Hobart.

Giacomo was lying in 8th place on the water at 2100hrs NZT, 6hrs after the start and was making good speed down the NSW coast - around 23.5kts. She has several top Volvo sailors on board including Rob Greenhalge (GBR), Tony Rae (NZL) and Brad Jackson. She was the most offshore of the lead group and could be well positioned to benefit from the predicted wind changes later this evening and tomorrow morning.

The race lead is being contested between the two supermaxis, Wild Oats XI and Perpetual Loyal. Wild Oats XI is credited with the race lead, however, is the more inshore of the two, and Loyal would seem to be better positioned for later weather options.