Rolex Sydney Hobart - All in for New Year's Eve

by Lisa Ratcliff and Jim Gale on 31 Dec 2010 Not since 2004 has a Rolex Sydney Hobart fleet finished beyond New Year’s Eve and the 15 yachts still at sea look like they will keep that tradition going with Morgan Rogers’ Wave Sweeper, a Beneteau 40.7 from Sydney, set to close off the 66th edition of the ocean classic.

Wave Sweeper should sweep into Hobart at around 6.30pm this evening, well before the New Year’s Eve celebrations are in full swing including a fireworks display that will light up the fleet safely ensconced in Hobart.

There are still 15 yachts at sea from the starting fleet of 87 that left Sydney Harbour last Sunday. The fleet has experienced the full spectrum of conditions including a classic southerly blow Monday afternoon and evening that cut a swathe up the NSW coast to being becalmed and finally, a gentlemanly finish for the tailenders.

When the next boat due to finish, Queensland Beneteau 40.7 Blunderbuss crosses the finish line this afternoon after lunch, skipper Tony Kinsman will have spent six long days in cramped conditions with eight family members.

Of the nine crew, eight are related to at least one other crew member including his three sons, Harry, George and Fred, as well as the Smith brothers, Duane and Keryn and cousins Matt and Chris Williams.

'The connections work really well,' Tony said pre-race.

'Fred (19) is the youngest and most adventurous and he is our bowman. The oldest, Harry (24), is the entertainer on the boat and he works around the mast, keeping us all amused and connected, and George (21) is our navigator. He loves computers and because these days it is all so electronically involved, with GPS and all the software you have on boat speed, the weather, etcetera, it’s become his main job. '

The 40 footer is Kinsman’s first big racing keelboat, though he is no newcomer to ocean racing, having been a keen offshore sailor when he was young. He was, quite literally, one of the survivors of the catastrophic 1979 Fastnet race when he was winched from the stricken Tide Race IV and taken to Cork hospital to be stitched up after a 360 degree roll that broke the mast and cracked the middle of the hull.

As for the moniker, Kinsman says it’s the name of an old-fashioned gun with a fluted end, and after eliminating many options it was the one that the family chose together.

Other families sailing together are due in the next pack to finish including husband and wife Jim and Mary Holley on Newcastle yacht Aurora, completing their 13th Rolex Sydney Hobart together, and father and son William and William Hubbard on the US entry Dawn Star.

Today all divisional winners will be acknowledged at a dockside presentation on the stage at Constitution Dock at 11am, the public is invited to attend.

On overall handicap South Australian yachtsman Geoff Boettcher took top honours from Chris Bull’s Cookson 50 Jazz and Rob Hanna’s Victorian TP52 Shogun with his RP51 Secret Men’s Business 3.5.

In the PHS standings Martin Silke’s Flying Fish Arctos leads Anthony Lyall’s Tasmanian entry Valheru and Chris Dawe’s classic 1970 build Cole design Polaris of Belmont contesting its 26th Rolex Sydney Hobart. The record, 27 is still held by Phillip’s Foote Witchdoctor.

In ORCi results Jazz has provisionally beaten Pretty Fly III and Darryl Hodgkinson’s Victoire and in the Sydney 38 division, Tony Levett’s Eleni is classed as the top one design boat.

Tomorrow, 1 January, the official trophy presentation for the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s 66th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race will take place at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, the event’s finishing club.

For current standings click here