Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race – Spinnaker start forecast

by Jim Gale, RSHYR Media on 26 Dec 2014 Expect a spectacular and very fast start down Sydney Harbour in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race this year.

At the final briefing for crews at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia this morning, the Bureau of Meteorology’s Andrew Treloar told the sailors that a southerly front is expected to move through Sydney about an hour before race start.

So it will be a colourful spinnaker start in a 15 knot southerly before the yachts turn at Sydney Heads to begin a long first day’s bash into a 20 to 28 knot offshore southerly, with the breeze even stronger the further south the boats go.

The fleet will be led out to sea by the five 100ft maxis, but don’t blink or you’ll miss them. They will drag race to the first mark, and will be there in minutes. It will make for perhaps the race’s most exciting start in its 70 year history.

Once they turn south, the skippers of these giants will then have to tread a very fine line, choosing when to race flat out and when to slow down to preserve the boat.

Ken Read, the skipper of the untested American Comanche can’t wait. 'We’re ready. To me it looks like a nice sailboat racing day. A little breezy, a little lumpy, but if our boat can’t handle 25 knots and a little bit of bump then something’s wrong.

'We’re pretty psyched with this forecast; we’ll do a little bit of reaching across Bass Strait, which is quite good for us. It’s really the end of the race that looks a little difficult, a little bit light.'

'We hate the light stuff and certainly like the heavier stuff,' Perpetual Loyal’s Anthony Bell enthused now that the latest forecast is saying that at the time the front runners enter Bass Strait the wind will be a bit stronger than expected a few days ago.

'I don’t think we should leave much in the tank at the front end of this race,' Bell says. All the maxi skippers believe that being in the best place for the transitions from one weather pattern to the next will be critical on the dash for line honours.

With better breeze now expected off the Tasmanian coast, the front runner will hold a real edge. There do not appear to be too many passing lanes on offer later in the race.

There will be times though, on the weekend, when the breeze will be quite soft before a powerful northerly drives the back half of the fleet home. An outright Rolex Sydney Hobart handicap victory is the holy grail of Australian ocean racing. In recent year it has been the preserve of the 50 and 60 footers, but Ed Psaltis, the skipper of the Ker 40 St GeorgeMidnight Rambler, reckons this could be the year of the 40 footers.

'This forecast is fantastic. We couldn’t get a better forecast. It’s good for the 50’s but better for us. They come home on a building breeze, but it will be well and truly set in when we come down the Tassie coast, we’ll be smoking.'

That big northerly on Monday will push the small boats home at full speed, and Psaltis concedes that it will suit his arch rival, Bruce Taylor’s Caprice 40 Chutzpah. 'We need to get in front of them on this first night by a reasonable amount,' Psaltis says. 'We’re better upwind, but Chutzpah is the fastest downwind 40 footer in Australia.'

Michael Spies, who will be one of the drivers on the Farr 55 Onesails Racing, concedes that the 40 footers are looking good: 'If you were holding the book, you’d definitely have the small boats covered,' he says.

But he knows the weather never goes to plan and the 50s could still triumph: 'It doesn’t take much to turn the race around. If we can get through the light patch alright it could definitely go back to the 50 footers.'

Probably a record fast start, probably not a record race, definitely a fascinating contest over the next three or four days – impossible to nominate an outright line honours or handicap winner.

The start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race will be broadcast live on the Seven Network throughout Australia and webcast live to a global audience on Yahoo!7.

A Parade of Sail will take place from 10.30am to 11.30am, before a fleet of 117 will set sail from three start lines in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race on December 26 at 1.00pm AEDT.