Southerly takes its toll in the 70th Rolex Sydney Hobart

A stiff southerly is testing the boats and sailors on the first afternoon of the 2014 Rolex Sydney Hobart and by late afternoon, four yachts had retired from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's annual race.

The first casualties of the race were Tina of Melbourne, forced out because of hull damage and Bear Necessity with a damaged rudder, just two hours into the race.

Roger Hickman, one of the doyens of this classic race, and skipper of Wild Rose, regarded the classic 46 year old S&S 37 Tina of Melbourne as the boat he and the other IOR war horses like Love and War and Landfall would have to beat, so such an early retirement is a great disappointment for Tina of Melbourne's skipper, Andy Doolan.

"We fell off a large wave and noticed water coming in through a seam near the front of the boat. Two years of hard work down the drain," Doolan said on docking at the CYCA this afternoon. "We were trucking along nicely, just settling into the race. The sea was very confused though and we fell off a wave.

"I guess we'll have a shower and have the damage assessed," Doolan added, searching for the positives. "We've got a chef and restaurateur on board – the catering is five-star. We had boeuf bourguignon for lunch and were looking forward to a chicken cassoulet for dinner – we've got lots of food to get through."

Shortly after, Occasional Coarse Language Too retired with steering damage. Her skipper Warwick Sherman deserved better after his courageous race in 2012 while still undergoing chemo therapy for cancer. Yacht and crew are due to arrive back at the CYCA around 7.00pm this evening.

The fourth retirement is the Willyama, Richard Barron's Beneteau 40, with a torn mainsail.

Peter Isler, on Manouch Moshayedi's RIO 100 reports that conditions are certainly testing on the big American super maxi. "We are definitely learning our boat in these conditions. It's very rough, sailing upwind in 25-27 knots of wind and pounding hard into short steep waves

"The yachts are all on port tack, but given our current angles everyone will have to be thinking about taking a short starboard tack as we get close on the beach," he added. "It's like riding a bucking bronco. These are boat breaking conditions, though we expect the wind to ease by midnight. Until then though we will hang on and keep pushing. "

Brad Kellett on Brindabella concurred. "It's pretty rough offshore, but we're ploughing through and looking forward to better weather and the predicted sea breeze."

At the front of the fleet Perpetual Loyal and Ragamuffin 100 stayed pretty close inshore while Comanche and Wild Oats XI ranged further out to sea. The latter have come back to the rhumbline and Perpetual Loyal and Ragamuffin 100 will soon have to tack out to sea a little themselves, but at this stage their decision to stay close to the coast seems to have paid off, with Perpetual Loyal leading the fleet.

Further back in the fleet the racing is very tight. Richard Grimes, navigator on the Ker 46 Patrice reports: "We got out through the Heads in good shape and stood out to sea for 45 minutes. Victoire was the first in the group to tack, then the rest followed.

"The wind is south-east at 20-25 knots on a 2 metre sea. We've got Ichi Ban around 3 miles in front, Cougar II around half a mile in front and Pretty Fly III astern. We're sailing under full main – lots of boats have reefs in – but we're comfortable and happy with our position."

Not so comfortable for a crew member on Phillip King's Last Tango, whose hernia has meant a pit stop at Botany to drop him off before the yacht resumes racing.

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