Sydney Hobart for Sailing Royalty Sir Robin Knox-Johnson

by Cailah Leask on 14 Dec 2010 The esteemed member of ‘sailing’s royalty’, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, will be racing for the first time in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Race.

Sir Robin has been invited to race on a Nautor’s Swan yacht joining Olympic medallist Mark Covell and British match race/commentator Andy Green with owner Richard Dobbs on the British registered, Swan 68 Titania of Cowes. The yacht has travelled 17,000 nautical miles from Newport RI is the US to reach the Boxing Day start line in Sydney. Sir Robin was the first person to sail single handed, non-stop around the world finishing in 1969 and is still an active international big boat racer today.

This will be the round the world record holder’s first experience of this challenging blue water yacht race that annually attracts the international’s racing elite. The race from Sydney across to Hobart could present some challenging conditions but Titania has a seasoned crew along with Sir Robin who also proved himself in 1994 taking the Jules Verne Trophy, for the fastest circumnavigation of the world, co-skippering with Sir Peter Blake on Enza New Zealand.

Sir Robin is looking forward to this particular race having been delighted by the invitation to complete his first Sydney Hobart on a Swan which was built back in 2000 at the Nautor’s Swan yard in Finland. ‘The Rolex Sydney Hobart Race is seen as one of the world’s greatest classic yacht races and one that you must complete so as to be able to discuss intelligently.'

This particular Swan 68 has already raced successfully in the USA, Caribbean and Europe as Chippewa, it is expected to produce a solid result in the 2010 edition of this famed event and provide a legend of the sailing world with a top Swan performance.