Sydney Hobart - Police boats on standby as yachts set sail
by Peter Campbell on 25 Dec 2010
Skandia abandoned just before she rolled NSW Police .
The water police support is an ongoing presence at sea in readiness for possible search and rescue operations that has been maintained for the past 25 years.
The most dramatic incident was when the Tasmania Police Marine and Rescue launch Van Diemen rescued the crew of 16 who had taken to their liferafts and as the maxi yacht Skandia capsized after her canting keel jammed.
Television footage of the rescue operation, taken mostly by the police crew because the television crew was too seasick, became the basis of the mini series ‘Real Water Rats.’
The 38 metre LOA NSW Water Police vessel Nemesis will sail with the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race fleet tomorrow, Boxing Day, and follow them down to Gabo and into Bass Strait.
The 78-footer Van Diemen, commanded by Constable Leigh Stanley, will be stationed at Lady Barron on Flinders Island, as the Melbourne to Hobart fleets around the northern tip of Flinders Island and the Launceston to Melbourne yachts sail through the notorious Banks Strait.
The 48-footer Fortescue, skippered by Constable Craig Crawford, will be based at Triabunna on the east coast as all three fleets sail past Eddystone Light down to Tasman Island. In Hobart, the Dauntless, skippered by Constable Scott Dunne, along with five smaller craft, will be ready to handle the spectator fleet as the leading yacht in the Rolex Sydney Hobart sails up the Derwent.
'Strict exclusion zones will be implemented from White Rock to Castray Esplanadefor the finish of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race,' Constable Dunne said yesterday.
• The exclusion zone for motorised vessels will be 100 metres on either side of the hull of the line honours yacht and 100 metres astern of the line honours yacht.
• The exclusion zone for non-motorised vessels will be 200 metres on either side of the hull of the line honours yacht and 200 metres astern of the line honours yacht.
There are to be no vessels in front of the bow of the line honours yacht.
For Constable Dunn this will be his 25th and final Sydney Hobart as yacht race liaison officer. He retires next September after 38 years with Tasmania Police, but says he 'might put up my hand as a volunteer to help with the finish.'
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