Rolex Sydney Hobart: Plenty more golf left in this hole - Day 5
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 30 Dec 2025 11:30 AEDT
Henry Curry-Hyde & Lincoln Dews (AUS) - Toucan passes The Organ Pipes - Cape Raoul - Day 6 - Rolex Sydney Hobart Race - December 30, 2025 © Andrea Francolini
The Tattersall Cup, the overall honours trophy in the 2025 Rolex Sydney Hobart is far from being decided, as competitors pop in and out of contention on what will be for most, the final day, of racing.
At this stage, with less than 24 hours left for the smallest boat to finish. The top boat on estimated time and rating is the two-hander Crux (AUS), an S&S34 - a sister ship to Morning Cloud, which then Opposition Leader, Ted Heath (GBR) won the Tattersall Cup for overall honours in the the 1969 Sydney Hobart Race. Currently Crux, is 20nm north of Tasman Island, with 40nm left to sail once she rounds the famous landmark.
The next "leg" across Storm Bay and up the Derwent has been the downfall of many competitors in this race, with the negotiation of the wind shadow from Cape Raoul being a particular issue. The extent of the wind shadow is such that competitors have to make a choice between sailing a very wide course, and hoping to avoid the worst of it. Or, as some have done cut right in close and get across the wind shadow at its narrowest point.
On the race tracker it has been common to see speeds of less than 1kt and boats and a wide variance in direction, as the light air sails are broken out.
However according to PredictWind an advancing SW flow should move across the race area, later today. That being the case it should close out the wind inconsistency later today, and kill off the Cape Raoul NE wind-shadow. The area of fickle winds was expanding ahead of the advancing breeze as it pushed out the sea breeze. The new breeze will work the way of the back markers, and improving the already strong chance that a veteran boat, or double hander will win this race.
One advantage that the older boats, do have in this final phase of the race is to be able to sail dead-downwind, with a spinnaker set of a pole, instead of having to cover more distance than the asymmetric downwind sails.
Earlier this morning BNC - my::NET (FRA) crossed the finish line to go to the top of the leader board of boats that are "in the clubhouse". She is listed as second overall and the first with an actual time based on her rating, rather than an estimate. KD1, a fully crewed Farr 40 is the only other boat in the top 12 overall, with an actual finish time.
Love and War (Simon Kurts - AUS) has been up and down the standings, but would seem to have dropped out of contention as being the overall winner after having a hard time passing through the windshadow of Cape Raoul, and getting a steady breeze across Storm Bay - which is certainly not living up to its name.
The irony of Crux, is that she is an even older design than S&S47 Love and War (1973), which was leading the current leaderboard, 24hrs ago.
However it seems inevitable that history will repeat in the 2025 Rolex Sydney Hobart, with a two-hander winning - as happened with Leon earlier this year - which as a two-handed entry took the overall honours in the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race.