As the then Governor of Tasmania, Sir Guy Green, observed at the prizegiving for the 2001 race, it is indeed an egalitarian event, attracting yachts as small as 30-footers and as big as 98-footers, sailed by crews who range from weekend club sailors to professionals from the America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race circuits. The Rolex Sydney Hobart Race 2008 is a classic long ocean race open to anyone who owns a yacht that qualifies for this challenging event and which meets all the safety requirements of a Category 1 safety race. In the earliest years of the Sydney Hobart Race all the yachts were built from timber - heavy displacement cutters, sloops, yawls, schooners and ketches designed more for cruising than racing. The increasing popularity of the 628 nautical Christmas-New Year sail south to Hobart quickly began to attract new designs and innovative ideas in boat-building, sails and rigs…dacron sails and aluminium masts and in the early 1950s, the first boats built of GRP (glass reinforced plastic) or fibreglass as is the more common phrase. Then came aluminium, steel (mostly home-built) and even one maxi yacht built of ferro cement. Innovative Australian yacht designers such as the Halvorsen brothers, Trygve and Magnus, and the late Allan Payne and Bob Miller (Ben Lexcen) produced faster boats and the race was on to create line and overall handicap winners. Prof. Peter Joubert, a part-time designer of stout cruiser/racers, and John King were other Australians who produced winning boats. Following in their wake are currently successful designers such as Iain Murray and his partners, Andy Dovell and Ian “Fresh” Burns, along with Scott Jutson, David Lyons and Robert Hick. New Zealander Bruce Farr, now based on the US, led the move towards light displacement yachts and is by far the most successful designer of Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race overall winners under different international handicap systems, first IOR (International Offshore Rule), then IMS (International Measurement System), and now IRC. The space age has had a significant spin-off for yacht racing, first in the America’s Cup and then in the design and construction of ocean racing yachts, introducing composite construction of boat hulls, using Kelvar and other manmade fibres in moulding the hulls in high-tech ovens. In the past few years carbon fibre has been used successfully to build yacht hulls, masts and spars and in the construction of working sails (mainsails and genoas/jibs). The double line honours winner Wild Oats XI is the latest example of almost total use of carbon fibre in its hull, mast, boom and working sails.
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Ed Psaltis' AFR Midnight Rambler at the start of the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart
Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex
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The fleet in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is virtually all sloops (mainsail and one foresail genoa or jibs) but several of the maxi yachts with a big fore-triangle (between the foredeck, the forestay and the mast) are successfully using two headsails on close reaching races, theoretically making them cutters. The 2006 fleet ranged in size from the 30 foot Maluka, the 1932 built gaff rigged timber boat, through to the one-design Sydney 38s including Another Challenge, Challenge and Star Dean Willcocks, then the grand prix IRC boats in the 45 to 60-foot group, including the two new Reichel/Pugh boats, Yendys and Loki, the Cookson 50s Quantum Racing and Living Doll and the TP52 Wot Yot which will be joined by sistership Ragamuffin, Syd Fischer's latest yacht of that name, for the 2007 race. Then there are regulars, the club cruiser/racers that sail in the race almost every year. The Rum Consortium's Phillip's Foote Witchdoctor is preparing for its 27th race south after breaking the record for the most races undertaken by a yacht in the 2006 race. John Walker's Impeccable is lining up for its 24th Rolex Sydney Hobart this year, Polaris of Belmont for its 23rd and Margaret Rintoul II, which is making its Rolex Sydney Hobart comeback under new owner Mike Freebairn following a nine year absence, is being groomed for its 22nd race to Hobart.
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Matt Allen's Ichi Ban after the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart
Daniel Forster/Rolex
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In 2006 there were three maximum length 30m maxis, Skandia, Wild Oats XI and Maximus and two Volvo 70s, ABN AMRO ONE and Ichi Ban, the latter modified to a Jones 70 prior to Boxing Day. The Volvo 60s CMC Markets Getaway Sailing and DHL also raced south. The oldest and smallest boat in the fleet was Maluka, see above. In 2007, four 30m maxis will take centre stage. Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI is aiming for a hat trick of line honours wins and out to steal her thunder is Mike Slade's brand new ICAP Leopard, which smashed the 2007 Rolex Fastnet Race record in August. Grant Wharington's Skandia, the 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours, will again challenge for the Illingworth trophy for first to Hobart as will Bill Buckley's Maximus from New Zealand. Champion Australian maxi Brindabella, the line honours winner in 1997, will return to the event under new owner Andrew Short and will be called Andrew Short Marine Brindabella. A strong fleet of Sydney 38s will again compete in the 2007 race as will a number of modified Farr 40s. Sparkman & Stephens designs feature heavily in the 2007 entry list as do the Beneteaus. One yacht, Michele Colenso's Capriccio of Rhu has entered the cruising division. Click here to view the 2007 fleet.
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