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Rolex Sydney Hobart
ROLEX/Daniel Forster
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With the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race fleet spread from Wollongong to Flinders Island, there is a certain calmness on board most boats as they anticipate the next weather change, due overnight.The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a swing back to the north/north-west after today’s southerly change and that will suit everyone trying to get to Hobart as quick as possible. Meanwhile, some of the boats have been e-mailing with some insights into life on board on day two of the 628 nautical mile ocean classic which began from Sydney Harbour yesterday. Ichi Ban - 8:40am All is going well at this stage. We are a fair way east and tracking beautifully. At the moment we are bang on course doing 11 knots. We are currently experiencing an 18-20 knot sou’wester, the breeze should eventually swing left which should help us…depending on when it happens. There is also an adverse east nor’east current which is causing us a little bit of grief but nothing too serious. Matt Allen, skipper Wild Oats XI - 9:15 am Things are going GREAT! Really wonderful night's yachting, boat's going well, crew are changing the sails (which is a Herculean effort) whenever required. Great running last night and now on the breeze with a few bumps - wouldn't be Hobart without that! All good here. We seem to be holding a small advantage over City Index Leopard and Skandia after a tricky night where they both were making gains - on either side of us! We stuck to our game plan, the wind did what we hoped it would and we have managed to keep in front through the first 'chicane'. It's been relatively straight forward this morning but should see some more wind shifts and challenges at lunch time. More later, Ian “Fresh” Burns, navigator Spirit of Koomooloo - 9:36am We have had a great night and it is looking like we are currently leading on IRC handicap. Last night was champagne sailing and this morning it’s a bit more like Bundy sailing. It was a little bit bumpy overnight…not too bad though, we have the no. 2 headsail up with a full main. The old Koomooloo would be very proud of our pace at the moment, very proud. We are going to start writing up our blog on:
http://margaretrintoul2.bigblog.com.au/ Mike Freebairn, skipper Toyota Aurion V6 (ex Brindabella) - 8:17 am Everything is going well now. We did have a spinnaker block give way under load in the 30 knot northerly we briefly had last night and luckily the stanchion saved it from going all the way forward. We bent the stanchion over 55 degrees- surprisingly it held on until we gybed over, apart from a wine glass in the spinnaker which we managed to get out after five minutes. Fortunately no-one was in its path. We gybed and did the necessary repairs and gybed back onto course without any further incident. There was no other damage- and we did have one spare block in our supply kit. We currently have a 15 knot south-westerly breeze and are getting along at 10 knots just passing Green Cape Rosebud - 10:00am Stressful morning breeze-wise, getting through the trough but in a better stream now and putting the pedal down again.
I’m after hints on how to deal with these Americans who are going to think all Hobarts are this pleasant! They are starting to think that all our stories of backless waves, icy winds etc are rubbish! Tom Addis, Australia navigator on board the US yacht Jazz 1:00pm At lunch time today we are trading tacks with a couple of 50 footers close to Gabo Island at the northern tip of Bass Strait. We now have a southerly wind of around 20 knots and after the joys of the first day's sleigh ride, it now feels a bit more like what we expect from a Rolex Sydney Hobart as we crash off the odd wave going to windward in a choppy seaway. Everything is going well, except we have had a bit of leak through a window fitting right above the chart table that tried to flood the boat computer with sea water. I called in that renowned Cowes boat builder - Anthony Haines, aka ‘Ski’, to fix it. He stemmed the leak in short measure with quick draw skills with his Sikaflex gun and a roll of trusty duct tape. So far the running repair seems to be holding. These head winds should die away in the next four hours and we are looking forward to more running conditions as a NNW wind fills in ahead of the next front. Overall it looks like this should be a quick race.
Mike Broughton, navigator, Jazz
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