Two lines and later start on Boxing Day

• NEWS
• 24 Nov, 2004 11:50:00 AM

Two lines and later start on Boxing Day

The largest fleet in a decade, together with logistical requirements for the live television broadcast, will see a two-line start and a later starting gun for the 60th anniversary Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

The largest fleet in a decade, together with logistical requirements for the live television broadcast, will see a two-line start and a later starting gun for the 60th anniversary Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia today confirmed the two-line start for the fleet that currently stands at 125 boats and announced that the starting time will be ten minutes later than the traditional start time of 1300 hours (1pm) because the telecast will not start until 1pm.

The starting signals will be:

1.00pm:      10 minutes Warning flag signal and cannon
1.05pm:      5 minute Preparatory flag signal and cannon
1.10pm:      Starting flag signal and cannon

The live television coverage will continue through for an hour, providing a wide coverage of the start and the fleet racing down the Harbour and out to sea.

The starting lines will be north of Shark Island, running east to west from near Steele Point on the east and Taylor’s Bay on the western shore.  The lines will be about 200 metres apart with all yachts starting at the same time.

The fleet must sail within the exclusion zone to the rounding marks at the Heads and to  compensate for the distance between the start lines,  the back line boats to will round Mark Xray north of South Head while the front line boats will have to sail extra distance to Mark Yankee. 

From both marks the fleet must then sail due east to Mark Zulu before heading south towards Tasmania.