Victorian yachts prepare for 60th Rolex Sydney Hobart

• NEWS
• 29 Oct, 2004 12:42:00 PM

Victorian yachts prepare for 60th Rolex Sydney Hobart

More than 70 yachts have lodged applications to enter the 60th anniversary Rolex Sydney Hobart, among them 20 Victorian boats.

The Victorian yacht Skandia took line honours in last year's Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race; this year Victorians will be out to notch up a double of line and handicap honours.
 
With seven days to go to the close of nominations, more than 70 yachts have lodged applications to enter the 60th anniversary Rolex Sydney Hobart, among them 20 Victorian boats.  Cruising Yacht Club of Australia officials expect a final fleet of between 100 and 120.
 
This weekend 10 of these Victorian boats will sail their qualifying race for the 628 nautical mile Category 1 bluewater classic, when they compete in the Melbourne to Stanley Race, 180 nautical miles across Bass Strait.  The race starts from Queenscliff at 3.45am on Saturday - slack tide at the Heads.
 
Among the fleet is the newly launched Dekadence, sailing its first ocean race for Sandringham Yacht Club Commodore Philip Coombs, and Another Challenge, a proven ocean racer but sailed by a novice crew of Melbourne University students, also in their first long ocean race.
 
Dekadence, an imported DK46 with an experienced crew, is considered a strong contender for IRC handicap honours in the 60th Rolex Sydney Hobart.Another Challenge, a Sydney 38 which placed third overall in 2002 under veteran Lou Abrahams' command, has been chartered to 21-year-old Chris Lewin and his equally young University students.
 
Abrahams has commissioned a new Sydney 38 to be named Challenge to sail in what will be his 42nd Sydney Hobart.
 
Other Victorian nominations for the Rolex Sydney Hobart racing to Stanley include By Order of The Secretary (George Shaw), Elektra (Michael Hiatt), Fuzzy Logic (Paul Roberts and Bill Lennon), Sea Eagle I (Rob Hanna), Ice Fire (Robin Warlond), Kontrol (Peter Blake), Magic (Philip Spry-Bailey) and Terra Firma (Nicholas Bartels).
 
Skandia, Grant Wharington's super maxi, is currently racing from Hong Kong to Vietnam while another Victorian entrant for the Sydney Hobart, Miriana Ristivojevic's Beyond Outrageous, is competing the 414 nautical mile race across the Tasman Sea from Gosford to Lord Howe Island which starts on Saturday afternoon.
 
Other Victorian yachts not racing this weekend but expected to do well in the 60th Rolex Sydney Hobart include Robert Hick's Toecutter, which placed second in the IRC handicap category last year, and Bruce Taylor's Sydney 38, Chutzpah, which placed third.
 
The Melbourne to Stanley Race is also an important lead-up event to the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria's West Coaster Race to Hobart, starting on 27 December.