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Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
COMING SOON
18 March, 2026
View Results

Home Race 2007 Recap

2007 Race Recap

Rosebud soon after leaving the sea mark off Sydney behind

Rosebud, Overall Winner in 2007.  Image: ROLEX/Daniel Forster

Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2007

In 2007, four 30 metre maxis took centre stage.  Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI secured a third line honours win, after some tough competition from Mike Slade's new ICAP Leopard, which smashed the 2007 Rolex Fastnet Race record earlier that year in August.

Champion Australian maxi Brindabella, line honours winner in 1997, returned to the event under new owner Andrew Short and raced under the name of Toyota Aurion V6.

Roger Sturgeon's STP65 Rosebud, from the USA, was declared the overall winner of the 63rd Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Race Program

Prior to each race Cruising Yacht Club of Australia publishes a separate official race program (with details of competing boats, the results of past races and articles about the race and its participants and other important events).  The 2007 Edition is here.    

Weather

Weather for the 63rd Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race was as forecast with a mostly hard running race tempered by two weakish fronts.  The race started just behind a front which blew through Sydney on Christmas Eve.  The fleet got away in a soft East/North East breeze which quickly built to 25 knots through the first night ahead of a weak front which crossed the front runners early in the morning of the 27th off Gabo Island.  This front was in the middle of a double centered high pressure system which kept the southerly winds behind the front weak and short lived.

As the faster boats headed south they quickly got the transition back to the South East then North East and then the building pre-frontal North West to 25-30 knots ahead of the main front which came across the course on the morning of the 29th.  With the downwind speeds of the modern boats however, most 40+ foot boats got around Tasman Island on the building North West breeze before the South West/Southerly front on the 29th.

The only heavy winds of the race for the bigger boats were all out of the NE/NW quadrant, which really advantaged the harder running yachts such as Wild Oats XI, which took its third consecutive line honours win, Ichi Ban, Rosebud, the eventual overall winner, Yendys, the TP52s and Chutzpah.

The 8-12 hour period of light going in the soft South West/South/South East on the 27th behind the first front spelled the end for race record hopes. 

Race reports

After each race, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's magazine Offshore contains photo galleries, reports and articles on the race.  Read on to access them.

February / March 2007 Offshore - see pages 24 to 46