Skip to main content
Time to race start
00 days
:
00 hrs
:
00 min
:
00 sec

Race Updates - 2024 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

Home 2024 Race Updates - 2024 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

Image: ROLEX | Carlo Borlenghi

Read a continuously updated race summary as the race progresses

news
—

RACE UPDATE Monday 0700 hours (3 days and 18 hours after start)

27 boats have completed the 79th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race; 30 have retired and 48 entries are still racing.

Since yesterday morning's report, 18 more boats have crossed the finish line:

Active Again, Chutzpah, Happy Wanderer, Extasea, Awen, Voltstart Yeah Baby, Cocody, Denali, Mistral (DH), Maritimo 100, Oroton Drumfire, Odin, Sirene, Advantedge, Xanthus, Minnie, White Noise and Indigo III.

Rupert Henry and Corentin Douget were the first double-handed crew to arrive - to a fantastic reception from the Taste of Summer festival as well as the crowd at Kings Pier Marina and Rolex Hobart Race Village. The Lombard 34 Mistral completed the course at 1916 hours. She is also first on Double Handed IRC ahead of Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth and Jupiter. Whilst Mistral's divisional win is locked in, the final podium positions are being hotly contested. Jiang Lin and Francois Guiffaut on Jiang's JPK 10.30 Min River for example are only 3 minutes behind Jupiter on predicted corrected time.

CYCA Commodore Sam Hayne's Celestial V70 was awarded provisional Overall victory yesterday afternoon at a special dockside presentation. They were warmly feted as Sam lifted the Tattersall Cup for the second time (Celestial TP52 in 2018).

Law Connect, Wild Thing 100, Caro and Smuggler round out the Top 5.

Sirene, Happy Wanderer and the Double Handed Jeanneau Sunfast 3300 Toucan of Edward Curry-Hyde and Scott Robinson hold down the places in IRC Corinthian.

The PHS order remains unchanged - Just Farr Love, Journeymen Flat White and Crystal Cutter III.

We'll see a lot of arrivals throughout the day.

RACE UPDATE Sunday 0800 hours (2 days 19 hours after start)

It was a slow day for arrivals yesterday.

After the sunrise finishes of Celestial V70 and Wild Thing 100, following LawConnect's Line Honours finish at 0235hrs, it was a lengthy wait for the next boats to cross the line & berth at Kings Pier Marina.

The mini maxis Whisper and No Limit and 52-footers Caro and Smuggler arrived late afternoon and early evening. They had seen little decent breeze over the final stretches of the race. Geoff Hill's Santa Cruz 72 Antipodes finished earlier this morning at 0633hrs.

This takes the number of finishes to eight. 66 boats are still racing and there have been 30 retirements.

Ian and Annika Thomson's TP52 (hull #2) Ocean Crusaders J-Bird will be the next to arrive in the next hour or so. There should be several more finishing through the afternoon.

Sam Haynes and the crew of Celestial V70 have more than one hand on the Tattersall Cup. She has a healthy lead of 10 hours over the second placed team on standings and only one boat is "mathematically" capable of bettering their IRC Overall corrected time of 2 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes and 38 seconds. Sean Langman and Peter Inchbold's double-handed entry Kismet has 341nm to go and would need to arrive by 1633hrs today. Not possible for a 30-foot Illingworth/Penrose 30 built back in 1955.

On current standings, LawConnect sits in 2nd place on IRC Overall, ahead of Wild Thing 100, Caro and Smuggler.

IRC Corinthian sees Supernova holding off Navy One and Happy Wanderer.

PHS standings has local Tasmanian entry, Scott Lovell's Farr 51 Just Farr Love, leading Chris Taylor's Pogo 40 Le Tiroflan, Chancellor, Journeymen Flat White and Simon Mack's Sydney 40 Mako.

The double-handed competition is getting interesting. Pre-race favourite Rupert Henry's Lombard 34 Mistral (co skippered by Corentin Douget) currently has a tight lead in DH IRC. Mistral won this division in both 2022 and 2023. In close pursuit are Jules Hall and Jan 'Clogs' Scholten on the J/99 Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth, which won the division in its inaugural year in 2021. Ian Smith's J/99 Jupiter is 3rd.

Mistral has just over 80nm to go and is doing 10.2kts.

Double Handed PHS has Annette Hesselmans and her daughter Sophie Snijders Najad 1490 Fika leading Andrew Butler and Peter Just's J122e Rumchaser and Tasmanian's Ken and Tristamn Gourlays' Adams 16.4 Blue Moon.

RACE UPDATE Friday 1900 hours (1 day 6 hours after start)

15 hours after our last race update and the subsequent heartbreaking news of the tragic deaths of two competitors overnight, the race has now entered its 30th hour.

Our deepest condolences and prayers are extended to the families, friends and crew members of Roy Quaden from Western Australia on Flying Fish Arctos, and Nick Smith from South Australia on Bowline.

In total, there have now been 22 retirements from the 79th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Following those reported this morning, there are 14 more boats no longer racing:

Bacchanal - broken boom

Bowline

Flying Fish Arctos

Georgia Express - electrical issues

Gizmo (DH) - crew illness

Lord Jiminy - crew injury

Mayfair - broken equipment

Porco Rosso

Pretty Woman - headstay foil damage

Quetzalcoatl - crew injury

Rum Rebellion - equipment damage

The Shepherd Centre - engine issues

Verite - electrical issues

Zeus - foil damage

The 100-foot LawConnect is leading the race, 14 nautical miles North East of Cape Sonnerat, doing 13.4 knots and has averaged 17 knots for the journey.  She has only 109.5 miles to the finish line in Hobart and is 12.5 miles ahead of the 30 foot smaller Volvo 70 Celestial V70.  Grant Wharington and Adrian Seffert's Wild Thing 100 (the former Botin 80) is not far behind.

There is then a bit of a gap to the next boats: No Limit, Whisper, Caro (NZ), Smuggler, Antipodes (HK), Ocean Crusaders J-Bird and Denali.

IRC Overall standings sees Celestial V70 with a commanding 4.5 hour lead on corrected time over Caro. No Limit, Whisper and Smuggler round out the top 5 but the margins here are tighter.

Corinthian IRC honours currently sits with Denali, Daniel Cannon's Corby 49 Happy Wanderer and Sirene.

PHS standings have Ted Tooher's Beneteau First 40 Chancellor leading Charles Parry-Okeden's Beneteau 40.7 Crystal Cutter III and Scott Lovell's Farr 51 Just Farr Love.

Double Handed bragging rights are still hard to call.  On Double Handed IRC, Inukshuk, the Northshore 38 skippered by Robert Large and Stuart Watson, leads Mistral and Kismet.

Conditions look like they may get more variable over the next 6-12 hours as the fleet crosses the eastern edge of Bass Strait and moves down the Tasmanian coastline.  A range of West and South-West breeze of varying strengths is forecast and it could become quite a tactical race for all involved.

RACE UPDATE Friday 0400 hours (15 hours after start)

_____________________________________

***News of the two tragic deaths overnight was received after this post was written. Our thoughts go out to friends and family of the crews of Flying Fish Arctos and Bowline and to the broader sailing community.***

_____________________________________

15 hours into the 79th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and there have been nine retirements to date - including several pre-race favourites and placegetters from 2023:

Alive - engine issues

Calibre 12 - mainsail damage

Ciao Bella - steering issues

Master Lock Comanche - mainsail damage

Philosopher - dismasted

Transcendence Rudy Project - dismasted

URM Group - dismasted

Wild Oats - rigging damage

With strong breeze and a heavy sea state, it has been a tough night with crews easing back and battling to protect their boats and equipment.

The leaders are still making good speed south though.

Christian Beck's 100-foot maxi LawConnect is currently 64 nautical miles South of Gabo Island doing 14.1 knots, having averaged 18 knots. She has 337 miles to go. 8.2 miles astern is Sam Haynes' Celestial V70 (Jim Cooney's Willow). Grant Wharington's Wild Thing 100, David Gotze's No Limit, and Michael Firmin's DSS-foiled Infinity 52 Zeus round out the Top 5. Whisper, Caro, Smuggler, Porco Rosso and Antipodes are the next five boats.

On IRC Overall, it is a pretty open affair, with a long way still to go for the fleet. Celestial V70 heads fellow Division 0 entry No Limit, then two Division 1 boats Zeus and Smuggler. The French Division 3 entry Cocody sits in 5th on standings.

Cocody.   Image: ROLEX | Carlo Borlenghi

In Corinthian IRC, Bill Henson's JPK 45 Sirene from WA leads Richard Hudson's IC45MOD Pretty Woman and Damien Parkes’ TP52 Denali.

PHS Division sees Jen Linkova's Radford 12.2 Journeymen Flat White atop Anton Sweetapple (sk), Anthony Bruce and James Lee Warner's Jones 40 Quetzalcoatl and in 3rd, Making Waves Foundation's Lyons 54 MWF Kayle, skippered by John Whitfield.

Double Handed IRC is also being hotly contested. The Young 11 Pacman skippered by Peter Elkington and Scott Cavanough leads 2022 and 2023 winner Mistral, the Lombard 34 skippered by Rupert Henry and Corentin Douguet. The 120 year-old Maritimo Katwinchar (Michael Spies and Peter Vaiciurgis) is in 3rd.

RACE UPDATE Thursday 1900 hours (8 hours after start)

After six hours of racing, the fleet has made significant progress down the New South Wales coast. With fast downwind conditions, high speeds are being recorded across the fleet.

While LawConnect led the fleet out of Sydney Heads, it is Master Lock Comanche that currently holds the upper hand in the Line Honours battle. Clocking speeds in the high-twenties some 60 nautical miles offshore from Potato Point, Master Lock Comanche maintains a strong lead. However, with LawConnect trailing by approximately 15 nautical miles and many miles still to race, the contest is far from decided.

The next group of yachts is led by Wild Thing 100, Celestial V70, URM Group, Zeus, Caro, and No Limit, all making rapid progress down the coast. Alice Parker, Navigator aboard URM Group, shared: “We are racing in a strong nor’easter with good waves. The wind is gusting up to 30 knots, so we are adjusting our sail wardrobe. We expect the wind to increase some more around 2100 hours.”

Further back, a cluster of 50- and 40-foot yachts remains tightly packed. At present, the wider downwind-optimised designs are capitalising on the conditions. Among them are Chutzpah, Mayfair, Voltstar, Yeah Baby, Extasea, Bacchanal, Cocody, and Advantedge. It will be fascinating to watch the two JPK 11.80s - Bacchanal and Cocody - compete in their own race within a race.

The leading double-handed yacht, Mistral, has covered 72 nautical miles so far, reaching speeds of up to 18 knots. The next double-hander is Pacman (further inshore) and Lord Jiminy.

Currently leading on IRC is Zeus with Caro and Smuggler in second and third. Cocodyand Chutzpah are currently fourth and fifth.

In PHS it is Quetzalcoatl who is leading the charge, with Mako and Journeymen Flat White in second and third.

Two yachts have retired from the race so far. Alive was the first to withdraw at 1610hrs due to engine issues. Shortly after, Transcendence Rudy Project dismasted. All crew members are safe and are returning to port.