Over the years, the Rolex Sydney Hobart and Cruising Yacht Club of Australia have had marked influence on international ocean yacht racing. The club has influenced the world in race communications and sea safety, maintaining the highest standards for yacht race entry. The club's members have also fared well in major ocean racing events overseas, with victories in the Admiral's Cup, Kenwood Cup, One Ton Cup, the Fastnet Race and the BOC Challenge solo race around the word, not to mention the America's Cup.
From the spectacular start in Sydney Harbour, the fleet sails out into the Tasman Sea, down the south-east coast of mainland Australia, across Bass Strait (which divides the mainland from the island State of Tasmania), then down the east coast of Tasmania. At Tasman Island the fleet turns right into Storm Bay for the final sail up the Derwent River to the historic port city of Hobart.
People who sail the race often say the first and last days are the most exciting. The race start on Sydney Harbour attracts hundreds of spectator craft and hundreds of thousands of people lining the shore as helicopters buzz above the fleet, filming for TV around the world.
The final day at sea is exciting with crews fighting to beat their rivals but also looking forward to the traditional Hobart welcome, and having a drink to relax and celebrate their experience.
Between the first and last days the fleet sails past some of the most beautiful landscape and sea scapes found anywhere in the world.
The New South Wales coast is a mixture of sparkling beaches, coastal townships and small fishing villages, although for most of the race south the yachts can be anywhere between the coastline and 40 miles offshore.
During the race, many boats are within sight of each other and crews listen closely to the information from the twice-daily radio position schedules ("skeds" as they are called). In more recent years, crews have been able to pin point the entire fleet's whereabouts and follow each boat's progress against their own using on board computers and Yacht Tracker on the official race website.
Bass Strait (nicknamed the 'paddock) has a dangerous personality. It can be dead calm or spectacularly grand. The water is relatively shallow and the winds can be strong, these two elements often coming to create a steep and difficult sea for yachts.
The third leg after the 'paddock' - down the east coast of Tasmania takes the fleet past coastal holiday resorts and fishing ports with towering mountains in the background. Approaching Tasman Island, the coastline comprises massive cliffs, sometimes shrouded in fog.
The winds are often fickle and can vary in strength and direction within a few miles. Sailing becomes very tactical.
After turning right at Tasman Island, sailors often think the race is near completed, but at this point there is still 40 miles of often hard sailing to go. Yachts can be left behind in the maze of currents and wind frustrations.
Even when they round the Iron Pot, a tiny island that was once a whaling station, there is still a further 11 miles up the broad reaches of the Derwent River to the finish line off Hobart's historic Battery Point, with Mount Wellington towering over the city.
No matter the time of day or night, the first yacht to finish receives an escort of official, spectator and media boats as it sails towards the finish line.
Hundreds of people crowd the foreshores of Sullivans Cove to cheer the yachts and their crews while volunteers from the finishing club, the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, meet the weary crews with open arms and famous Tasmanian hospitality, and escort them to their berth in the Kings Pier marina.
It's an event that Tasmanians love to host in the middle of Hobart's Taste of Tasmania Festival.
Then it's time to celebrate or commiserate, swap yarns about the race with other crews over a few beers in Hobart's famous waterfront pubs such as the Customs House Hotel or the Rolex Sydney Hobart Dockside Bar.
As the then Governor of Tasmania, Sir Guy Green, observed at the prizegiving for the 2001 race, it is indeed an egalitarian event, attracting yachts as small as 30-footers and as big as 98-footers, sailed by crews who range from weekend club sailors to professionals from the America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race circuits.
The Rolex Sydney Hobart Race 2011 is a classic long ocean race open to anyone who owns a yacht that qualifies for this challenging event and which meets all the safety requirements of a Category 1 safety race.
In the earliest years of the Sydney Hobart Race all the yachts were built from timber - heavy displacement cutters, sloops, yawls, schooners and ketches designed more for cruising than racing.
The increasing popularity of the 628 nautical Christmas-New Year sail south to Hobart quickly began to attract new designs and innovative ideas in boat-building, sails and rigs…dacron sails and aluminium masts and in the early 1950s, the first boats built of GRP (glass reinforced plastic) or fibreglass as is the more common phrase. Then came aluminium, steel (mostly home-built) and even one maxi yacht built of ferro cement.
Innovative Australian yacht designers such as the Halvorsen brothers, Trygve and Magnus, and the late Allan Payne and Bob Miller (Ben Lexcen) produced faster boats and the race was on to create line and overall handicap winners. Prof. Peter Joubert, a part-time designer of stout cruiser/racers, and John King were other Australians who produced winning boats.
Following in their wake are currently successful designers such as Iain Murray and his partners, Andy Dovell and Ian "Fresh" Burns, along with Scott Jutson, David Lyons and Robert Hick.
New Zealander Bruce Farr, now based on the US, led the move towards light displacement yachts and is by far the most successful designer of Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race overall winners under different international handicap systems, first IOR (International Offshore Rule), then IMS (International Measurement System), and now IRC.
The space age has had a significant spin-off for yacht racing, first in the America's Cup and then in the design and construction of ocean racing yachts, introducing composite construction of boat hulls, using Kelvar and other manmade fibres in moulding the hulls in high-tech ovens.
In the past few years carbon fibre has been used successfully to build yacht hulls, masts and spars and in the construction of working sails (mainsails and genoas/jibs). The double line honours winner Wild Oats XI is the latest example of almost total use of carbon fibre in its hull, mast, boom and working sails.
The 2006 fleet ranged in size from the 30 foot Maluka, the 1932 built gaff rigged timber boat, through to the one-design Sydney 38s including Another Challenge, Challenge and Star Dean Willcocks, then the grand prix IRC boats in the 45 to 60-foot group, including the two new Reichel/Pugh boats, Yendys and Loki, the Cookson 50s Quantum Racing and Living Doll and the TP52 Wot Yot which will be joined by sistership Ragamuffin, Syd Fischer's latest yacht of that name, for the 2007 race.
Then there are regulars, the club cruiser/racers that sail in the race almost every year. The Rum Consortium's Phillip's Foote Witchdoctor is preparing for its 27th race south after breaking the record for the most races undertaken by a yacht in the 2006 race.
John Walker's Impeccable is lining up for its 24th Rolex Sydney Hobart this year, Polaris of Belmont for its 23rd and Margaret Rintoul II, which is making its Rolex Sydney Hobart comeback under new owner Mike Freebairn following a nine year absence, is being groomed for its 22nd race to Hobart.
In 2006 there were three maximum length 30m maxis, Skandia, Wild Oats XI and Maximus and two Volvo 70s, ABN AMRO ONE and Ichi Ban, the latter modified to a Jones 70 prior to Boxing Day. The Volvo 60s CMC Markets Getaway Sailing and DHL also raced south.
The oldest and smallest boat in the fleet was Maluka, see above.
In 2007, four 30m maxis will took centre stage. Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI secured a hat trick of line honours wins after some tough competition from Mike Slade's brand new ICAP Leopard, which smashed the 2007 Rolex Fastnet Race record in August.
Champion Australian maxi Brindabella, the line honours winner in 1997, returned to the event under new owner Andrew Short and raced under the name ofToyota Aurion V6.
Roger Sturgeon's STP65Rosebud, from the USA was declared the overall winner of the 63rd Rolex Sydney Hobart
In 2008,Wild Oats XIclaimed an historic fourth line honours win with Bob Steel's TP52Questdeclared the overall winner. In a true act of generosity, Steel prsented his sailing master, Mike Green, with his Rolex Yacht master timepiece at the official prizegiving of the 64th Rolex Sydney Hobart.
Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo from New Zealand won the protracted line honours clash of the eight super maxis in the 65th edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, ending the four-year dominance of Wild Oats XI, the race record holder from NSW owned by Bob Oatley and skippered by Mark Richards.
Alfa Romeo finished the race in 2 days 9 hours 2 minutes 10 seconds but it was a South Australian yacht Two True, a brand new Beneteau First 40, owned by orthopaedic surgeon Andrew Saies, that won the race overall. Before being declared the winner, Saies had to wait a nail-biting 24 hours and survive a protest hearing relating to an incident on Sydney Harbour at the start of the 628 nautical mile race. Once the international jury dismissed the protest, Saies' Two True was declared the overall winner.
The 2009 Rolex Sydney Hobart race will be remembered by competitors as: "the most benign and mentally frustrating Hobart ever", largely due to the light to moderate winds experienced by the fleet of 100 yachts. It will also be remembered as the year the race organisers, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia extended the length overall from 98 feet (30m) to 100 feet (30.48m); and ran an ORCi division rule as a test of the rule.
The 66th edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race was the most physically demanding since 2004, when 56 boats retired, overcome by the conditions. The 2010 fleet withstood battering headwinds and gale-force conditions down the coast and through the notorious Bass Strait.
A fleet of 87 started the 628 nautical mile race, but 69 crossed the finish line, with 18 yachts retiring, mostly bashed about by the southerly buster on the second day. Andrew Lawrence's Jazz Player was the first casualty on the first night at sea after she tore her mainsail.
Mid-southerly on the second day, Rolex photographer Carlo Borlenghi reported from a helicopter: "There are yachts with triple-reefs, some with storm headsails, and others racing bare-poles (no sails). In a decade of covering the race I've never seen seas like those."
Although all arrived in Hobart relatively unscathed, the race was not without incident. The first occurred just inside South Head shortly after the start when Grant Wharington's Wild Thing was involved in a collision with a media boat, but suffered no visible damage.
Ludde Ingvall's YuuZoolost two crewmen overboard within five hours of the start, but recovered them quickly.
During the course of the southerly buster on December 27, Peter Rodgers, reported a crew with a head injury aboard She, who was taken to Ulladulla and a waiting ambulance. He was later released from hospital.
A Dodo crewman broke his arm and was transferred to Eden and taken to hospital, while 25-race veteran Bacardi, a sturdy 32 year-old Peterson 44, dropped her rig off the NSW south coast.
Commenting on the race conditions Ran encountered this time, as opposed to 2009, Zennstrom said, "I think I have now definitely seen what the race is all about. It was tough crossing Bass Strait; 35 knots of wind and big seas. The whole experience has been fantastic."
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