sydney to hobart yacht race history

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The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) was formed in 1944 and, despite its name, quickly became the leading exponent of ocean racing in Australia, at that time a little-known sport both here and elsewhere.

The CYCA began when some keen sailors started meeting informally in a photographic studio in Sydney. They soon acquired a boatshed in Rushcutters Bay and the rest, as they say, is history.

In 1945 a planned cruise to Hobart quickly turned into a race and the famous Sydney Hobart Yacht Race was born.

The race captured the imagination of the Australian public and it soon developed into an international yachting classic, attracting competitors from around the world.

With the CYCA conducting ocean races such as the Sydney Hobart Race since 1944, it has given the Club an expertise in race organisation and sea safety which is internationally acclaimed and widely emulated, some techniques being adapted world-wide following CYCA development.

These days, the CYCA is the ‘Club of choice’ for its more than 3,100 members, sailors and non-sailors, who enjoy the world-class facilities, the extensive sailing calendar and the social programme of member’s nights, prize giving and just relaxing in the Sydney Hobart Bar after a hard-fought race.

The full Club history can be found in the book “Ratbags to Respectability” which can be purchased online or at the CYCA reception.

CYCA has made every effort to locate the owners of material published on its websites that may be subject to copyright or moral rights in Australia.

Should anyone become aware that material has been used without permission or appropriate attribution, please contact [email protected] .

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Sailing milestone: A half-century of starts for a competitor in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race

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SYDNEY (AP) — Lindsay May will notch a first in the 78-year history of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race when he becomes the only sailor to start it 50 times — all of them consecutively — when it begins Tuesday in Sydney harbor.

May, with three overall titles and one line-honors win, will navigate “Antipodes” in the expected 103-boat fleet in the annual race that will head down the New South Wales south coast and across often treacherous Bass Strait to the island state of Tasmania.

The finish line of the 628-nautical mile (720-mile, 1,170-kilometer) race is at Constitution Dock in the state capital of Hobart.

May’s sailing career began in 1973 , when the-then 24-year-old stepped off his surf board and on to a yacht.

“I never thought I would get to 50 and I had no idea what I was in for,” May said. “I had done very little racing. Then I went sailing here on the harbor with a mate of mine who was in the navy and I was just hooked.”

In 2006, May and his crew won handicap honors as the skipper and navigator of the 33-year-old wooden vessel Love & War. But he counts his most memorable race as the one he didn’t finish.

In 1993, when only 38 out of 104 starters finished due to poor weather conditions, May plucked fellow competitor John Quinn out of the Tasman Sea. Quinn had been washed overboard and spent nearly six hours in the water.

Last year’s fast conditions appeared to put the line honors record of one day, nine hours, 15 minutes, 24 seconds, under threat. That record was set by 100-foot super maxi Andoo Comanche in 2017, and Comanche also won last year’s race .

On Sunday, skipper John Winning Jr. suggested Andoo Comanche would defend its line honors title in any conditions as the race’s weather forecast remained unpredictable.

The Bureau of Meteorology says uncertainty remained as to wind, wave and weather conditions.

The four 100-foot super maxi yachts may have to contend with stormy conditions from late Tuesday into Wednesday, with showers, gusts and hail all possible for the far south of New South Wales and Bass Strait.

“Pack another set of thermal gear. It’ll be cold,” said SHK Scallywag skipper David Witt, another of the super maxis.

The forecast has changed throughout the week, leaving crews to suggest that having an adaptable navigator on board could be a game-changer.

“For us, it’s about trusting each person’s role on the boat,” Winning said. “We back our boat in any conditions to win the race, whether it’s upwind, downwind, light wind, reaching or whatever it is.”

Last year, Comanche finished at Constitution Dock in one day, 11 hours, 56 minutes and 48 seconds — the second-fastest time behind its 2017 record.

LawConnect, runner-up for line honors in the last three Hobarts, is Comanche’s biggest threat to clinching back-to-back wins. LawConnect, formerly known as InfoTrack and Perpetual Loyal, is particularly strong upwind.

“If we could get that all the way, that’d be awesome,” said sailing master Tony Mutter.

Super maxi LawConnect won’t shy away from the rough conditions that could come with a predicted low pressure system.

“We actually prefer it, the more tactical it is, the better for us, we feel,” Mutter said. “We kind of need that to be a thing for us to have a chance to win.”

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

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Sydney to Hobart 75 Years

Challenging, Thrilling, Racing - Sydney to Hobart 75 Years 

Challenging, Thrilling Racing.

Charting the history of the blue water classic, with stunning photography by acclaimed photographers Andrea Francolini, Carlo Borlenghi and Richard Bennett, this exhibition is an expansive visual timeline, including evocative film.

Highlighting the excitement, comradery, risk and danger of this great yacht race, Challenging, Thrilling, Racing - Sydney to Hobart 75 Years includes material from significant years such as the tragic events of 1998's race . You'll gain an insight into the character of the race that began in 1945 with only nine contestants. In this, its 75th year, the Sydney to Hobart race fields 170 local and international teams. 

Also included in the 75th year commemorative program for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2019 is a display of photographs by acclaimed yachting photographer Richard Bennett in the museum’s Yots Café during December 2019 to January 2020. Richard's book will be available to purchase in the museum store.

Main image: Skipper Captain John Illingworth (centre standing in cap) with the crew of Rani, the winner of the first Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, 1.45am, 2 January 1946. ANMM Collection 00048228_003 , Gift from Alison Richmond

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Cat makes history in sydney to hobart yacht race.

By Tiffanie Turnbull, BBC News, Sydney

Skipper Robert Williams watches his cat Oli as he stands aboard his yacht ‘Sylph VI’ during the media launch of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race in Sydney on 22 November, 2023. Photo: AFP / David Gray

When Oli queues up on the starting line for the Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Tuesday, he'll be making history.

That's because Oli is a cat.

Since the event began as a casual cruise down the east coast of Australia in 1945, it has attracted all manner of colourful competitors - from media magnate Rupert Murdoch to Australian cricket legend Michael Clarke and former UK Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath.

But there's no record of any feline seafarers in the gruelling regatta. Carrier pigeons - sure: they were once used to send messages back to shore and have graced many a deck during the ocean classic. But cats? No.

Oli's owner Bob Williams says the pair didn't set out to be pioneers. The moggy is simply part of the furniture on Sylph VI and leaving him behind on the boat's jaunt south was out of the question.

"I've done lots of crazy things, but this isn't one of them," Williams told the BBC ahead of the race.

Organisers - while initially bemused - are also on board.

There are no race rules prohibiting animals, and cats have a long history in maritime travel, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia pointed out.

"One of the great things about the Rolex Sydney Hobart is all the wonderful characters in the race and the diversity of boats," Commodore Arthur Lane said.

While most eyes will be on the speedy super maxis - giant yachts with up to 24 crew - during the Boxing Day race, Sylph, a 12m yacht made in 1960, will set off in the two-handed division where smaller boats compete with a slimmed down team.

"We're jokingly saying [it's] the two-handed and four-pawed division," Williams said.

A friend of his is co-skippering, he explains, and as for Oli: "He's SC - ship's cat."

While Sylph is an old hat - having taken part in six Sydney to Hobarts many decades ago - this is William's first time racing it.

But both he and Oli have plenty of experience at sea.

A retired navy officer, Williams has spent his life traversing the ocean - including a recent single-handed circumnavigation of the globe - much of it with a feline companion by his side.

Oli, who is about 10 years old, joined him five years ago and quickly earned his sea legs.

"He used to get seasick, and he was a bit stressed to start off with... but now he's fine. He quite enjoys life," Williams said.

The laidback kitty can usually be found meowing orders or napping on the job in the boat's cockpit.

"He's very sensible... Whenever it gets rough, he'll disappear down below to find a nice, safe spot to curl up."

Skipper Robert Williams holds his cat Oli as he stands aboard his yacht ‘Sylph VI’ during the media launch of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race in Sydney on 22 November, 2023. Photo: AFP / David Gray

And get rough it just might. The 630 nautical mile (1166km) dash has long been characterised by unpredictable and often brutal conditions - the worst, 25 years ago.

Competitors in the 1998 race were battered by a monster storm, which sank five boats and claimed the lives of six sailors.

This year forecasters have warned that the fleet could be in for thunderstorms, strong winds, and even hail along parts of the course.

Williams jokes that he hasn't lost a cat at sea yet.

But turning serious, he stresses that he is prepared for any emergency.

"The cat overboard routine is just to have something like a towel or a thick rope handy so that they can climb back on board."

There's no life jacket for Oli though, because he simply wouldn't wear it: "They're Houdinis… they'll escape from anything they don't like," Williams says.

But although cats hate the water, he knows for a fact Oli can swim, because he once legged it into the ocean to avoid an overzealous dog.

Sylph and her occupants will be playing it safe though and proceeding towards Hobart at a comparatively leisurely pace.

The record for the fastest finish - set in 2017- is one day and nine hours. But that was a massive, modern super yacht built for speed.

"Sylph is an older slower boat... Our ambition is to get to Hobart in time for the New Year's celebration."

There they'll mark the occasion with a nip of rum, and perhaps some milk on the rocks for Oli.

-This story was first published by the BBC .

Copyright © 2023 , Radio New Zealand

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Last Sydney to Hobart yacht arrives with 18 minutes left of 2022

A ny other day, they would have slipped quietly into Constitution Dock. But when 70-year-old Kathy Veel and 62-year-old Bridget Canham crossed the Sydney to Hobart finish line - the last of the fleet to do so - at 11.42pm on New Year’s Eve, it was as if they’d heralded the early arrival of 2023.

A crowd in the thousands who had packed out the Hobart shoreline to ring in the new year chanted “Currawong, Currawong!” as the two-hander made its way past the packed-out Taste of Summer festival and around Constitution Dock.

Cheers came from the water, too, where boats had lined up to greet the nine-metre yacht as it pushed up the River Derwent.

After a lap of honour around the thrilled spectators, interviews on the boat, and the well-deserved popping of a giant bottle of champagne: the fireworks. Veel and Canham watched from the 1973 vessel that had carried them south.

You couldn’t have written a better ending to a story that stretched five days at sea, 630 nautical miles, and a day of waiting in Eden as they waited for bad weather in Bass Strait to pass.

“You wouldn’t believe the stops we pulled to get this happening,” said Canham. “The biggest challenge we had was getting here before New Year’s Eve,” she said. “We’ve been working our butts off to get here. And it’s paid off.”

Veel said the experience was “unbelievable”. “[It was like] nothing I’ve ever had ... in my whole life, she said. “When you heard people going, ‘Curr-a-wong!’, I thought, ‘What?!’

“I’m really proud of what we’ve done.”

The sailors described the weather conditions down the coast as “brilliant”.

“The boat behaved so well, it was just magic,” said Canham, a retired nurse.

The sailors are among the oldest to compete in the Sydney to Hobart race, and certainly the oldest in the race’s new two-handed fleet section. But Veel, a retired teacher now living in Bullabarra, near Katoomba, said they didn’t want to be defined by their age - nor their sex.

“It’s not, to be honest, how we think of ourselves,” said Veel in the lead-up to the race. “We’re sailors who happen to be women rather than women who sail.

Veel purchased the boat last year, and ran a GoFundMe page to raise financial support so the pair could purchase the necessary supplies to enter the race.

In 2021, Veel was named Blue Mountains Volunteer of the Year for her work with the not-for-profit sailing-based Making Waves Foundation.

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After a one-year absence, sydney to hobart race set to sail.

Updated December 25th, 2021 at 14:03 IST

Super maxi LawConnect is the favorite for line honors in the Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race beginning Sunday, with the forecast for strong southerly winds on the first night potentially giving it the edge over the other two 100-foot boats.

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Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology predicts gusting winds on Sunday afternoon during the start in Sydney Harbor, with the possibility of some thunderstorm activity offshore.

“We love a hard southerly to start with because that’s our best conditions, perhaps gives us an ability to get out a little bit,” LawConnect skipper and owner Christian Beck said.

Last year’s race was canceled the week before it was due to start because of coronavirus-related quarantine issues, but the 2021 edition is proceeding with mass virus-testing protocols in place for the 900-plus crew on the 93 boats.

The 628 nautical-mile race (1,170 kilometers, or about 720 miles) sails from Sydney down the south coast of New South Wales state and across Bass Strait to Hobart, the capital of the island state of Tasmania.

In 2017, Comanche set the race record after finishing in 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds, beating Perpetual Loyal’s record of 1 day, 13 hours, 31 minutes and 20 seconds, set the previous year.

Wild Oats XI has won line honors nine times, the last time in 2018, and is the first boat to have claimed the treble — race record, line honors and overall winner. Comanche won the race again in 2019.

Another super maxi in this year's edition, Black Jack, will have to overcome a poor preparation.

The boat didn’t get the chance to race against super maxi rivals LawConnect and SHK Scallywag 100 in the inaugural Australian maxi championship earlier in December after a crew member tested positive for COVID-19. The boat also sustained a broken mast in the Brisbane-Gladstone race in Queensland state in April.

Black Jack, representing the Yacht Club de Monaco in this year’s race, has sailed just five times with her new mast after its delivery from New Zealand was delayed due to coronavirus-related lockdowns in that country.

With no recent racing form she is something of an unknown quantity, though the boat took line honors in 2009 when named Alfa Romeo and finished third, second and fifth from 2017 to 2019 respectively.

One thing working in her favor is the experience of her crew, with 13 having sailed the race at least nine times.

“Our crew on paper is a standout crew in my opinion and that makes a big difference in protecting the asset and getting though heavy conditions,” skipper Mark Bradford said. “There’s a couple of ways to run a sporting team, one is with youth and one is with experience.”

Bradford expects LawConnect to head the fleet early and hopes his boat can make up ground in more favorable light air conditions forecast for later in the race.

Published December 25th, 2021 at 14:03 IST

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Sydney To Hobart Yacht Race 2024

Sydney To Hobart Yacht Race 2024 . Lawconnect have won line honours in the sydney. Pinned post from 8.05am on dec 28, 2023.

The rolex sydney hobart race is one of the toughest and most respected category 1 ocean races in the world. The rolex sydney hobart yacht race is an annual event hosted by the cruising yacht club of australia, starting in sydney, new south wales, on boxing day and finishing in hobart,.

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Shop the official clothing range of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in person at the Club in New South Head Road, Darling Point or online below.  

From casual to technical clothing, there is something for all occasions. Be quick as stock is limited!