Sydney Hobart Race

December 25, 2013 by staff 

Sydney Hobart Race, It’s Christmas Day, but not even Santa could deliver the crew of Bob Oatley’s 30-metre supermaxi – the race record holder Wild Oats XI – a bag full of certainty when it comes to the weather outlook for the 69th Rolex Sydney Hobart yacht race, which commences tomorrow.

Also, one of the man-in-red’s better ‘helpers’, leading yachting meteorologist, Roger Badham, struggled to apply definitive answers, except to say that the big boats in the 94 yacht fleet should enjoy a better ride south than crews aboard the tail enders, who have been told to expect a south westerly gale with possible gusts of 45 knots, and rough seas, off Tasmania’s east coast on Sunday.

What Badham could tell the Wild Oats XI crew is that earlier forecasts for a fast ride down the New South Wales coast on the face of a solid north easterly breeze are no more. Instead, a cell of low pressure will form near Sydney tonight and generate a 20-knot southerly wind and lumpy seas at start time. The plus side to this is that a southerly wind will provide a colourful and spectacular spinnaker start on Sydney Harbour under cloudy grey skies. Then, once the fleet clears Sydney Heads, the yachts will be settling down for a bumpy ride for at least six hours. After that the wind will probably change direction towards the south-east then east – a change which would make for faster progress.

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