Photos: Courtesy Relox & Salty Dingo
For the 78th time, 103 yachts set out from Sydney Harbour on 26th December and sailed 628 miles of Australian seas to land in Hobart, Tasmania, giving us the same adrenaline as the sailors with a very intense finish.
Split into four start lines, SHK Scallywag and Wild Thing 100 started close to the pin on the western side of the Harbour, while LawConnect and Andoo Comanche set off the east. With a larger fleet than usual, the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race got underway at 1pm Australian time. Half an hour before the begin, the humidity and heat gave way for a fall in temperatures as darkening skies, thunder and lightning in the horizon moved in from the north. SHK Scallywag led the start from Heads, ahead of Andoo Comanche, in light winds of 5 to 10 knots from east to northeast, increasing to 20 kts offshore.
After almost two days of sailing, one of the most exciting finishes of the race took place in Hobart’s Castray Esplanade. At 08.03.58 hours LawConnect crossed the finish line in the time of 1 day, 19 hours 03 minutes and 58 seconds and just 51 seconds later crossed Andoo Comanche in 1:19:04:49. This was the second closest and most exciting finish in the history of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia race as, in the last 1.5 miles, the lead changed five times. The two maxis executed brilliant gybes to take advantage of the wind and eventually LawConnect snatched victory from Andoo Comanche less than 50 metres from the finish line.
Behind the sailing teams of Christian Beck and John Winning Jnr, the fight for third place also saw a change of positions. RP72 URM Group became the third boat in the fleet after crossing the finish line in a time of 2:02:07:19. For its part, RP66 Alive had dropped from 3rd to 4th position, however, it occupied the provisional first place overall.
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