Australia’s grueling Sydney to Hobart race faces choppy seas and high winds that “pack a punch” after it gets underway tomorrow with a record 27 international entries among those vying for honors.
The fleet for the 71st edition of the often brutal 628 nautical mile (1,163km) bluewater classic stands at 109 and includes the 100-foot supermaxi Wild Oats XI, which won line honors for an eighth time last year.
It will once again be going head-to-head with US super-yacht Comanche, owned by Netscape founder Jim Clark and wife Kristy Hinze, which was runner-up last year.
Photo: AFP
In a weather update released late yesterday, meteorologists forecast choppy seas outside Sydney Heads at the start with a southerly blowing up to 35 knots (64.82kph) and rough conditions as the fleet spends its first night at sea.
“It’s not a really strong one, but it does pack a fair bit of punch with it,” New South Wales Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Michael Loganhe said. “It does fringe into the lower end of the gale warning category. It will make for rough conditions, it’s setting up for quite an eventful first night.”
Storms are part and parcel of the race with six men dying, five boats sinking and 55 sailors rescued on a fatal night in 1998 when a deep depression exploded over the fleet in the treacherous Bass Strait.
Comanche’s navigator Stan Honey said he preferred wild weather to no wind, believing it would be one of the only ways to beat Wild Oats XI, which has undergone a radical transformation, including adding a new bow section.
“We’re preparing for the full range of forecasts that we’ve seen,” he said. “And we’re looking forward to racing in any of them, except potentially we would not be eager to race in the scenarios that have a 12-hour or more period of very light air because that’s not a condition that suits us best.”
Despite the race featuring a handful of 100-footers, Wild Oats XI skipper Mark Richards knows Comanche, which set a new 24-hour monohull record of 618.01 nautical miles in July, is his main threat.
“No question Comanche’s going to be the one to beat,” he said. “She wrapped up the 24-hour world record this year. If she gets the conditions, she’ll be very tough to beat.”
Wild Oats holds the race record of one day, 18 hours, 23 minutes and 12 seconds set in 2012.
Among the entries, 27 are from overseas, including 16 from the UK, and others from the US, Japan, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and, for the first time, China.
Ark323 joins Shuguang Haiyang as the first ever Chinese entries, with ocean sailing a sport on the rise in China.
“We’re a bit nervous because it’s so well known as the most difficult and challenging race in the world,” said Ark323 crew member Calvin Zhou, representing the Shanghai-based Noahs Sailing Club.
The race will be poignant for the team after fellow crew member Sai Jun was lost overboard off the coast of Vietnam in October while en-route to Australia.
Among others competitors will be Italy’s Giovanni Soldini, who will skipper Maserati with a crew that includes Pierre Casiraghi, grandson of Monaco’s late Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly.
Former Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke will also race on board the 100-foot supermaxi Perpetual Loyal alongside rugby union star Kurtley Beale.
“On the one hand, I’m excited by the challenge that lies ahead, I think it’s probably in my personality to confront any challenge and try and make the most of that opportunity,” Clarke said. “But on the other hand there’s certainly nerves and a bit of fear there and I’m petrified by sharks.”
TIGHT GAME: The Detroit Pistons, the NBA’s second-best team, barely outlasted the Washington Wizards, who fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss Cade Cunningham’s triple double, Daniss Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer and Javonte Green’s overtime dunk lifted Detroit past Washington 137-135 on Monday, stretching the Pistons’ win streak to seven games. In an unexpected thriller, the NBA’s second-best team barely outlasted a Wizards club that fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss. “We knew how big this game was for us,” Jenkins said. “We wasn’t going to let nothing stop us from getting this W.” Cunningham made 14-of-45 shots and 16-of-18 free throws for a career-high 46 points, and added 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals and two
With a hat-trick on Wednesday, Victor Osimhen moved atop the UEFA Champions League scoring table, with the Nigeria striker netting all three goals in Galatasaray’s 3-0 victory over Ajax in Amsterdam. Osimhen moved to six goals this season in Europe’s elite club competition, one more than Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland. The Istanbul club signed Osimhen to a permanent deal from SSC Napoli in the summer for a record transfer fee in the Turkish League reportedly worth US$86 million. The 26-year-old striker needed less than 20 minutes to complete his first hat-trick in the competition. He headed in the opener in the
LIKE FINE WINE: Thirty-eight-year-old Djokovic won his 101st title of his career in Athens, becoming the oldest tournament winner since Ken Roswell, 44, in 1977 Elena Rybakina on Saturday clinched her biggest title since Wimbledon in 2022, defeating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6 (7/0) at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. The world No. 6 put on yet another serving masterclass and was at her returning best as she became the first Kazakh and the first player representing an Asian country to lift the WTA Finals singles trophy. Having gone 3-0 in round-robin play, Rybakina earned a record US$5.235 million and would finish the year ranked No. 5 in the world. “It’s been an incredible week, I honestly didn’t expect any result, and to go so far,
An amateur soccer league organized by farmers, students and factory workers in rural China has unexpectedly drawn millions of fans and inspired big cities to form their own, raising hopes China can grow talent from the ground up and finally become a global force. The nation of 1.4 billion people has about 200 million soccer fans, more than any other country, but it has failed to build world-class teams, partly due to a top-down approach where clubs pick players from a very small pool of prescreened candidates. The professional game is marred by a history of fixed matches, corruption, and dismal performances,
RSS