Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 2011

It is once again that great time of year in Australia, Boxing Day, is upon us. What that means is The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race; The greatest Yacht race in the World is underway. This year will be the 67th running of the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. The start time is Monday 26 December at 1pm AEST

Sydney to Hobart-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. This followed the disasterous 1998 Race in which many lives were lost along with some incredible rescue efforts. The coroners inquest which followed recommended a major upgrade in required safety measures.

Rolex Sydney to Hobart race record holder, Wild Oats XI, has completed preparations for the great race with a spectacular helicopter rescue exercise on Sydney Harbour.

The operation, conducted in association with the Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter Service (Southern Region), was structured around a simulated rescue of a crew member from the yacht. Wild Oats XI’s owner, Bob Oatley, was keen for today’s exercise to take place following the capsize of the similar-sized super maxi, Rambler 100, while racing off the coast of Ireland last August in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Bob Oatley owner & skipper said, "The safety of the crew comes ahead of everything else in ocean racing, but even more so in the Sydney Hobart,You can leave nothing to chance”.

The 628 nautical mile course is often described as the most grueling long ocean race in the world, a challenge to everyone who takes part. 88 yachts will take part this year.

National Hero and Young Australian of the Year 2010, Jessica Watson. will be competing for the first time with the youngest ever crew on board her yacht Elle Bache. The crew, selected by Watson and Lewin, has been training together since late September, primarily in the Sydney area, and although youthful, includes a number of experienced ocean racers. The team has also gone beyond the letter of the race rules by having every crew member take the advanced safety course that only half the members of any Hobart crew are required to take.

Jessica Watson will compete in the Rolex Sydney Hobart. After conquering some of the most treacherous oceans to become the youngest person to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world, Jessica will skipper a crew of 10, all of whom will be 21 or younger - making them the youngest crew ever to compete in the famous race, with an average age of just 19. Among the young crew is Mike Perham from the UK, another solo circumnavigator.

All the crew have embarked on a 12 week training program that commenced in October in the lead up to the start of the blue water classic, including a dry run from Sydney to Hobart in November. The crew are seeking to be competitive in the Sydney 38OD division and compete for handicap honours, depending on weather patterns. The team have been coached by Chris Lewin, who skippered another Challenge in 4 x Rolex Sydney Hobart’s – most notably in 2004 where he led the (previous) youngest crew of Melbourne Uni students to third place in the Sydney 38 division, and most recently in 2010 where he achieved second in the division by 29 seconds.

Ask anyone connected with the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia or its famous Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, and you’ll find most want to talk about Tony Cable coming up for a record 46th race to Hobart in December – but not him – records don’t mean a thing to the yachtie who still retains an air of youthfulness.

Cable will head south on Duende, the Judel/Vrolijk 52 owned by friend, Damien Parkes Quite possibly strangely, Cable couldn’t give two hoots that he is about to create a new record and history, he’s more interested in the great mates he has met along the way – and mostly, the adventure. “I just like sailing - and sailing in the ocean,” he says.

“If it’s a nice Hobart, I look forward to sailing down the coast, even though to some degree it’s pretty repetitive.”

Investec Loyal achieved second in line honors in the 2010 Rolex Sydney Hobart, besting her fourth place in 2009. With further modifications during the 2011 winter to improve speed, she challenged Wild Oats XI all the way to the line for a close second in the 2011 Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race. She is one of two 100 footers in the fleet. Investec Loyal races for the Loyal Foundation raising much needed funds for charity which to date has raised over $2 million - www.loyalfoundation.com.au

Sydney to Hobart-The latest weather forecast for the race from the highly respected yachting meteorologist, Roger Badham, sees the projected elapsed time for the largest yachts increased to two days and eight hours – 15 hours beyond the race record time Wild Oats XI set in 2005. Badham expects a southerly buster to impact the leaders off Jervis Bay. Strong winds from forward of abeam will continue until the big boats are well into Bass Strait.

You can follow the yachts and find all the details of the race on the official

Rolex Sydney Hobart Website here

Kurt Fearnley- In an interview today Disabled Para-Olympian Wheel-Chair Racer Kurt Fearnley described his experience as a crew member on Yacht Investec Loyal. Fearnley put it down to more than incredible his two and a half days on Investec Loyal. Especially the last five hours where there was a very close tit-for-tat tactical race up the Derwent River in Tasmania. He also describes the toll and the difficulty he had moving around the deck after most of the crew had become such early in the race.

Sydney Hobart Protest- The event’s Race Committee, led by Tim Cox, is protesting Investec Loyal boat over a alleged infringement of Racing Rule 41 entitled ‘Outside Help’. This involved an audio recording of a conversation that took place at 06:30 local time on 27^th December between the pilot of an ABC TV station helicopter and an Investec Loyal Tactician seeking information on the sail plan in use on Wild Oats XI - in particular whether Wild Oats X1 was flying a trisail.

“This is assessed to breach Rule 41 by soliciting help from an outside source,” said Garry Linacre, Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, organiser of the Rolex Sydney Hobart. Investec

Results of the protest will be posted here immediately they come to hand

At 11.55 am AEST it was announced that the protest has been dismissed