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SYDNEY TO HOBART RACE STATISTICS Flipbook PDF
Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race Statistics – 1945 - 2003 Number of Sydney Hobart Yacht Races conducted by the Cruising Ya
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Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race Statistics – 1945 - 2003 Number of Sydney Hobart Yacht Races conducted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia since 1945: 59 annual races. (The 2004 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race will be the 60th). Number of yachts to have competed: 1945-2003: completing the race, 839 retiring).
4,692 (3,853
Estimated total crew to have competed: About 41,560 between 1945 and 2003. Average size of fleets, 1945-2003: 79.52 boats per race. Largest fleet: 371 starters in the 50th Race in 1994 (309 finished) Smallest fleet: Nine starters in the inaugural Race in 1945. Last year’s fleet (2003): 56 starters, 52 finishers, the smallest fleet since 1966. Race records: Notable years for race records have been: 1946: Morna (NSW) – 5 days 2 hours 53 minutes 33 seconds. (First yacht to break six days for the 630 nautical mile course). 1948: Morna (NSW) – 4 days 5 hours 1 minute 21 seconds. (First yacht under five days). 1957: Kurrewa IV (Vic) formerly Morna - 3 days 18 hours 30 minutes 39 seconds. (First yacht under four days). 1962: Ondine (USA) – 3 days 03 hours 49 minutes 16 seconds (In breaking Kurrewa IV’s record set a time that stood until broken by Helsal in 1973) 1975: Kialoa (USA) – 2 days 14 hours 36 minutes 56 seconds (First yacht under three days). 1996: Morning Glory (Germany) 2 days 14 hours 07 minutes 10 seconds (Race record broken after 21 years).
1999: Nokia (Denmark/Australia) 1 day 19 hours 48 minutes 02 seconds for an Open Race Record (water ballast allowed) and first yacht to break two days for the course. Brindabella (Australia) set a record for a conventional yacht of 1 day 20 hours 39 minutes 50 seconds. Record Hobarts by individual yachtsmen: Up to and including the 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, 61 yachtsmen had been recorded as having sailed in 25 or more races since 1945. John Bennetto (Tasmania) has sailed in 43 Sydney Hobarts, Richard Hammond (NSW) in 40 and has since retired, while Lou Abrahams (Victoria) has sailed in 41 races. Tony Cable (NSW) achieved his 40th race in 2003. Record Hobarts by yachtswomen: Nine women have sailed in 10 or more Sydney Hobart Races, as of the 2002 Race, Adrienne Cahalan has raced to Hobart 13 times, Amanda Wilmot 12 times, Vanessa Dudley 11 times, while Kerry Goudge, Gail Harland, Lea Myer, Jan Howard, Sally Gordon and Felicity Nelson have each competed 10 times, while Audrey Brown took part in 12 races, sailing and aboard the radio relay vessel. Records Hobarts by yachts: Mark Twain, a Sparkman & Stephens 38, has competed in 25 Sydney Hobarts, her last being in 2002. Hogs Breath Witchdoctor, a Davidson 42 sloop, has sailed in 23 races, Margaret Rintoul II in 21 (six times as the original Ragamuffin), Bacardi, a Peterson 44, in 21 races, Impeccable, a Person 34 in 20 races, while Polaris of Belmont, a Cole 43, has also sailed in 19 Hobart Races. Youngest skippers: The youngest recorded skipper is Sean Kirkjian (17) who skippered his parents’ yacht, Lady Ann, in the 1986 Race with his mother, Ann, as navigator. In 1976, the maxi yachts, Ballyhoo and Apollo, finished first and second across the line, Ballyhoo skippered by Jack Rooklyn and Apollo skippered by his son, Warwick, then aged 19. Greg Prescott (18) skippered his father’s yacht, Hotspur, in the 1980 Race. Liz Wardley, from Papua New Guinea, was 19 when she skippered her own yacht, Dixie Chicken, in the stormy 1998 Race, Oldest skipper: Alby Burgin skippered his 52-footer, Alstar, in the 2000 Sydney Hobart Race at the age of 84. Alby has sailed in 31 Sydney Hobarts, winning with Rival in 1961, retiring from active offshore racing in 2001. Oldest sailor ever: Probably Alby Burgin or perhaps a Tasmanian in an early race. Youngest sailor ever: Well known Perth yachtsman Rolly Tasker took his wife and daughter, then aged only four, to Hobart aboard his maxi yacht, Siska, back in the 1970s. There have been quite a number of teenage boys and girls who have sailed with their fathers (and mothers), including Tasmanian Ken Gourlay’s 14-year-old son who sailed on Kismet in 1957. A
12-year-old lad sailed aboard Aspect Computing in the storm battered 1998 Race. (Since 1998 the CYCA has set an age limit of 18 for crew members in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race) First and 50th Races: Peter Luke and the late ‘Boy’ Messenger sailed in the first and 50th races. Luke skippered his own yacht, Wayfarer, in the first Hobart, Messenger sailed aboard Horizon. Luke, who still owns Wayfarer, was Official Starter of the 2001 CYCA Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. First women to compete in the Sydney Hobart: Jane (‘Jenny’) Tate, from Hobart, sailed with her husband Horrie aboard Active in the 1946 Race, as did Dagmar O’Brien with her husband, Dr Brian (“Mick”) O’Brien aboard Connella. Unfortunately, Connella was forced to retire in Bass Strait, but Active made it to the finish. The Jane Tate Memorial Trophy is presented each year to the first female skipper to finish in the Sydney Hobart. First all-women crew to compete in the Sydney Hobart: (1975) skippered by Vicki Wilman.
Barbarian
Largest yacht to take part: Marie-Cha III, USA (1999) – LOA: 146 feet (44.5m). She was a demonstration yacht only. Largest Official Competitors: Skandia, AUS and Zana, NZL, both 98 feet (30m) LOA, finished first and second respectively for Line Honours in 2003. Alfa Romeo/Shockwave, AUS/NZL (2002) – LOA: 89 feet (27.43m) won Line Honours. Smallest Official Competitor: Klinger, NSW (1978) – LOA: 27 feet (8.23m) Largest Line Honours Winner: Skandia, Australia (2003) – LOA: 98 feet (30m); Alfa Romeo/Shockwave, Australia/New Zealand (2002) - LOA: 89 feet (27.43m). Previous biggest: Endeavour, New Zealand (1992) and again as Tasmania, Tasmania (1994) – LOA: 84.3 feet (25.7m) Smallest Line Honours Winner: Nocturne, NSW (1952) – LOA 35ft Largest Overall Handicap Winner: Sovereign (1987) – LOA: 84 feet (25.6m) Smallest Overall Handicap Winner: Screw Loose (1979) – LOA 30 feet (9.1m) Yachts to win the double, Line Honours and Handicap: Rani, NSW (1945), American Eagle, USA (1972), Kialoa, USA (1977), New Zealand, NZ (1980), Sovereign, NSW (1987).
Closest finish for Line Honours: 1982, Condor (GBR) beat Apollo (NSW) across the line by seven seconds. Oldest yacht to race in recent years: Southerly, built in Tasmania in 1938, won the Over 39 Year Veterans Division in the 50th Race in 1994. She sailed in the 2000 race, aged 62, but retired before reaching Bass Strait. Oldest yachts to compete: According to CYCA Life Member and historian Alan Campbell, more than 30 yachts built before 1938 have competed in the Sydney Hobart, including Line Honours winners Morna (Kurrewa IV) and Astor which were built in the 1920s. He believes that Alice, which competed in the 1948 race, was built before 1908, although no records exist. Most successful designer of Overall Winners: Bruce Farr (NZL/USA) – 15 Overall Winners. . •
These statistics have been compiled up to and including the 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, based on records available from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, yachting journalist Peter Campbell, CYCA Life Member and historian Alan Campbell, and other sources, including the book, “The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1945 – 2001”, by Michael Ludeke.