Sydney Hobart Race – Video from the Archives.

This is quite an old video, but it is worth watching again if you have seen it. If you haven’t it’s definately worth a watch. Includes footage of the worst Sydney Hobart race ever as well as a couple of Aussies trying to bend the rules a bit.

Sydney’s Sailing Spectator Showcase

For those who say that sailing isn’t a spectator sport, the weather in Sydney Australia came to the party for the spectacular SOLAS Big Boat Challenge. Some of the largest, fastest yachts warmed up for the Sydney Hobart Race, with Wild Oats XI leading them home past the Opera House.

Stephen Ainsworth’s brand new Reichel/Pugh 63 Loki, captured the handicap first place, a remarkable result for a boat that has only been in the water since last Thursday.

According to numbers presented by Knut Frostad, CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race, at the World Yacht Racing Forum last week, Australia is one of only three countries where Sailing features as a top ten sport.

This may be in part to races like the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge – with news helicopters buzzing and ferries passing through the fleet – the technologically advanced boats with ‘Rock-star’ crews remind us what it is all about.

The organisers of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA), are also embracing new technology and giving those not lucky enough to be in Sydney on Boxing Day, a chance to watch 90 minutes of the start of the race.

The Seven Network and Yahoo!7, will provide a live 90 minute webcast of the start of the 64th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race to a global audience.

With spectator numbers on Sydney Harbour and the Sydney Harbour foreshore expected to reach around 500,000 people, together with Seven Network’s Australia wide television audience of 500,000 viewers, and the addition of Yahoo!7’s national and international audience reach, it is predicted that the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race will be one of the most viewed sporting events in the world in the month of December.

CYCA Commodore Matt Allen today announced,

“I am delighted to announce this wonderful initiative and a first for the sport of yachting through our broadcaster Seven Network in which we have extended the rights for the start of the 64th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht race to incorporate a live webcast on Yahoo!7. This enables a truly global audience to view the race start – and with the large number of international entrants in this year’s race, this will generate an even greater worldwide interest to one of the world’s most iconic ocean races.” -

To see all the colour and action of the start of the 64th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race tune into the Seven Network or the official race website

http://www.rolexsydneyhobart.com/ and follow the links to www.yahoo7.com.au/sport from 12.30pm AEST on 26 December 2008.

Yacht Racing Auction on Ebay – Bid for Your Crew Spot.

Want to be part of the crew on a world class maxi like Wild Oats XI, or Skandia, Ichi Ban or Shockwave 5? Bidding is now open in the CYCA, SOLAS Trusts, eBay Auction. The Cruising Yacht Club has offered places on these boats during the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge on Tuesday, 16th of December 2008.

This annual big boat dash around Sydney Harbour, will again bring together a number of Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours contenders. This year the fleet will be racing to raise awareness, and money, for the CYCA’s Safety of Life at Sea, (SOLAS) Trusts, which support search and rescue organisations Australia-wide. The CYCA Solas Trusts Charity was set up as a charitable trust in 1999 as a result of the tragic events of the 1998 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. To date almost $450,000 has been donated to search and rescue organizations Australia wide, Financial support has also been provided to immediate families of those lost at sea during Australian Yachting Federation sanctioned races. 

If you are going to be in Sydney, the choices up for bidding are:

Wild Oats XI

In her Rolex Sydney Hobart debut, this state-of-the-art 30m maxi with canting ballast twin foil, took line honours in record time and won the Tattersall’s Cup – the only boat to take the trifecta since Rani in the first race in 1945. Wild Oats XI achieved the hat trick of line honours wins last year. Wild Oats XI is attempting a fourth successive line honours win following extensive modifications aimed at making the 30m Reichel/Pugh designed maxi faster and stronger. Two places are on offer on this ‘Makybe Diva’ of ocean racing.

Skandia

Two places on Grant Wharington’s 30m maxi Skandia from Melbourne are also available. The Rolex Sydney Hobart 2003 line honours winner, Skandia, is for the sixth time making the trip from Melbourne to Sydney for the Boxing Day start of the 64th race to Hobart. Come the 16th of December, Wharington and his Victorian crew will be charging around Sydney Harbour at breakneck speed attempting to be one of the front runners across the finish line off the Opera House.

Ichi Ban

CYCA Commodore Matt Allen has offered two places aboard his Jones 70 Ichi Ban, which finished third across the line in last year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart and is backing up this year. In the right conditions and on an open ocean, this modified Volvo 70 is capable of reaching speeds in excess of 30 knots or 55 kilometres per hour.

Andrew Short Marine Shockwave 5

Andrew Short’s new acquisition has brought him recent success on the race track. After purchasing the boat in the USA earlier this year and before bringing her back to Australia, she took line honours in the St David’s Lighthouse Division of the 2008 Newport Bermuda Race. Upon her return to Australian shores, Andrew Short Marine Shockwave stretched her legs at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week and has since proven she is a dominant force in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race after notching up a win in the Gosford – Lord Howe Island Race (which is often used as a qualifying race for Hobart). Two places are also on offer on this exciting boat.

Bidding for all four items will close on 8th December 2008. Terms and conditions apply. See more here

Gotta Love Skiff Racing – 7 Does.

Australia’s Seven Television Network has reaffirmed its commitment to sailing and sport in unveiling its new 18ft skiff, Gotta Love It 7, at Jones Bay Wharf, Pyrmont in Sydney this afternoon.

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Following on from the outstanding success of young Sydney sailors Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton and Rob Bell aboard Gotta Love It 7, launched by the Seven Network in 2006, the new skiff has hit the water in good time for the coming 18ft skiff racing season which starts on Sydney Harbour on 12 October.

Seven’s Chief Executive Officer, Broadcast Television, David Leckie felt it was time to move into a new phase, so commissioned a new skiff, which like its predecessor, is emblazoned with Seven’s distinct red livery.

At the time of launching Seven’s first Gotta Love it Seven, Leckie had remarked: ‘We can’t wait to see that big red Seven back on Sydney Harbour.’

Commenting, Seven’s Head of Sport, Saul Shtein said: ‘Seven is so much a part of Sydney and the Harbour, with our skiff and our coverage of the Rolex Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race. Iain and I have been mates for years and all of us here at Seven are proud to be involved in such a great part of summer in Sydney; the skiffs on the Harbour.’

The 18′ skiffs race each Sunday and the season starts in October. For those wanting to follow these exhilarating skiffs racing on Sydney Harbour, a ferry departs from home of the 18 foot skiff, the Australian 18 Footers League Club at Double Bay, prior to race commencement each week, where the public can watch crews rig their boats in the park before departing. Those preferring to watch from shoreside, can do so from Shark Island, Bradley’s Head on the North side of the Harbour, Nielsen Park at Vaucluse, Camp Cove and its headland at Watsons Bay and many other vantage points around the Harbour.