Boxing Day means the start of the iconic Sydney to Hobart yacht race. And this year’s start did not disappoint. After a foggy Sydney morning, the race got underway in perfect conditions – sunny blue skies, and around 15 knots of wind to get the racers going out of the heads, and onto a fast spinnaker run down the NSW coast.
There were plenty of thrills, near-collisions and penalty turns between the super maxi’s up front, and after them came the maxi’s and TP52’s, followed by the main pack.
Amongst the 109 competitor yachts doing battle this year, were our SA friends on Sintara, under the watchful eye of owner/skipper Derek Morrison. She’s a fast Beneteau First 47.7 with a crew packed full of S2H experience, including Andrew Saies who won S2H in 2009 on Two True, and two of his crew at the time, Rob Human and Mark Hutton. Plenty of wise heads to guide Sintara to Constitution Dock in good time.
Meanwhile, as the gladiators battled it out on the harbour, we managed our own solid rendition of “champagne sailing” on the Clearview, the only spectator boat allowed into the exclusion zone, for a close-up view of proceedings, whilst sipping champagne, and doing our best to capture video of the yacht scrum around us. Mission accomplished on a perfect day for a sail.