1998 sydney to hobart yacht race videos

VIDEO: Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 1998

Published on December 22nd, 2015 by Editor -->

As the 71st edition of the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race prepares to start on December 26, a weather forecast for strong winds brings back memories from one of the most horrific storms in yachting history.

This video, and the following description, share the details of 1998 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race:

An unusually strong low pressure depression developed which resulted in mid-summer snow across parts of south-east Australia. The weather system built into an exceptionally strong storm with winds reaching up to 70 knots, similar in strength to a lower-category hurricane.

The rising storm produced an enormous waterspout perilously close to one yacht, ultimately causing the sinking of five boats and the deaths of six sailors. Additionally a record 66 yachts retired from the race, and 55 other sailors had to be airlifted from their yachts by rescue helicopter.

Overall, the rescue efforts involved 35 military and civilian aircraft and 27 Royal Australian Navy vessels, and proved to be Australia’s largest ever peacetime rescue operation.

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Background : The 71st edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race starts December 26 in Sydney Harbor, taking an entry list of 109 boats along the 628 nautical mile course to Hobart that is often described as the most grueling long ocean race in the world.

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1998 Sydney Hobart: Extract from The Proving Ground by G Bruce Knecht

• Tom Cunliffe
• April 20, 2020

Helpless crew can do nothing except watch as one of their own, swept overboard during a capsize, drifts away in a storm

Red flare and liferaft deployed – crew of the stricken yacht Stand Aside wait for rescue by helicopter in the 1998 Sydney Hobart Race. All photos: Richard Bennett

G Bruce Knecht, sometime foreign correspondent of The Wall Street Journal , has risen nobly to this challenge in his book The Proving Ground . Originally published in 2001 in the aftermath of the tragedy, the book is now available via Amazon – and it should be required reading for all who go offshore to compete.

Within a framework of the race in general, Knecht has concentrated mainly on the events surrounding four boats. Sword of Orion is ultimately abandoned in the direst distress, Winston Churchill is lost, but Sayonara and Brindabella finish.

From meticulous research and endless interviewing of those involved, Knecht has produced a book that is hard to put down. Not only does he describe the events accurately, he takes the bold step of looking critically into the characters and motivations of the dramatis personae.

The book is skilfully crafted by a master and not written as a linear time line, but this has made it difficult to find an extract of suitable length for publication in Yachting World . I have eventually centred on the loss of Glyn Charles, an Olympic sailor from Britain, one of the crew of Sword . Charles joined the crew late in the day as a ‘rock star’ helmsman.

What went wrong and why, as described below, brings us right on board the yacht and it makes for harrowing reading.

From The Proving Ground by G Bruce Knecht

At about 1600, the owner Kooky’s requirement for giving up the race was surpassed as the wind reached close to 70 knots. By then, the yacht was 90 miles from the safe haven of Eden. In racing terms, Sword of Orion was still doing well, but even so he told his shipmate Kulmar he was prepared to give up. ‘It’s up to the helmsmen. If they want to go back, we’ll go back.’

Kulmar already knew what Brownie and Glyn would say, but he quickly checked with both of them before telling Kooky it was unanimous. ‘Fine, let’s do it,’ Kooky said.

‘But where are we going to go?’ Dags the permanent hand interjected. ‘We can’t head directly to Eden. That would put the waves behind us.’

Article continues below…

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At 0830 Tuesday 14 August 1979, aged 17, five minutes changed my life. Five minutes that, despite the stress of…

Hunched over a map, Kooky suggested that they head west, roughly in the direction of Melbourne, until it was safe to turn toward Eden. At 1644 Kooky announced Sword ’s retirement over the radio, Brownie got out of his bunk and told Kooky, ‘I’ll take the helm when we turn around.’ Kooky said no. ‘Glyn’s on the wheel; he can do it.’

Glyn already had a plan. ‘I’ll wait for a big wave,’ he said. ‘As soon as we’re over the top, I’ll turn the wheel hard as we go down the other side. There’ll be less wind between the waves, and we should be able to get around pretty fast.’

Being on deck was painful. The wind was ripping through the rigging, producing a constant high-pitched shriek. And having created the waves, the wind had gone into battle with them, shaving off the foam at their peaks and creating a jet stream of moisture that looked like smoke. The droplets slapped Glyn and Dags with skin-stinging speed.

All the waves were huge, but after letting several pass Glyn judged one to be larger than the others. ‘This is the one,’ he shouted. The angle increased dramatically as Sword climbed the 35ft wave. Just before it reached the top, Glyn pulled at the wheel, hand over hand.

As Sword passed over the crest and began to tilt forward, the rudder came out of the water. When it resubmerged a couple of seconds later, the Sword carved a tight arc as it skidded down the wave. By the time it reached the valley, it was on a new course.

‘Great job,’ Dags shouted, but he had already begun to worry about Glyn’s ability to drive the boat. Rather than steering the westerly course they had talked about, he was heading north.

‘How are you feeling?’ Dags asked. Glyn, who had a stomach bug and was prone to seasickness, admitted to feeling terrible and then went on to say how bad he felt about not putting in more time at the wheel. ‘I haven’t done my job. I’ve let the team down.’

‘No, that’s not true. Shit happens. If you’re not feeling well, it’s not your fault.’

AFR Midnight Rambler , skippered by Ed Psaltis, battles through the atrocious conditions

The waves were no larger than before Sword changed course, but now they were far more dangerous. The almost northerly course Glyn was steering would take them directly to Eden, but it meant the waves were coming astern. That meant Sword was doing exactly what Dags had desperately wanted to avoid – surfing, vastly increasing the chances of going out of control and rolling over.

Glyn wasn’t really looking at the waves. Having cinched the cord in his hood so tightly around his face that he looked as if he were wearing blinkers, he seemed to be paying more attention to the instruments.

Dags, not sure what to do, shouted over the wind, ‘Do you want me to steer?’ With his eyes focused on the compass, Glyn replied, ‘No, I can do it. It makes me feel better.’ Almost pleading, Dags said, ‘But you can’t steer this way. We have to go into the waves.’

Glyn was obviously miserable. His jacket was equipped with rubber seals around his neck and wrists, which were supposed to keep water out, but a steady stream was trickling down his back and chest, causing him to tremble with cold. ‘This gear is worthless,’ he said bitterly. ‘I’m completely wet. I wish we could just get out of here.’

‘You have to stop surfing,’ Dags insisted. ‘Why don’t you let someone else steer?’ Glyn said nothing.

Dags wasn’t the only crewman who was worried about Glyn’s steering. Clipping his harness onto the safety line, the experienced Carl Watson made his way to the back of the boat. ‘Glyn, your course is too low — you have to come up so we can keep heading into the waves.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Glyn replied without making eye contact. ‘I had friends who died in the Fastnet Race . I know what to do.’

• 1. From The Proving Ground by G Bruce Knecht
• 2. Below decks
• 3. Drowning
• 4. The right response?
• 5. Dry land

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Sydney to Hobart 1998 tragedy 20 years on — the east coast low that changed marine forecasting

As the yachts left Sydney Harbour on a sunny morning 20 years ago today, it would have been difficult to imagine the tragedy in store.

Strong winds were forecast and conditions worsened as the participants of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart set sail into what would become a severe east coast low.

In the ensuing days six sailors died, five yachts sank, more than 60 yachts retired and 55 participants had to be recued by helicopter.

East coast lows are unusual but not unprecedented. We typically see very intense east coast lows once every two or three years.

Dr Harald Richter, a senior research scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said east coast lows were big eddies in the atmosphere that were a few hundred kilometres across and occurred to the east of Australia.

They are not the same as more common lows that form over the Southern Ocean or lows that form over tropical waters.

"They're, in my mind, a mixture between lows that need cold air and warm air to spin up a big vortex and tropical cyclones.

"East coast lows sit in between those two," Dr Richter said.

The other factor that tends to make east coast lows infamous is that they impact on highly populated areas.

"Those east coast lows, when they're formed near the coast, don't go unnoticed. There's a lot of real estate to damage, there's boats to affect, there are beaches to erode," Dr Richter said.

"We need to look out for them."

In 1998, the biggest impacts were felt off the coast.

Jane Golding, manager of weather services at the Bureau of Meteorology's New South Wales office, said if there had been no yachts or ships in the area, the impact of the 1998 east coast low would have been a lot lower.

"It was really bad timing and really unfortunate it was in the middle of the yacht race [and] such a high profile one with so many participants," she said.

How the 1998 low developed

On Christmas Day 1998 there was a high pressure system directing warm north-easterly winds over south-east Australia and there was a cold front approaching Tasmania from the Southern Ocean.

"There were two things the high did, which is pretty common with east coast lows," Ms Golding said.

"It provided a warm, moist air as the front came up from the Southern Ocean carrying cold polar air.

"The difference in those two air masses resulted in the system really intensifying."

She said that the high pressure system also stopped the developing low from moving, so it hung around and just kept intensifying in the same area for about 24 hours.

"On top of that we also saw some high sea surface temperatures off the southern New South Wales coast."

She said that leading up to the race, the computer modelling that the forecasters were accessing was variable.

"They were looking at eight different computer models and they were all kind of saying different things," Ms Golding said.

"None of the ones we were accessing were pointing to the intensity of the storm.

"But that's similar to what could happen these days.

"With east coast lows, it's the closer you get to its formation that the guidance really starts to pinpoint intensity and location."

At the start of the race there was a gale warning out and a few hours later it was upgraded to storm-force. These warnings and how they were communicated were later investigated .

During the afternoon of December 26, 1998 the cold front approached eastern Bass Strait.

"The cold front had interacted with a trough just ahead of the front and that was the time where we saw this complex low pressure system start to form and several really small-scale features embed within it," Ms Golding said.

Not long after that, the east coast low rapidly intensified.

"That rapid development occurred because the really cold air coming up from the polar stream reached Tasmania," Ms Golding said.

"That really cold air interacted with this really warm air stream which was coming in from the Tasman Sea.

"On top of that there was some heat above and energy available from the warm ocean that was in the area at the time."

According to Ms Golding, it was the yachts that had reached as far as the Bass Strait and Tasmania on December 27, 1998 that faced the brunt of the storm.

By December 28, the low had moved quickly eastwards into the Tasman Sea and the winds had started to abate.

Twenty-four hours may not sound like long but it is a long time to be out at sea in a little boat being battered by winds equivalent to category two cyclone strength.

Ms Golding said wind gusts of 55 to 65 knots (roughly 100 to 120 kilometres per hour) were observed and gusts of between 70 to 75 knots (130 to 140 kph) were recorded — the equivalent of a category two cyclone. That is just what was recorded, gusts may have been stronger.

Ms Golding said there were a few little circulations among the bigger storm, so there was a tiny easing for a short period on December 27, 1998 before the winds increased again.

"The wind whipped up really high seas. The waves were quite steep and there was a strong southerly current," she said.

"What we call the significant wave height was six to seven metres and you get higher waves and smaller waves in there.

"The highest recorded on this oil rig was 11 to 12 metres but there were reports from ships that were even higher than that.

"There were reports of waves up in the 10 to 15m range, which is a few storeys if you're looking at a building.

"Imagine those waves [being] quite steep, then the yachts were quite small comparably. [It was] a really tragic event being stuck in that," Ms Golding said.

On top of the wind and the waves there was also a thunderstorm with heavy rain and very low visibility.

Which is worse: storm or gale?

The feedback from the investigations following the race were less about problems with the forecast itself and more about the communication pathways and the terminology used.

"A key take-home message is the terminology that we used wasn't well understood," Ms Golding said.

"Which meant that when the forecast warnings were upgraded they may not have been heeded because of the terminology we were using."

The key example from 1998 is that a "storm-force warning" means that winds averaging 48 to 63 knots (89 to 117kph) should be expected, which is worse than a "gale warning" and can mean that you should expect gusts to be higher.

"We know that is a category two tropical cyclone strength, but should we assume that everyone does? No."

Lessons learnt

Now the race has a more comprehensive safety briefing.

"We go through the terminology," Ms Golding said.

"We provide some info. around that, some definitions around the terms that we use, [and we do] other things like we are forecasting the mean speed so you can expect gusts higher than this.

"It won't be written on the forecast because there is a limit to how many words you can use before it's overwhelming.

"We also include a preamble at the header of all of our coastal waters forecasts even outside this race."

There are many other things that have changed in the past 20 years.

Ms Golding said the communication pathways between the Bureau and race organisers were now stronger and better defined.

"Technology today compared with technology 20 years ago, it's completely different. It's easier to transmit data to folks offshore in yachts. It's easier for them to receive not just our data but other data and to be more contactable as well," she said.

"On top of that the computer modelling has improved dramatically in the last 20 years, which means we are starting off at a better place."

Could we see 1998 conditions again?

Ms Golding said that we could "absolutely" see a storm like 1998 affect the Sydney to Hobart yacht race again.

"I don't want to say it's unlikely because it's no less likely to form on December 26 and 27 than December 22 or 23 or January 30 or 31."

But she said it was unusual and there had not been one like it during the Sydney to Hobart since.

What the race does see more often is a 'southerly buster': a sudden and powerful southerly wind change.

"Normally [you] get pretty fresh northerlies ahead of it and then your southerly buster could have 50-60 knot gusts," Ms Golding said.

"The difference with your buster is it's a lot shorter lived."

This year's forecast

This year the forecast is for a quick start to the race as a high sits in the western Tasman Sea and a trough over inland New South Wales, directing northerly winds down the coast.

In the pre-race press conference on Friday there was still some uncertainty about how the trough and a front could impact the later part of the race, but the Bureau's spokesman Simon Lewis said there was no indication of a significant low pressure system developing during the race.

Other east coast lows

Pasha Bulker 2007: it was the morning Newcastle will never forget. As the sun hit the shore, locals woke up to find a massive coal ship right on the beach . The June storm resulted in nine deaths on the New South Wales central coast. The ship was pummelled by the waves for three weeks before it was finally refloated in a salvage operation that cost the Japanese owners $1.8 million.

• April 2015: three people died when an east coast low battered Sydney, the Hunter and the Central Coast. At the time, the Bureau said gusts got up to 135kph but Dr Richter said the main impact from the storm was the flooding. In a 24 hour period, 119mm was recorded on Sydney Observatory Hill.
• June 2016: this storm is best remembered for th e images of a swimming pool falling into the ocean. Five people died during the storm, which brought heavy rainfall and caused coastal erosion. Impacts were felt from Queensland to Tasmania.
• X (formerly Twitter)

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The sydney to hobart race that morphed from sport to survival.

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Terror in the Tasman: Remembering the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, 20 years on

It began, as they all do, at 1pm on Boxing Day in Sydney Harbour.

Just 48 hours later, six lives had been lost in what became the deadliest incident in Australian sailing history.

Less than half of all starters made it to the finish line. Some 24 boats were completely abandoned or written off and 55 sailors had to be rescued, by both aircraft and Royal Australian Navy ships. In all, it was our nation’s biggest ever peacetime rescue operation.

Twenty years on from the 1998 edition of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, Foxsports.com.au looks back at how the terrible tragedy unfolded.

At the starters’ gun, 115 yachts took off through Sydney Harbour and out into the Tasman Sea, to make the 628-nautical mile journey to the south-east of Tasmania.

Yet there were already troubling signs.

A few hours earlier, at the final briefing conducted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, sailors were warned of a low pressure system forming off the coast.

“It’s going to be very hard in Bass Strait, so get ready for a nasty one,” Bob Thomas, navigator and co-owner of AFR Midnight Rambler, told skipper Ed Psaltis in comments reported by Fairfax Media .

Don Buckley, a crew member on B52, spoke to NSW Police a month after the race .

“We had a last-minute update and ... the night before it had been pre-empted that perhaps the low was forming and that would be the only spanner in the works, that we might have some hard stuff,” Buckley said.

“It was hard to know how strong it would be but he (the team’s weather expert) certainly said, ‘you’ll get hammered’.

“Most people expect at some time in the Hobart race you’d have a southerly, and it’s just the cycle of the race. So I guess it didn’t ring any more alarm bells than, OK, it will hit us at some stage.

“We felt comfortable.”

Billionaire tech mogul Larry Ellison, a keen sailor, was skippering the yacht Sayonara, which eventually took line honours. But even he wasn’t expecting to get out as well as they did.

“After what was a beautiful day on Sydney Harbour the wind got more intense and the skies slowly, slowly darkened and I remember after 12 hours we were further ahead than the record holder was in 24 hours,” he told News Corp in 2009 .

“We were going twice as fast as the boat that had set the record on that race and I remember thinking, 'well that’s exciting, but what’s going on?’

“Sayonara was going over 21 knots and I kept saying, she’s not supposed to go that fast. As yet it was just a storm. We really didn’t know what we were getting into at all.”

The leaders began to enter the Bass Strait in the early morning of December 27; even smaller boats were travelling faster than anyone expected.

“It was a very fast ride. Our top speed was 21 knots, surfing a wave on an absolute knife-edge,” Psaltis told Fairfax Media .

“The yacht was going so fast there was a big rooster tail off the stern like a speedboat. We suffered two massive broaches during that period.

“They were really out-of-control capsizes – people in the water, absolute mayhem. Both times the little boat just jumped back up and kept going, showing how strong she was.”

On the 27th, the conditions just continued to worsen.

From 30, to 40, to 50 and then 60 knots in just minutes; the boats were battling horrendous winds, massive waves and the corresponding spray which made things incredibly difficult.

Overnight, some were lucky, like the late Gerry Schipper.

Schipper was a Victorian policeman who became a boat safety advocate after his experience in the 1998 race. His friend Tim Stackpool told ABC’s RN Breakfast in 2015 what happened when he went overboard while sailing on Challenge Again at around 1am.

“In the middle of the night, he was working on deck. He didn’t have any safety gear on; no buoyancy vest, he wasn’t attached to the deck. And he got washed overboard,” Stackpool said.

“He heard the call, ‘man overboard, man overboard’, and he found himself, in the middle of the night, huge seas, and just wondering how this boat was going to come and pick him up.

“He saw it disappearing into the distance, and the waves ... they’re like cliffs. So the boat would disappear and reappear as the waves washed over him.”

With no electronic positioning device - now a necessity for sailors - Schipper was left stranded in stormy seas.

“Then he remembered he had one of waterproof torches in his hand; that’s all he had to signal the crew to come and save him. Because of course they couldn’t see either, it was pitch black.

“He was in the water for half an hour; in the end it was a textbook rescue. They turned the boat around and they almost landed on top of him. They turned around ... so the weather would wash him into the boat.”

Gusts of wind were recorded at terrifying speeds of 90 knots (166km/h) around Wilson’s Promontory with crew members having to battle waves that some estimated reached heights of 30 metres.

“We just felt the boat roar up a wave and I think there were screams from the guy steering - ‘look out’. Then we just went straight over, upside down, and it was mayhem,” Don Buckley later recalled.

“It sounded like a motor accident. Just as loud, it was just horrific.”

After a particularly bad wave, Buckley and the crew tried to recover.

“When it came up it was probably worse than when we went down because we had a lot of water in it, and there was stuff everywhere. I was pinned. I had sailed came down on top of me and I was up to [my] neck in water.

“I was screaming at them to get the sails off me, so I could come out, all I wanted to do was run up the hatch.”

A stove top struck a female crew member in the head and she was trapped underwater. One man got his head stuck in the steering wheel and had to snap himself out of his safety harness; that left him 40 metres away from the boat. Fortunately he was able to swim back to safety.

Others weren’t so lucky. A former British Olympian, Glyn Charles, was swept over board from Sword of Orion and died.

Three men, Mike Bannister, Jim Lawler and John Dean, drowned when their life raft fell apart, following the sinking of their yacht Winston Churchill.

Two perished on Business Post Naiad; the skipper Bruce Guy, who is suspected of suffering a heart attack, and crew member Phil Skeggs who passed from injuries suffered when the boat rolled.

Those who were able to kept sailing towards Hobart; 44 yachts made it. Many others had to try and make their way to Eden, in southern New South Wales.

Barry Griffiths, a member of the Eden volunteer coastal patrol, told the ABC he worked a 32-hour shift to co-ordinate rescues on radios.

“There was a terrible lot of screaming. You could hear the desperation in some of the voices,” he said.

“Sometimes their radios went dead, and there could have been a multitude of reasons; [they] were dismasted, some lost power or had too much moisture getting into the radio.”

“I reckon looking out the window there that the top of the waves was nearly as high as this window. It was mountainous seas.”

Sayonara took line honours at around 8am on December 29 - but the victory celebrations were of course cancelled.

“This is not what racing is supposed to be,” Larry Ellison said after the race.

“Difficult, yes. Dangerous, no. Life-threatening, definitely not. I’d never have signed up for this race if I knew how difficult it would be.”

The billionaire still thinks about 1998.

“I think about it all the time. It was a life-changing experience,” he said a decade later.

“We knew there were boats sinking when we got in, we knew people were in trouble still out there in the midst of it and we were enormously grateful having made it.

“We were the first survivor to get in and finish the race. It was a race for survival, not for victory, trophies or anything like that.”

The 44th and final yacht to arrive, Misty, made it to Hobart on December 31. A day later, on Constitution Dock, a public memorial was held for the six lives lost.

Hugo van Kretschmar, commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (who organise the race), read out this statement:

“Mike Bannister, John Dean, Jim Lawler, Glyn Charles, Bruce Guy, Phil Skeggs.

“May the everlasting voyage you have now embarked on be blessed with calm seas and gentle breezes.

“May you never have to reef or change a headsail in the night.

“May your bunk be always warm and dry.”

If the same conditions seen in 1998 were facing the starters of 2018’s race, things would go much differently.

With better weather forecasts and more safety equipment required on board, the yachts would likely avoid the worst of the storm altogether and be better placed to deal with what does eventuate. Rob Kothe, who was on Sword of Orion in 1998, explained part of the difference to Sail World in 2008 .

“At the 12:30pm sked on Dec 27th 1998, the weather forecast read out by race control was winds up to 50 knots,” he said.

“On Sword of Orion we were experiencing 78 knots. Under racing rules we could not tell anyone, because we weren’t allowed to give other boats assistance by informing them of the weather ahead.

“We decided this was a life and death situation; it was not a game. We broke the rules to report to the wind strengths to the fleet, which soon reached 92 knots.

“It was too late to warn everyone. Many boats were close behind us, but about 40 boats retired to Eden as a result of our actions.

“Under today’s more sensible rules wind speeds above 40 knots have to be reported; therefore sudden unpredicted storm cells will not catch everyone unawares.

“Across the board, the equipment has improved, including better life jackets, better harnesses, personal EPIRBS. There’s also much better education and training. Better weather data and a change in the mind set of Race officials and race participants have made the biggest change, but all these moves have made racing safer.”

The tragic circumstances of 1998 have therefore helped save lives since then.

Twenty years on, a moment’s silence will be performed on race radio to remember the fallen.

SAILING TEAM

CO-NAVIGATOR

---/---/---/---

'87,'89,'90,'92,'94,'95,'96,'00,'01,'02,'03,'04,'05,'07,'08,'09,'10,'11,'12,'13, 11,'12,'13,11,'12,'1.

• Sailor.com.au
• May 20, 2019

WAS 1998 THE MOST DIFFICULT SYDNEY TO HOBART RACE.

Updated: Dec 24, 2019

While the 1998 Sydney to Hobart was the most deadliest Sydney to Hobart yacht race it wasn't the most difficult race, it ranks as the 4th most difficult.

In 1998, at the starters’ gun, 114 yachts took off through Sydney Harbour and out into the Tasman Sea, to make the 628-nautical mile passage to the south-east of Tasmania.

In what became the deadliest incident in Australian sailing history six lives had been lost. Three men, Mike Bannister, Jim Lawler and John Dean, drowned when their life raft failed, after the sinking of their yacht Winston Churchill. Glyn Charles, a former British Olympian, was swept over board from Sword of Orion and perished. Two died on Business Post Naiad, the skipper Bruce Guy, heart attack, and crew member Phil Skeggs who succumbed to injuries suffered when the boat rolled.

More than 50 sailors had to be rescued in extreme conditions.

Bass Strait can be the worst stretch of water ever crossed or it can be a pleasant walk in the park. It's unpredictable, notorious for shipwrecks and a relatively shallow stretch of water that separates southeastern Australia and Tasmania.

While there are lots of discussion around the 1998 S2H race it wasn't the toughest on record. Lets look at the conditions and brutality of four Sydney to Hobart races 1984, 1993, 1998 and 2004 and see how the numbers stack-up.

1984 - THE SECOND MOST DIFFICULT

The 1984 race had 151 starters and only 46 finished the race, that's 30.5% finished the race. The conditions were terrible with the average elapsed time for the fleet being 18.6% worse than normal conditions. According to sailor.com.au the Difficulty Index was 2.339 for 1984, ranked second most difficult.

1993 - THE MOST DIFFICULT RACE EVER

The 1993 race had 104 starters and 38 finished the race, only 36.5% finished the race. The conditions were brutal with the average elapsed time for the fleet being 30.3% worse than normal conditions. According to sailor.com.au the Difficulty Index was 2.421 for 1993, ranked the most difficult race in the history of the Sydney to Hobart.

According to Iain Smith, a crew member on Wild Oats XI, "the 1993 race was generally regarded as the toughest on record. The only difference [to 1998] was that there was fortunately no loss of life that year. There were massive retirements and damage to yachts."

In 1993 an unusually strong low pressure depression of 986 hpa developed stretching down the Queensland coast across the Tasman sea to the south island of New Zealand back across to Tasmania with the centre in Bass Strait.

The winning yacht "Ninety seven" recorded 78 knots (144 km/h) of wind either side of the eye of the low off Gabo Island on the night of the 27th. Dec. [ wikipedia ]

1998 - THE MOST DEADLIEST, AND THE FOURTH MOST DIFFICULT

The 1998 race had 114 starters and 44 finished the race, only 38.6% finished this infamous race. The conditions were brutal with the average elapsed time for the fleet being 6.2% worse than normal conditions, but the weather system was brutal in its impact. According to sailor.com.au the Difficulty Index was 1.928 for 1998, this race ranked the fourth most difficult. It ranks as the deadliest incident in Australian sailing history.

The 2004 race had 116 starters and 59 finished the race, only 50.9% finished the race. The conditions were brutal with the average elapsed time for the fleet being 21.9% worse than normal conditions. According to sailor.com.au the Difficulty Index was 1.955 for 2004, ranked third most difficult.

The chart below highlights the seven most difficult races in the sydney to hobart they were in order: (1) 1993 (2) 1984 (3) 2004 (4) 1998 (5) 1988 (6) 1997 (8) 2015

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1998 Tragedy Haunts Sydney-Hobart Race

By Christopher Clarey

• Dec. 24, 2008

Silence is hard to come by in the annual Sydney-to-Hobart race. There is the drone or the shriek of the wind, the crash of the waves against the hulls, the ominous harmonics of equipment under great stress, and the shouts and mutters from the crews as they try, once again, to sail their yachts of various shapes and prices from the majesty of Sydney Harbor to the haven of Hobart across the Tasman Sea.

But when this year’s race begins on Friday, silence will be a requirement. It has been 10 years since six men died in the storm-swept 1998 edition of this Australian institution, and a minute of silence before the start and another after the finish will honor those sailors as well as others who perished in the race in earlier years.

“I think it is an appropriate way to show our respects to those who didn’t make it; I’m not sure if there’s any other better way to do it,” said Ed Psaltis, who was skipper of the small yacht that won overall honors in 1998 despite the horrific conditions that some ashen competitors compared to a hurricane.

A single wreath will also be laid in Hobart by Matt Allen, commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, which organizes the race, and Clive Simpson, his counterpart at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania. Allen and other club officials have contacted the families of the sailors who died in 1998 and received tentative commitments from some family members to be in attendance in Hobart.

“What happened is part of the history of the race — you can’t deny it,” Psaltis said. “One of the guys who died in 1998, Jim Lawler, was a very close friend of my father’s, so it was a personal thing for me.”

He added: “And he was no average yachtie. He was a very accomplished seaman, so to have him perish really knocked me for six. It just showed that even if you are among the best, you can still get taken out. What it shows you, above all, is that the sea is the boss, and you are its servant and don’t even try to think otherwise.”

Larry Ellison, the American billionaire who took line honors in that 1998 race in his maxi Sayonara, gleaned enough amid the 80-knot winds and 60-foot waves to conclude that he never wanted to race the 628 nautical miles from Sydney to Hobart again.

He has been true to his word. He has since focused his big sailing ambitions and budgets on the America’s Cup and other inshore regattas.

But Australians like Psaltis have a more elemental connection to their island nation’s premier yacht race, which was first contested in 1945, just months after the end of World War II. Psaltis, 47, like many a Sydney-to-Hobart skipper, has a regular job that has nothing to do with sailing: He is a partner in Sydney with the accounting firm of Ernst & Young.

Yet despite the torments of 1998 and of other stormy, hazardous years, he has continued to put himself on the starting line. This will be his 28th Sydney-Hobart race, and the 10-member crew on his modified Farr 40, still named Midnight Rambler, will include three other men who sailed with him in 1998: Chris Rockell, John Whitfeld and Bob Thomas, Psaltis’s co-owner and longtime navigator.

“Look, after 1998 I certainly thought very hard about it postrace, along the lines of: I’ve got a wife and three kids. What am I trying to do, to try and kill myself in a stupid yacht race?” Psaltis said. “But I firmly believe that the human spirit wants challenges and actually craves challenges, and to go through life controlled in a regimented, risk-free environment is, I think, no life at all.”

The Hobart — as its participants often call it — is, however, a more regimented race than it was 10 years ago. Safety requirements have been significantly increased and, as with all offshore races, safety equipment has improved. More of it has been made compulsory, including Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons.

At least 50 percent of each crew must take a course on safety at sea, and 50 percent must have completed a Category 1 ocean race. Sailors under 18 are no longer permitted to take part. The Australian authorities have revised and upgraded their contingency plans for rescue and emergency situations.

“The truth is, 1998 was the biggest maritime rescue operation in the history of Australia,” Allen said. “So I think it’s made people focus.”

He added: “You don’t have, as I’ve seen in some other races around the world, people getting together for one race of the year. Pretty much most of the crews in the Sydney Hobart are people racing pretty much continuously.”

The emphasis on safety has increased costs.

“It probably costs about 60,000 Australian dollars to get the average boat trumped up to do the race,” Psaltis said, or about $41,000. “In 1998, it was 30,000 to 40,000. The cost of sails has gone up. Everything has gone up. But safety is one more issue making it harder.”

The surprise is that the new regulations and the global economic downturn have not affected participation rates. Although there have been some high-profile withdrawals, including a Russian maxi called Trading Network, the fleet of 104 yachts for the race this year is the second-highest number of entrants since 1998.

“I think it’s because people have built boats a while ago or ordered boats a while ago, and that’s probably a reflection of earlier economic times,” Allen said. “People have boats, and they might as well go sailing in them.”

Among those who plan to sail is John Walker, who was already the oldest skipper in the race’s history and is now 86. Rob Fisher and Sally Smith, the children of an avid Sydney-Hobart competitor, will become the first brother and sister to skipper yachts in the race in the same year.

Wild Oats XI, the 98-foot maxi owned by the Australian Bob Oatley, has taken line honors the last three years and is a heavy favorite to become the first yacht to do it four consecutive times. Its crew had to scramble to make final-hour repairs last year, but there have been no such dramas in the run-up to this year’s race.

“These boats are clearly faster than any other boats,” Allen said of the maxis. “It’s more a boat-management issue and seamanship issue for them, and absolutely, to get it there four times in a row unscathed would be a great tribute to the skills of the crew.”

But then, Wild Oats XI has never had to sail through what Ellison and Psaltis endured in 1998.

“We got through it, but only through the skin of our teeth,” Psaltis said. “For 10 hours, we were surviving rather than racing. It was the worst I’ve seen and something I don’t want to see again. It certainly did change our lives.”

1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

The 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race was the 54th annual running of the "blue water classic" Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race . It was hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia based in Sydney , New South Wales . It was the most disastrous in the race's history, with the loss of six lives and five yachts. [1] 55 sailors were rescued in the largest peacetime search and rescue effort ever seen in Australia. [2]

Storm and rescue

Cyca report, coroner's inquest, line honours results (top 10), handicap results (ims top 10), sources cited, external links.

The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race is an annual event hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia , starting in Sydney , New South Wales on Boxing Day then heading south through the Tasman Sea , past Bass Strait , into Storm Bay and up the Derwent River , to cross the finish line in Hobart , Tasmania . The race distance is approximately 630 nautical miles (1,170   km) . [3]

The race is run in co-operation with the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania , and is widely considered to be one of the most difficult yacht races in the world. [4]

The 1998 race, like every other edition, began on Sydney Harbour , at noon on Boxing Day (26 December 1998), with 115 starters heading south. The yachts ranged in size from the 24.1 metres (79   ft) Sayonara to the 10.1 metres (33   ft) Berrimilla . [5] A favourable current running south at 4 knots with strengthening north to north-easterly winds of generally 25-35 knots prevailing off the NSW southern coast allowed a record-breaking dash south down the Australian East Coast. [1] By early morning on 27 December, the lead yachts entered Bass Strait and began to encounter winds in excess of 40 knots. [6] Of the 115 boats which started, 71 retired and 44 yachts completed the race. [1]

Outright victory went to Sayonara , owned and skippered by Larry Ellison , with Lachlan Murdoch amongst the crew. [7] The 35 foot AFR Midnight Rambler , skippered by Ed Psaltis, won on handicap. Never before had a boat of its size reached the entry to Bass Straight in less than a day. [8]

On the second day of the race (27 December) [9] severe weather conditions struck the fleet off the coast of south-eastern Australia. An unusually intense low pressure depression developed which resulted in unseasonal mid-summer snow across parts of south-eastern Australia. The weather system built into an exceptionally strong storm with winds in excess of 65 knots (+32.8   m/s, +118   km/h, +73   mph, Force 12 ) [10] and gusts to 80 knots . [11] The rising storm caused the sinking of five boats; seven were abandoned and 55 sailors had to be rescued from their yachts by ships and helicopters. [12] Overall, the rescue efforts involved 35 military and civilian aircraft and 27 Royal Australian Navy vessels. It proved to be Australia's largest-ever peacetime rescue operation. [2]

The six sailors who died were: Phillip Charles Skeggs ( Business Post Naiad , drowned, 27 December 1998); Bruce Raymond Guy ( Business Post Naiad , heart attack, 27 December 1998); John Dean, James Lawler and Michael Bannister ( Winston Churchill , all drowned, 28 December 1998); and Glyn Charles ( Sword of Orion , drowned, 27 December 1998). [13]

On 1 June 1999 the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia released the Report, Findings and Recommendations of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race Review Committee . [14] The report listed a multitude of recommendations [15] and resulted in changes both for future Sydney to Hobart races and yachting events worldwide. [16]

A coroner's inquest into the deaths was critical of both the race management at the time and the Bureau of Meteorology . [17]

The results of the inquest were released on 12 December 2000, NSW coroner John Abernethy finding that the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia had "abdicated its responsibility to manage the race". He wrote: "From what I have read and heard, it is clear to me that during this crucial time the race management team played the role of observers rather than managers and that was simply not good enough." [18] But he acknowledged the club's actions to upgrade safety precautions and sailor qualifications. [19]

Abernethy also criticised the Bureau for making insufficient efforts to inform race officials of a dramatically upgraded weather forecast about the severe storm developing south of Eden , when it was common public knowledge the race was scheduled to begin. [20] As a remedial measure, he required the Bureau to add maximum wind gust speed and wave height to its forecasts. [21]

The day after the coroner's findings, the club's race director, Phil Thompson, resigned his position. [17] According to the coroner's report, "Mr Thompson's inability to appreciate the problems when they arose and his inability to appreciate them at the time of giving his evidence causes me concern that (he) may not appreciate such problems as they arise in the future." [22]

115 yachts registered to begin the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht race. They were: [23] [24] [25] [26] [27]

• 1979 Fastnet race A Yacht race severely affected by a rapidly deepening extratropical cyclone, near Ireland.
• UFO 34 (yacht)

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• 1 2 Mundle 2008 , p.   xv
• ↑ "Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race" . About. Archived from the original on 12 July 2014 . Retrieved 9 May 2013 .
• ↑ "Tough legacy of a Sydney classic" . BBC News . 29 December 2001 . Retrieved 24 May 2010 .
• ↑ Bruce, Peter (2016). Heavy Weather Sailing (7th   ed.). Bloomsbury. pp.   35–37. ISBN   9781472928207 . Retrieved 21 June 2017 .
• ↑ Knecht, Bruce (2001). The Proving Ground . Fourth Estate (London). p.   97. ISBN   1-84115-265-X . Retrieved 18 July 2017 .
• ↑ "Executives Face the Elements As Yacht Race Turns Deadly" . WSJ . Retrieved 10 January 2023 .
• ↑ Salter, David (9 November 2018). "Surviving the 1998 Sydney to Hobart superstorm" . The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 10 January 2023 .
• ↑ Mundle 2008 , p.   99.
• ↑ Lawrence, Mark. "Crew "Not Negotiable" (Helmsman)" . Equipped To Survive: NSW State Coroner's inquest - 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race - Volume 9 - Yachts without Incidents . Retrieved 4 July 2017 .
• ↑ Mundle 2008 , p.   116.
• ↑ Knecht 2001 , p.   266.
• ↑ Abernethy 2000 , pp.   16–17
• ↑ Mundle 2008 , p.   343.
• ↑ Mundle 2008 , pp.   343–346.
• ↑ Mundle 2008 , pp.   346–349.
• 1 2 "1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race - The Tragedy of Deaths at Sea" . Archived from the original on 28 December 2007 . Retrieved 28 December 2007 .
• ↑ Abernethy 2000 , p.   118.
• ↑ Abernethy 2000 , p.   10.
• ↑ Abernethy 2000 , pp.   124–125.
• ↑ Abernethy 2000 , p.   296.
• ↑ Abernethy 2000 , p.   139.
• ↑ "The Yachts: 1998" . Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race . Retrieved 14 January 2021 .
• ↑ "NSW State Coroner's Inquest - 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race" . Equipped To Survive . Retrieved 14 January 2021 .
• ↑ "Who's Heading for Hobart?" (PDF) . Offshore - the Magazine of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia : 53 to 68. December 1998 . Retrieved 19 January 2021 .
• ↑ "1998 Telstra Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race - List of Entries" (PDF) . Cruising Yacht Club of Australia . Retrieved 19 January 2021 .
• 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 van Kretschmar 1999 , pp.   108–110
• ↑ "Incident Debrief Report - Rescue of ABN Amro Challenge" (PDF) . Equipped to Survive . Retrieved 17 January 2021 .
• ↑ "Interview with Owner" (PDF) . Equipped . Retrieved 14 January 2021 .
• ↑ "Interview with crew of B-52" (PDF) . Equipped to Survive . Retrieved 16 January 2021 .
• 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bruce 2016 , p.   34.
• ↑ "Ben Rouge" (PDF) . Retrieved 17 January 2021 .
• ↑ van Kretschmar 1999 , p.   112-116.
• ↑ "Interview with Peter Joubert - Owner & Designer of Kingurra" (PDF) . Equipped to Survive . Retrieved 16 January 2021 .
• 1 2 Bruce 2016 , p.   37.
• ↑ "Interview with crew of Loki" (PDF) . Equipped to Survive . Retrieved 17 January 2021 .
• ↑ "Statement by Part Owner "Midnight Special" " (PDF) . Retrieved 14 January 2021 .
• ↑ van Kretschmar 1999 , p.   123-125.
• ↑ "Interview with Owner of Miintinta" (PDF) . Equipped to Survive . Retrieved 16 January 2021 .
• ↑ "Interview with crew of Pippin" (PDF) . Equipped to Survive . Retrieved 17 January 2021 .
• ↑ van Kretschmar 1999 , p.   118-121.
• ↑ "Interview with crew of Crew Team Jaguar" (PDF) . Equipped to Survive . Retrieved 16 January 2021 .
• ↑ "Interview with Owner of VC Offshore Stand Aside" (PDF) . Equipped to Survive . Retrieved 16 January 2021 .
• ↑ van Kretschmar 1999 , p.   121-123.
• ↑ van Kretschmar 1999 , p.   116-118.
• ↑ van Kretschmar 1999 , p.   129.
• ↑ "Results - 1998 Race - Line honours" . Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race . Retrieved 26 July 2017 .
• ↑ "Results - 1998 Race - IMS All" . Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race . Retrieved 26 July 2017 .
• Abernethy, John (12 December 2000). "NSW State Coroner's Inquest 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race" . Equipped to Survive .
• van Kretschmar, Hugo (May 1999). "Report of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race Review Committee" (PDF) . Cruising Yacht Club of Australia . Retrieved 25 January 2021 .
• Mundle, Rob (2008). Fatal Storm: the 54th Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race . Harper Collins. ISBN   9780732288341 . Retrieved 26 July 2017 .
• Kennedy, Alan (3 April 2004). "Race storm ends for maligned skipper" . The Sydney Morning Herald .
• Lamont, Leonie (12 October 2005). "Families vindicated as yacht club settles race case" . The Sydney Morning Herald .
• Turner, Chris (10 March 2000). "Report To The Coroner: 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race Yachting Harnesses and Lines" (PDF) . WorkCover New South Wales.

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The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race Disaster in 1998

An unusually strong low pressure depression developed which resulted in mid-summer snow across parts of south-east Australia.

The weather system built into an exceptionally strong storm with winds reaching up to 70 knots, similar in strength to a lower-category hurricane.

The rising storm produced an enormous waterspout perilously close to one yacht, ultimately causing the sinking of five boats and the deaths of six sailors.

Additionally a record 66 yachts retired from the race, and 55 other sailors had to be airlifted from their yachts by rescue helicopter.

Overall, the rescue efforts involved 35 military and civilian aircraft and 27 Royal Australian Navy vessels, and proved to be Australia’s largest ever peacetime rescue operation.

Original Footage by Care Flight

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Welcome to the sparkman and stephens 34 site.

Remembering the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race

I noted Solandra is currently listed for sale on Boatsonline.com.au.

Solandra is one of four S&S34’s that took part in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht race. This race was the 54th Sydney to Hobart and its most treacherous. Of the 115 boats which started on 26 December, 71 retired and 44 yachts completed the race.

On the second day of the race, an unusually intense low pressure depression developed which resulted in un-seasonal mid-summer snow across parts of south-eastern Australia. The weather system built into an exceptionally strong storm with winds in excess of 65 knots and gusts to 80 knots. The rising storm caused the sinking of five boats; seven were abandoned and 55 sailors had to be rescued from their yachts by ships and helicopters. Six sailors died.

Solandra was dis-masted during a knock down and retired, sailing back to Eden, N.S.W. The S&S34’s in the race were.

• T42 Solandra          Craig Vescott          S&S 34 1982      Retired Eden lost mast
• Misty                   Brian Clague               S&S 34 1975      FINISHED last boat in fleet of 44
• Morning Tide            A Fenwick / J Davern     S&S 34 1974      RETIRED prudent seamanship
• Boomaroo Morse Fans   J. McIntosh              S&S 34 1971      RETIRED prudent seamanship

Misty was the only S&S34 to finish and was first in IMS division F. All these yachts are still around today.

The Coroners report report on the event contain interviews with Solandra’s skipper & crew and Misty’s skipper. They are worth a read.

http://www.equipped.org/sydney-hobart/Vol%2010%20Docs/GOODFELLOW%20David%20John.PDF

http://www.equipped.org/sydney-hobart/Vol%2010%20Docs/ESCOTT%20Craig.PDF

http://www.equipped.org/sydney-hobart/Vol%2009%20Docs/CLAGUE%20Brian%20James.PDF

VC Offshore Stand Aside (YC4882) – 1998 SHYR, 1st Mayday Photo Richard Bennett

One thought on “ Remembering the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race ”

I bought Boomaroo from John McIntosh and he told my they were leading their division and planning to shelter behind Gabo Island when a radio schedule was due. John’s son was racing on another boat that year and there was no radio reply from them which rather shook him so they retired to Eden to await further news. His son was OK.

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LCE Old School is sailed consistently well - Andrea Francolini, RPAYC pic

Whisper is among the line and overall contenders - Andrea Francolini, RPAYC pic

Post start last year - Andrea Francolini, RPAYC pic

Race is on to win 2024 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race

Over 30 boats will be on the start line for the 2024 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race this Friday when monohulls, a multihull and two-handed entries will share the start line off Barrenjoey Headland for the 1pm start.  

Respected sailor, Theresa Michell, has joined forces with Paul Beath and his J/99, Verite, for their first major two-handed race together. Newcomers to the Pittwater Coffs, Beath did the 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart in two-handed mode with another co-skipper. He and Michell’s first two-handed training session was a four-day return trip from Hobart.

“It was all upwind. Not particularly pleasant,” Beath remembered. “One of the reasons she is doing this race with me is because she sailed with me fully crewed in the Sydney Gold Coast race and the rest of the Blue Water Pointscore last year and we get on well.

“And this race is at a nice time of year,” the Novocastrian said of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club’s (RPAYC) 226 nautical mile race.

Although she halted racing at the end of the 1990s to raise a family, Michell’s credentials are outstanding in both two-handed and fully-crewed sailing, as a skipper, navigator and crew.

She contested the 5500 nautical mile two-handed Melbourne to Osaka race in 1999 on an Adams 10 that she also skippered in the 1998 Double-Handed Trans-Tasman Challenge from Sydney to New Plymouth in New Zealand. She has sailed on the international scene, done Sydney Hobarts and sailed an Olympic class dinghy.

“This is a new team in a new race and we think it’s a good distance. We’ll get our systems together and get organised,” Beath commented.

“It will be a demanding race because of the currents and fluctuating conditions.”

The pair are expected to be competitive against all-comers, including other two-handed entries such as Chris O’Neill, who returns with Blue Planet after finishing the race seventh overall last year.

“We also won PHS and were second in ORC – and these results were exactly the same in the two-handed division,” he said.

This time he will be co-skippered by Tom Johnston, who helped him to sixth in the two-handed division of the 2023 Sydney Hobart.

“It’s a fun race and a good location in Coffs, it’s not too strenuous and importantly, there’s been sufficient time between this race and the Sydney Hobart – I’ve forgotten all the pain,” O’Neill said wryly.

Among the latest fully crewed entries for the 38 th  ‘Pittwater to Coffs’ is David Griffith’s record breaking JV62 Whisper, which will likely battle Geoff Hill’s Santa Cruz 72, Antipodes, for line honours. Whisper is also a favourite for the overall win, but due to the many weather vagaries at this time of year, the race really is wide open in all classifications.

On his quarry, Whisper’s owner says: “With her long waterline length, if Antipodes gets reaching conditions, she is quick, she will take off. We’re in pretty good shape though and the boat’s in perfect order.”

Griffith says his crew will also hold them in good stead. Among them are Rear Admiral Lee Goddard, Michael Coxon, Dougie McGain, Michael Fountain and Brett Van Munster. 

“Either way, it’s a wonderful race and the Alfreds do a great job,” Griffith said. “Everyone loves a destination race and Coffs Harbour is a great destination with lots to do.”

Others chasing overall glory are regular DK46 rivals Khaleesi (Sandy Farquharson/Rob Aldis) and LCE Old School Racing (Mark Griffith). At the Nautilus Marine Insurance Sydney Harbour Regatta in early March, the latter placed second in the Open division on home turf, while Griffith’s boat, from RPAYC, was second. Another DK46, Nine Dragons, was declared the winner. 

Pierre Gal has entered the Asia catamaran Stealth 12.60 named Fez. The French expat, who lives on the NSW north coast, is a name locally and internationally, competing in the America’s Cup for France and has Australian victories too.

Incidentally, Gal won Division 4 of the 2019 Sydney Gold Coast race with Mistral, the same Lombard 34 that won the 2023 Pittwater Coffs race for two-handed sailors, Rupert Henry and Greg O’Shea last year.

Follow the fleet on the race tracker at:  https://yb.tl/pittwater2024

For all information go to:  www.pittwatertocoffs.com.au

Di Pearson/RPAYC media

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