170 entries line up for 2019 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
The field is in as yachts make a pitch for 75th-anniversary Sydney Hobart race honoursOrganisers have revealed that 170 yachts have entered to take part in the 75th running of the historic Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
The fleet for the 2019 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, announced today, is the largest to sail out of Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day since the 50th-anniversary event in 1995, and the fourth-largest entry list in the event’s history.
Once again, five maxi yachts will fight for line honours: Peter Harburg’s Black Jack (Qld); Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant’s record-holding Comanche (NSW); Christian Beck’s InfoTrack (NSW); the Oatley family’s reigning line-honours champion Wild Oats XI (NSW); and Seng Huang Lee’s SHK Scallywag from Hong Kong.
Paul Billingham, the commodore of Sydney Hobart organiser the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, said the strong field was a testimony to the appeal of the historic race.
“The range of yachts is truly impressive and the spectacle we will witness on Boxing Day will be unprecedented in the modern era of the race.”
International entries
The field includes a number of other international entries from Great Britain, Ireland, France, China, Hungary, Poland, Hong Kong and the US.
However, more than half of the fleet – 96 of them – come from NSW.
The race will feature the first-ever Aboriginal crew racing aboard a Beneteau 47.7 named Tribal Warrior.
Also taking to the water are a number of former Sydney Hobart champions, including Philip Turner’s 2018 handicap winner RP66 Alive; Matt Allen’s TP52 Ichi Ban; Bob Steel’s TP52 Quest, which also won as Paul Clitheroe’s Balance seven years later; Oskana, a Cookson 50 that won as Victoire in 2013; Simon Kurts’ 46-year-old classic yacht Love & War, one of only two three-time winners in the race’s history; and two-time winner Wild Oats XI.
The race starts on December 26.
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