1994 Race Recap

German boat Raptor, Overall Winner in the 50th anniversary race

Kodak Sydney Hobart 1994

Race Program

Prior to each race Cruising Yacht Club of Australia publishes a separate official race program (with details of competing boats, the results of past races and articles about the race and its participants and other important events).  The 1994 Edition is here.    

Weather

The 50th Kodak Sydney Hobart attracted a massive fleet of 371 starters from around the world to mark the Golden Jubilee of the CYCA's inaugural race to Hobart in 1945.  Among the Veteran Divisions fleet were two yachts, Archina and Winston Churchill, which had competed in the first race, along with several crew members who sailed back in 1945.

To start the huge fleet required three lines on Sydney Harbour, with the Veteran Yachts starting earlier.  "Hughie" the wind god looked kindly on Boxing Day, providing the 50th fleet with a spinnaker run down Sydney Harbour, without doubt the most spectacular sight ever seen for the start of a major ocean race anywhere in the world.  From there, however, it was a hard slog almost all the way to Hobart.  Once clear of the Heads, the fleet had to beat to windward down the NSW South Coast in a freshening sou'easter.  However, by the next day the breeze had backed to the east and nor'east giving the maxis and the bulk of the fleet a fast spinnaker run into and, for the leaders, across Bass Strait at potentially record-breaking speeds.

However, the second half of the fleet was battered by a galeforce SW front, giving many crews a dramatic warning in the form of a "Bass Strait Roller", a rolling band of cloud from horizon to horizon.  It was the second front with winds of up to 50 knots which did most of the damage.  "It came fast, with an initial gust of 35 knots, then a lull, followed by the second front...at times 50 knots plus," recorded one yachtsman.  The front put paid to a race record, with the maxis forced to reef down as they made landfall on the Tasmanian East Coast.  Some 40 yachts ran for shelter back to Eden.

The SW gale continued as the leading maxis battled their way across Storm Bay, getting respite only in the Derwent, in the lee of Mt Wellington.  The rest of the fleet continued to be battered by the sou'wester but there were only a couple more retirements in the latter stages.  Of the 371 starters, 308 boats made it to Hobart, filling Constitution Dock and Sullivans Cove to capacity for a grand celebration of the 50th Sydney Hobart. The elapsed times of Tasmania and Brindabella were within 2 hours 25 minutes of Kialoa's 19-year-old race record and the fastest since 1975.