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First 24 Hours will be the big test for Rolex Sydney Hobart fleet

Home 2006 First 24 Hours will be the big test for Rolex Sydney Hobart fleet

AFR Midnight Rambler (8338) - 2006 RSHYR start - Rolex CYCA Archive

"The first night out is especially dangerous because the crew haven't got used to the motion of the boat," said Ed Psaltis, skipper of AFR Midnight Rambler and overall winner of the stormy 1998 race.

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The good news is the gale force winds originally predicted for the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race are off the menu. The bad news is that day one is still going to be very hard.

The low over Bass Strait is moving eastwards quicker than expected and winds should ease on Wednesday. However, Boxing Day will still see 20 to 30 knot southerlies. Not as bad as expected but still tough. The challenge facing every skipper will be getting through the first 24 hours. 

That pretty much sums up the view today of the skippers of some of the hottest handicap prospects.

"Everybody's saying the winds are lightening off but I still think 30 knots is not light," Ray Roberts, skipper of Quantum Racing jokes.

"To win this race you've got to finish the race.

“Sometimes people misunderstand and think Bass Strait is the hardest part of the race but, often, the hardest part is the New South Wales Coast.

“You've got a relatively shallow continental shelf and a hard southerly breeze pushing against a strong current so you've got very steep waves.

"You could see a few boats damaging their gear in the first 24 hours and that's the trick - you've got to be nursing the boat in the first 24 hours so that you can take advantage later."

Yendys' Geoff Ross agreed.

"Thirty knots out of the south off the New South Wales coast is very rough indeed," said Ross.

"The first night out is especially dangerous because the crew haven't got used to the motion of the boat," said Ed Psaltis, skipper of AFR Midnight Rambler and overall winner of the stormy 1998 race.

"I'd rather get a blow on day two or three, than day one frankly."

While Wild Oats XI scored a remarkable triple in 2005, winning on handicap as well as breaking the line honours record in conditions that favoured the fast reaching maxis, Psaltis believes that conditions this year will favour the mid sized yachts.

"The weather forecast is for a slow start and a relatively fast finish which normally suits the smaller style boat,’ said Psaltis.

“That's good news for us that no-one's going to get too far away from us in the first day and a half."

Ray Roberts agreed that the big maxis will have to be very careful on the first day.

"If we get 30 knot southerlies at the start you could find that the really big boats struggle to keep together because they are a lot longer and a lot heavier and they fall more harshly into 20 foot troughs and that's what we can expect out there,” said Roberts.

The Bureau has released an updated race forecast today which will have the fleet heading into an easing south westerly system as the low which will bring strong winds to Bass Strait on Christmas Day moving eastwards quicker than was showing in yesterday’s models.

At this stage the fleet is not expected to experience winds more than 30 knots from S/SW, more likely to be between 20-30 knots at least for the first 12 hours of the race before easing during Wednesday and into Thursday.

The system remains very likely to generate an increasing southerly swell along the NSW coast which should be a factor in the early stages of the race. Early information in relation to this suggests that the swell pulse will move away to the northeast and conditions will moderate.

By Friday, a high pressure system may have moved over the east Tasmanian coast bringing light nor’easters to those who have bashed into a southerly for three days, slowing their progress and possibly putting them out of contention for the race silverware. - Lisa Ratcliff/Jim Gale