Wild seas and gale-force winds will make this year’s Sydney to Hobart yacht race the most challenging in years, forecasters have warned as crews focused on survival not victory.
Though no repeat is expected of the catastrophic weather that claimed six lives and sank five yachts in 1998, it is set to be a rain-soaked and bumpy ride down the Australian mainland’s southeast coast and across to Tasmania.
Two southerly bursts will buffet the 89-strong fleet, whipping up steep seas in the notorious Bass Strait and all but ensuring Wild Oats XI’s 2005 record of 18 hours and 40 minutes will remain untouched.
The forecast of robust headwinds and towering swells have ended talk of tactics, with Wild Oats navigator Ian Burns saying the sole focus would be weathering the storm after the fleet sets sail from Sydney Harbour on Sunday.
“The real challenge I think is the first couple of nights and keeping the boat together,” said Burns of his 30-metre (98 foot) super-maxi, the hot favourite for line honours, won by the first boat to cross the winning line.
“We’ll be slowing down rather than trying to break any record, or even necessarily breaking our competition.”
Forecasters have tipped a slow start to the race’s 66th edition, with light winds giving way to 30-knot gales and mounting to 40 knots in the Bass Strait, where waves will reach five metres.
It will be the “most testing period of the race weather-wise, (with) the combination of gale-force winds and large seas,” said Barry Hanstrum, chief forecaster at the bureau of meteorology.
Wild Oats, chasing redemption after New Zealand’s Alfa Romeo broke its four-year line honours streak in 2009, has been rigorously rehearsing abandon ship procedures in anticipation of the wild upwind sailing.
“It’s of prime importance because when something does go wrong aboard a yacht this large and powerful it happens fast,” said skipper Mark Richards.
“You have to emerge in one piece and that’s done by nursing the boat through.”
The record-holding sloop is hot favourite for a fifth line honours win, with just one other super-maxi, Investec LOYAL, considered a threat after Alfa Romeo and last year’s third-placed ICAP Leopard decided not to race.
Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom’s Ran is tipped for the overall prize, the coveted handicap honours, or Tattersall’s Cup – taking into account a boat’s dimensions – after a string of recent victories including the inaugural Mini Maxi World Championship in Sardinia.
British-flagged Ran, 22 metres long, finished sixth overall in the 2009 Sydney to Hobart and faces stiff competition from Australia’s Loki, ninth in last year’s race, which has since bagged a number of smaller titles.
A “confident” Zennstrom said it was vital to make the most of the conditions and minimise mistakes.
“I think one thing we (have) learned is that no matter how well you do, if you don’t have the right conditions you’re not going to win,” said the Swedish-born telecoms mogul.
The field, which includes 30 first-time starters and entries from the United States, Britain, Russia, Italy and France, is expected to battle it out at the finish, with winds set to drop off on Tuesday and the ocean to calm.