THIS YEAR REPRESENTS the 72nd running of the 628 nautical mile race, which starts on Boxing Day at 1pm AEDT, and takes competitors on a punishing race down the south coast of Australia. The regatta is organised by Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) in cooperation with the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, with Rolex being the official sponsor.
DEC 26-JAN 1
THIS YEAR REPRESENTS the 72nd running of the 628 nautical mile race, which starts on Boxing Day at 1pm AEDT, and takes competitors on a punishing race down the south coast of Australia. The regatta is organised by Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) in cooperation with the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, with Rolex being the official sponsor.
CYCA announced that for the first time in the history of the race, the Notice of Race for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is available on the official website in Mandarin.
The club received its 50th entry for the 2016 Rolex Sydney Hobart from Tasmanian first-timer Richard Grant, Owner of the Knoop 39 Cromarty Magellan. Three years ago, the Taswegian bought the yacht from Dick Knoop, brother of the yacht’s designer Walter Knoop, who himself contested the Sydney Hobart with his self-designed Quintal, back in the late 70’s.
“The Sydney Hobart has been on the bucket list for a while. We’ve done lots of local races with the boat, which was designed to the IMS Rule in 2000. We’ve done other races such as the Melbourne Launceston race. Now we’ve decided to give it a crack with the big boys,” says Grant. “We’re absolutely looking forward to it after first talking about it a year ago.”
“We expect the final number of entries to be in the early 90’s and are really pleased with the entry list to date,” says CYCA Sailing Manager Justine Kirkjian.
Other Australian entries represent NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. A good cross section also includes yachts from Hong Kong, Mainland China, New Zealand, Sweden, England, two from the USA and a first entry from Slovenia in Miran Tepes’ 12-metre boat Skokica.
Scallywag, the rebadged Ragamuffin 100 purchased by Hong Kong businessman Seng Huang Lee is the first 100-foot Super Maxi to sign on the dotted line.
