Annual Sydney To Hobart Yacht Race Takes Place

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

31 December 2008

The annual Sydney to Hobart boat race has taken place after getting off to an unusually dramatic start.

The competition, which is in its 64th year, saw a dramatic turn of events on its opening day (December 26), when the entire crew of the Georgia yacht had to be winched to safety after capsizing.

This was a particularly poignant moment, as this year's competition marked the tenth anniversary of the death of six sailors who lost their lives competing in the race after the onset of adverse weather conditions.

However, despite this initial drama, the race went on to be a huge success, with Australian maxi yacht Wild Oats XI sailing the 628-nautical mile course to victory.

The impressive 30-metre yacht completed the race in one day, 20 hours, 34 minutes and 14 seconds – narrowly missing out on beating the record of one day, 18 hours, 40 minutes and 10 minutes that it set in 2005.

Second place was filled by another maxi yacht – 2003 champions Skandia – who finished just over an hour behind Wild Oats.

It has been noted that the majority of the teams coming top in this year's race were sailing yachts fitted with state-of-the-art technology systems which allowed them to take advantage of accurate forecasts of the ocean currents and sea temperatures they were about to encounter en route.

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