Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2020
A bad year for the 100”
The 628nm Sydney Hobart will be the 76th edition when it starts on December 26, 2020 with 89 teams.
From Sydney Harbor, the fleet sails into the Tasman Sea, down the southeast coast of mainland Australia, through Bass Strait (which divides the mainland from the island state of Tasmania), then down the east coast of Tasmania . At Tasman Island, the fleet turns right into Storm Bay to navigate the River Derwent to the historic port city of Hobart.
However, like everything else this year, the 2020 race will be different.
Due to travel restrictions, most of the 100 feet remain on guard, COVID-19 is the reason. Only one of them will compete for the title expired on December 26.
Peter Harburg hadn’t planned on Black Jack’s return to Australia when he put the 100-foot super maxi on a boat bound for his new home in Monaco, but the coronavirus arrived with Europe hitting extremely hard.
“We had a crew of five ready to go to Europe to look after the boat,” explained Harburg skipper Mark Bradford. “But then the risk of viruses increased, so we got a team to unload it and put it on a ship back to Australia. It’s an advantage that we have to go back and try again. ”
In preparing the yacht for the race, Bradford explained: “The loads and the engineering are a very important part of the preparation, you have to go through it all again; you have to be as safe as you can; you need to understand the loads and that takes a long time because it involves a lot of different equipment that can break if you don’t get it right.
“You also have to learn the changes that have been made to the boat. The bow modification was quite significant. You have to keep up with the others, Wild Oats XI was getting better and better, so that you learn to sail again. The lucky thing is that last Christmas the level for which we prepared was quite high ”.
Bradford admits they are losing some of their key equipment as well. “Of the Kiwi guys who often sail with us, Scott Beavis was the only one who was able to join us.”
info: rolexsydneyhobart.comhttp://rolexsydneyhobart.com
