A hooter blast from the Australian Cruising Yacht Boat marked the start at exactly 13.00 local time (2.00 GMT) of the 71st Rolex Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race. The 108 boats taking part lined out at three start lines on a cloudy day and in 15-knot east, nor-easterly winds.
Maserati started from the first line along with the other large boats. Unsurprisingly, the super maxis immediately took command of the race with Comanche out in front followed by Wild Oats XI, Rambler, Ragamuffin 100 and Black Jack.
The start proved something of an adventure for Maserati. Almost immediately after the hooter blast, the Italian VOR 70’s keel became ensnared with the three buoys marking off the spectator fleet area and so she had to stop to deal with that problem, losing precious time in the process. In the end, Carlos Hernandez and Sam Goodchild dropped off the side of the boat and worked their way along the hull, cutting the lines wrapped around the keel.
Three boats retired after incidents during the start: the Chinese craft Ark23, Cougar II, a Tasmanian entry, and the British yacht, Lupa of London.
Giovanni Soldini had this to say four hours into the race: “The start went well. It was very dangerous though because of the channel where you had to tack sharply. Between the sandbanks and the spectators, there was very little space, in fact.
As we started, we heard an awful crash to leeward: two boats had collided. At the end of the channel, we were just a few metres from Black Jack and held the tack to the last but still ended up a boat’s length inside the spectator zone and so had to tack around one of the buoys that delimit it.
We’d already done that on our training days but today the keel became ensnared with a line attaching the buoy to its neighbour and we soon realised we were dragging three buoys behind us. We tried to free ourselves by backing up in the middle of the oncoming fleet but eventually we positioned ourselves to windward of everyone and with our bow to the wind, we dropped Carlos over the side. He managed to free up just one of the buoys. In the end, Sam jumped in with a knife and cut whatever he could.
We’re now flying the spi and the full main in a wind that’s varying between 19 and 26 knots. Black Jack is a bit faster than we are. Her bowsprit is two metres longer than ours so that could be why. I only hope that there isn’t still a bit of line tangled in the keel. We’re expecting the front to come in in the next few hours”.
Brendon Thorne / Getty Images
From Giovani Soldini
