Volvo Ocean Race 2001/2002 www.VolvoOceanRace.org zurück zur Übersicht TWO-LINE START FOR SYDNEY HOBART RACE FLEET The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia will return to a two-line start for its 57th CYCA Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, giving the eight yachts competing in the Volvo Ocean Race a clear start for leg three of their round the world race. This leg, from Sydney to Auckland, includes the 630 nautical mile Sydney to Hobart, with the Volvo Ocean 60s having a brief "pit stop" in Hobart before continuing on to Auckland. The two starting lines, stretching east to west just north of Shark Island, will be only 200 metres apart, the VO 60s on the front line, the rest of the fleet, including the maxi yachts, on the back line. The Starting Signal cannon for the entire fleet will be fired at 1pm, sending the 76 boats off together in a spectacular dash to the heads and then to the sea mark, one nautical to the east, before turning south, on course for Tasmania. To equalise the distance to Hobart, the Volvo Ocean 60s will turn a mark 200 metres further north at the heads than the rest of the fleet, all boats leaving their marks to starboard. As always, there will be no general recall if yachts are over the line, but individual recalls will be notified by radio five minutes after the start. Infringing yachts in the index fleet must then return and re-start, but the VO 60s will have to wait to receive a time penalty once they have rounded the sea mark. After taking the time penalty, they will have to re-round the seamark before continuing in the race. To give the Volvo boats room to manoeuvre between the lines before the start, a 5 minute rule will apply to the rest of the fleet, which means that any yacht in front of the back line after the 5 minute Preparatory Signal must return around the ends of the line or be penalised. Official starter for the 2001 Race will be Mr Peter Luke, who competed in the inaugural Sydney to Hobart Race in his own yacht, Wayfarer, and was one of the founders of the Cruising Yacht Club. Further information: 57th CYCA Sydney Hobart Race Information Office, CYCA - (02) 9327 5167 or 9327 2461 or Peter Campbell - 0419 385 028 INAUGURAL SYDNEY TO HOBART RACE SKIPPER TO START RACE AGAIN - 57 YEARS LATER On December 26, 1945, Peter Luke set sail for Hobart in his 12-metre yawl Wayfarer in the company of eight other yachts, and set a record that has never been broken - for the longest time ever taken to complete the 630 nautical mile course: 11 days, 6 hours and 20 minutes. On Boxing Day, December 26, this year, the 86-year-old will fire the 18th century replica cannon signalling the start of the 57th CYCA Sydney Hobart Race for the fleet of 76 largely state-of-the-art racing yachts, some of them anticipating an arrival at Hobart's Constitution Dock in under two days. Peter Luke, co-founder of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in 1944 and its oldest living ex-Commodore, will be the Official Starter of this year's bluewater classic. Luke will fire the 1.00pm Starting Signal cannon while another yachting great, Richard 'Sighty' Hammond, who completed his 40th Sydney to Hobart Race in 1999 to become the record holder (he now shares this record with Tasmanian yachtsman John Bennetto) will fire the five minute Preparatory Signal gun. "We decided this year to honour our founding fathers and those that have helped make the CYCA Australia's premier ocean racing club by inviting them to be part of the starting line-up," said Commodore Hans Sommer today. The Managing Director of BMW Sydney, long time naming rights sponsor of the CYCA's popular Winter Series, will fire the 10 minute Warning Signal gun. Luke began his boating career as a very young boy when he lived Taylors Bay on Sydney Harbour. His father gave him an eight-foot dinghy with a one horsepower outboard motor, which he quickly converted to sailing boat with a sugar bag for a sail hung off a broomstick for a mast. In the ensuing years he graduated from dinghies to keelboats, culminating with the launching of Wayfarer in 1942. Peter still sails Wayfarer on Port Stephens where he lives with his wife, Monnie. The first Sydney-Hobart Race in 1945 was marked by gales that played havoc with the fleet of nine starters. Two yachts were reported as missing for four days, and the fledgling race made front-page headlines in Sydney and Hobart newspapers every day. Many of the entrants, most of whom had never ocean raced before, sought shelter, sometimes going ashore for a meal or to telephone home to say they were OK, and then continuing the next day. Luke was the last to finish the race, having put into Port Arthur the night before for a crayfish dinner after encountering 65-knot winds in Storm Bay and spending an uncomfortable night drifting under bare poles. Further Information: 57th CYCA Sydney Hobart Race Media Information Office - Peter Campbell 0419 385 028 or peter_campbell@bigpond.com Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE