Before the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race all twelve Clipper yachts took part in the usual sail parade. This time it was a very special parade: we passed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and eventually joined the other 100 participants. For the race start, all boats were divided into three groups, each of them having a separate starting line. We were in the second group and, thus, started from the middle line. It was incredible to see this many boats around us, including the famous 100-foot Maxi Yachts Wild Oats XI, Comanche, Rambler 88, Perpetual Loyal, etc. The start itself was just breathtaking and the 30 minutes until we left Sydney Harbour through “The Heads” was incredibly intense. Boats were everywhere, passing close in front or just behind us and some of them even got so close that you could have shaken hands with the other crews, if you would have leaned over a little bit ;) This was probably the most exciting sailing I have done in my life. 

After we had tacked our way outside Sydney Harbour and left trough “The Heads”, we were able to hoist one of our kites and make our way south in direction of Tasmania. The weather predictions showed strong winds for the first night and then decreasing winds for the rest of the race. It turned out that this was fairly accurate for the whole race. We managed to fly one of our kites just after the sunset, as winds with gusts of up to 40 knots were coming through. In the end, we also put in two reefs and just had the staysail up. This was definitely one of the tougher nights in the whole race. As we learned during the next days a third of all competitors had to retire because of damages to their boats – broken rudders, one broken mast, rig damages, torn sails, fractures – you name it. None of the Clipper boats had suffered any damage, thanks to the robust design of our yachts that are made for ocean crossings compared to the superlight and fragile racing yachts that compete in short distance races.

The next days to Hobart included some close racing action with competitors. Normally, we do not see many other boats around us, but during the Sydney Hobart race we had at least five boats insight for most of the time. That definitely pushes you more when racing. Unfortunately, the winds also started to lighten and sometimes even died off completely – the complete opposite to the first night and the weather we would definitely did not expect during the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Our second crossing of the Bass Strait was again not very hard, as we slowly made our way south.

On December 29th we saw the coast of Tasmania and knew it would not be far anymore. The famous cliff (called “Organ pipes” for a good reason) when approaching Cap Raoul and Cap Pillar was just amazing. As our last night set we knew that tacking up the Derwent River would not be easy, since we had to look out for the strong tide and shallow areas on the way to Hobart. Until the early morning hours of December 31st we sailed up the river and had many close encounters with other competing boats. It’s just an incredible feeling when the lights of the city of Hobart emerged in the darkness. We finally crossed the finish line just as the sun came out at around 5 AM. To my great joy my parents and Julius came out to the marina, which was again an unforgettable feeling after having just finished the globally renowned Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. While the entire Marina was still asleep, we decided to shake up the atmosphere a little and hosted our own arrival party on board. It was such an unforgettable feeling, having just finished the renowned Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and being welcomed by family and friends of the crew and even some of the skippers and crew members of the other yachts. Being berthed just at the harbour entrance we were also the ideal welcoming committee for the continuously arriving yachts, each of them being spoiled by an individual greeting. In good sailor’s tradition we eventually managed to throw our skipper Max off our boat into the “refreshing” water. 

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