The classic offshore race in the southern hemisphere among favorites and 111 boats registered for this edition
There will also be Maluka who is 90 years old. And it is not the first time. Because for Maluka, a 9m long Ranger Class sailing yacht built in Australia in 1932, this will be the eighth Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. What is called the Christmas Regatta and which starts from Sydney on December 26th at 1pm local time, in Italy it will be 3am, is an unmissable appointment for Australian enthusiasts, and beyond. Competing on the 628 miles of the route that from Sydney, flowing along the east coast of Australia, leads to crossing the Bass Strait between Australia and Tasmania to reach the finish line in Hobart is a challenge, an unmissable adventure.
In 1945
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In 1945, when only nine boats ran the first edition, no one could imagine that in 1994 there would be 371 boats at the start. And that the regatta would become one of the great international sailing events. A call so strong as to convince even the Italian Navy to participate. The Corsair II did so during one of her training cruises, a 21-metre-long two-masted ship built in Genoa in 1961, a training ship for aspiring officers of the Naval Academy. It was 1965 and the commander of the Corsaro II was then lieutenant commander Gianfranco Alberini who would later be commodore of the Costa Smeralda Yacht Club and coordinator of the pool of 17 companies that gave life to the first Italian challenge to the Americas’ Cup. It was 1983 and the boat was called Azzurra. And, another two masts (28 metres) and another training ship of the Navy was Orsa Maggiore on the occasion of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Among the participations was that of Giovanni Soldini in 2015 with his Maserati (at the time it was a monohull, today has Maserati Multi 70, a trimaran) which closed in fourth place overall stopped by a light wind bubble on the penultimate day.
Italy at the antipodes
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And that of Vincenzo Onorato’s Mascalzone Latino in 2017. He finished in eleventh place overall, however surpassed by boats almost twice his 15 meters long. But if not the boats, many Italian sailors were part of crews that won. Starting with Francesco Mongelli, today in the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team sailing team. In 2016 he was on board Giacomo, 70 feet (21 metres) owned by an Australian owner who won the Tattersall Cup, which rewards the boat with the best compensated time, the one calculated on the basis of the rating, a particular handicap that every boat has. A victory repeated in 2019 by the Piedmontese Marco Carpinello, again aboard an Australian boat.
The Tattersall Cup
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If the Tattersall Cup matters, all eyes are on the overall winner: first on the honors line. This year with 111 boats entered and 21 with a crew of just two people (there is a special classification for them), the favorites are four maxi, 30-metre boats with crews of 20 people. There is Black Jack which goes by the name of Alfa Romeo 2 and then Esimit Europa 2 which has won the Barcolana eight times. Black Jack starts as favorite having won the last edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. Another maxi pretender, Andoo Comanche, who holds the regatta record. He set it in 2019 with 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds. Then there are Hamilton Island Wild Oats, which under the name of Wild Oats, holds the record for wins, nine. And finally, LawConnect which, in addition to many victories, including in European regattas, has in its curriculum a reversal at the 2011 Rolex Fastnet Race when it broke and lost its keel. A memory that certainly resurfaces if you prepare to tackle a course like that of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race which in the 76 editions held so far has reserved all types of weather conditions. From the calms, to the low wind of 2021, to the storm that decimated the fleet in 1998, causing six deaths and the sinking of five boats. Still too early to make forecasts on the weather that will occur on December 26th. Certainly, before the start the thoughts of the more than 1000 sailors involved in this 77th edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race will go to Bass Strait where the currents, waves and winds of the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet and collide and where the depths range from over 1000 meters to just under 70. A constantly boiling pot that makes it one of the most dangerous stretches of sea in the world. But the thought will disappear at the cannon shot. Then it will only be the comparison with the sea and with the 628 miles remaining to the finish line in Hobart. A severe exam. Which Maluka, at 90, faces once again.
December 24, 2022 (change December 24, 2022 | 16:44)
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