Pantelis Elinas, PhD

As I learned recently, one of the largest sporting events at the end of the year in Sydney is the Sydney to Hobart ocean yacht race which always kicks off on boxing day at the Sydney harbor. So, since I was in town for the holidays, I went down to Watson’s Bay to see the event that is enjoyed by thousands of other Australians. I have to admit, that in the 8 months that I have lived here, I had never seen so much traffic in the harbor. Other than the 100 yachts taking part in the race, there were also hundreds of spectator boats fully loaded waiting in anticipation for the start of the race. When the race started, it was pandemonium with all the boats racing out of the harbor and on their way to Tasmania.

The two largest yachts participating are the Wild Oats XI and Skandia which took an early lead way ahead of the pack. These 30-meter boats were moving much faster than all the others and so it is no surprise that they are way ahead of everyone else almost 1.5 days into the 628-mile race. I took a short video of the two yachts leading the race out of the harbor. The video is below.