The 86-strong Sydney to Hobart fleet will spend their first night at sea with an eye towards the history books – with weather forecasting showing that the race record could tumble.
As the race passed Batemans Bay it was the evergreen Wild Oats XI with the slightest of advantages at the front end of the flotilla.
Perpetual Loyal, the boat skippered by the accountant Anthony Bell and the race leader at the starting cannon and out of Sydney Heads, remains in second and in a tight duel with the eight-time line honours champion Wild Oats.
Almost in line with Oats and Loyal is the third super maxi, the Hong Kong entrant Scallywag, with Volvo 70 Black Jack in fourth. All have made a serious dent into the 628-nautical mile odyssey towards Constitution Dock in the Tasmanian capital.
It has been an aggressive start to the race for three of the four super maxis, which have maximised the power of the wind, with spinnakers unfurled since clearing the heads.
The experimental 100-footer CQS – skippered by the former Sydney to Hobart winner Ludde Ingvall – has struggled to implement her full arsenal of toys and is behind four smaller boats in eighth position.
Oats is the current record holder with a time of one day, 18 hours, 23 minutes. While a new benchmark will hinge on the weather conditions around Tasmania the boat’s skipper, Mark Richards, knows his entrant can go quicker than the mark she set in 2012. Thanks, in no small part to the dramatic re-engineering which has helped shed 300kg off the Oatley family’s boat in the last four years.
Perpetual Loyal’s decision to focus on seasoned sailors rather than celebrities – as it has done in previous years – looks to be providing excellent reward. The giant black super maxi, now bolstered with crew from last year’s line honours conqueror Comanche, has hit speeds of 26 knots (some 47km/h) on her way south.
While the majority of the fleet is racing significantly off the rhumb line Loyal has gone further offshore than Wild Oats XI in the hope of capturing more of the southerly current – and with the aim of avoiding the wind change that could come in the back half of the race. It is a calculated gamble laid out by the tactician Tom Slingsby, who has won an Olympic gold medal and is part of the world-beating America’s Cup team Oracle.
The corrected time leader is a jostle between a series of boats. Last year’s winner Balance and Sailing Australia president Matt Allen’s Ichi Bahn are the current frontrunners for the Tattersalls Cup.
The skipper of the latter, a JV 52 yacht, is a veteran of the Hobart race and had entered two boats into this year’s blue-water classic, only making a decision on which boat to officially enrol once the weather forecast had firmed.
For Loyal and Oats, negotiating the first night at sea will be psychologically important as this year’s two frontrunners were forced into retirement this time 12 months ago.
Unlike the 2015 race – rough weather forced 30 boats to retire after the first two nights of racing in violent oceans – the first evening is expected to offer relatively smooth conditions.
The start of this year’s edition – the 72nd in Sydney to Hobart history – was without any penalty flags, though there were three early retirements.
The first was the pre-race exit of Jason Bond’s entrant Enigma, which proved to be just that – pulling out before midday owing to a motor issue.
The seven-decades-old Freyja was the next to succumb. She limped home to the Cruising Yacht Club after blowing out her headsail just beyond the heads.
Four hours into the racing Dare Devil, one of two boats to have a female skipper, became the third casualty after the 47-footer suffered rudder damage.