Sydney To Hobart Yacht Race - Records and Statistics

Records and Statistics

• Inaugural Race Winner, 1945: Rani (line and handicap honours as well as the inaugural race record)
• Fastest Race: 1-day 18h 40m 10s by Wild Oats XI (NSW) 2005
• Smallest Fleet: 9 starters, 1945 (first race)
• Total fleet: 5,058 yachts (80.29 yachts per race)
• Fleet finishing statistics: Of 5,058 yachts who have started the race since 1945, a total of 4,145 (81.94%) have completed and 913 (18.06%) yachts have retired.
• Highest retirement %: 70% of the fleet in 1984. On average after 62 races, 81.7% of the fleet finishes annually.
• Smallest Yacht: 27 ft (8.23m) Klinger (NSW) 1978
• Smallest Yacht Line Honours Winner: 35 ft (10.67m) – Nocturne (NSW) 1952 and Rani (UK) 1945.
• Largest Fleet: 371 starters, 1994
• Largest Yachts Entered: 100 ft (30.48m) Wild Oats XI (NSW, 2009–2011), Alfa Romeo (NZ, 2009), Investec LOYAL (NZ, 2009–2011), ICAP Leopard (UK, 2009) and Rapture (USA, 2009).
• Largest Yacht Line Honours Winner: 30.48 m Wild Oats XI, NSW, Australia, 2009–10
• Most Line Honours Victories: Morna/Kurrewa IV (Morna was later renamed Kurrewa IV), NSW/Vic, 7 victories
• Most Line Honours Victories by skipper: Frank and John Livingston (Victoria) Australia, 4 victories; Mark Richards (New South Wales) Australia, 4 victories.
• Most Handicap Honours Victories: Freya (NSW) and Love & War (NSW), 3 victories each
• Most Handicap Honours Victories by skipper: Magnus and Trygve Halvorsen (NSW) Australia, 4 victories
• Oldest competitor: Maluka was built in 1932 and raced in 2008 aged 76. The 9.1 metre yacht was restored by Sean Langman
• Most races by skipper: 45 Tony Cable (New South Wales), 44 John Bennetto (Tas – dec), Lou Abrahams (Vic).
• Race treble: Race record, Line & Handicap Honours in the same year:
  • 1945, Rani (UK); and
  • 2005, Wild Oats XI (NSW).
• Double: Line & Handicap Honours in the same year:
  • 1945, Rani (UK);
  • 1972, American Eagle (USA);
  • 1977, Kialoa III (USA);
  • 1980, New Zealand (NZ);
  • 1987, Sovereign (NSW);
  • 2005, Wild Oats XI (NSW);
• Back-to back Line Honours titles:
  • Morna (NSW) 1946, 1947 and 1948;
  • Margaret Rintoul (NSW) 1950 and 1951;
  • Kurrewa IV (Formerly Morna) Vic 1956 and 1957;
  • Solo (NSW) 1958 and 1959;
  • Astor (NSW) 1963 and 1964; and
  • Wild Oats XI (NSW) 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008.
• Back-to back Handicap Honours titles:
  • Freya (NSW) 1963, 1964 and 1965;
  • Westward (Tas) 1947 and 1948.
• Closest Line Honours Race Finish: 7 seconds, 1982; Condor of Bermuda (Bermuda) defeated Apollo (NSW)
• Closest finish for Handicap Honours: 1 minute and 43 seconds also in 1982 when Scallyway (NSW, Australia) defeated Audacity (NSW, Australia)
• Yachts winning Line Honours to be later disqualified: Wild Wave (1953), Nirvana (1983) and Rothmans (1990)
• Yachts to win Handicap Honurs to be later disqualified: Drake's Prayer (1985)
• Most Successful Yacht Designer: Bruce Farr (NZ), 15 overall winners
• First known female sailors: Jane Tate and Dagmar O’Brien (both in 1946). O'Brien's yacht (Connella) retired, thus Tate has the honour of being the first female to complete the event and a trophy is now named in her honour.
• First all-female crewed Yacht: Barbarian, 1975 (skipper: Vicki Wilman)
• Most Races for one Woman: 15 by Adrienne Cahalan (AUS); (navigator for 2000 winner Nicorette)
• Worst Disaster: 1998, 6 sailors died and 5 yachts sunk; 115 yachts started but only 43 finished.
• Sunken Yachts: Clywd (1993), Adjuster (1993), Winston Churchill (1998), VC Offshore Stand Aside (1998), Sword of Orion (1998), Miintinta (1998), Midnight Special (1998), Ray White Koomooloo (2006) and Georgia (2008).
• Yachtsmen to have lost their lives: Mike Bannister (Winston Churchill, 1998), Glyn Charles (Sword of Orion, 1998), Ray Crawford (Billabong, 1988), John Dean (Winston Churchill, 1998), Bruce Guy (Business Post Naiad, 1998), Jim Lawler (Winston Churchill, 1998), Wally Russell (Yahoo II, 1984), John Sarney (Inca, 1973), Phillip Skeggs (Business Post Naiad, 1998), Peter Taylor (BP Flying Colours, 1989) and Hugh (Barry) Vallance (Zilvergeest III, 1975)

Another Australian offshore race is the Melbourne to Hobart Yacht Race run by the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria. Known as the West Coaster, this race arrives in Hobart around the same time as the more famous Sydney–Hobart.