CHANGING TIMES

In 1964, when Bob Dylan wrote the words for his third studio album’s title song The Times They Are A-Changin’, he was thinking of the social and political upheaval of the time. But the same song came to mind at the start of the 75th Rolex Sydney Hobart on Boxing Day 2019.

The world is a very different place to when Captain John Illingworth of the British Navy led the first Sydney Hobart fleet on Boxing Day 1945. Back in the day, sailors gathering at Sydney’s Cruising Yacht Club, ahead of the 628nm race south, debated whether they would face one or three ‘southerly busters’. Historically, it has been an upwind race with winds of 30 to 50 knots in those frontal systems.

Now, with burning Australia making headlines around the world, we truly know the world has changed, and so has this iconic bluewater classic. Rather than having even one cold front, this 75th race had two weak ‘troughs’ – transition periods of little or no wind – one before the fleet leaders headed into the Bass Strait and another as the fleet