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Bay Area Sailor Starts Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race on Boxing Day

On December 26, Boxing Day (AEDT), one of the world’s great ocean races will start in Sydney, Australia, with one American boat in the fleet.

The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, a 628-mile race from Sydney to Hobart, Tasmania, is a “bucket-list” event for many ocean racers, with many from the USA’s West Coast having taken up the challenge through the years. This has included Roy Disney on Pyewacket, Stan Honey racing with Jim Clark aboard Jim’s Comanche, Matt Brooks with Dorade, and Larry Ellison, who won the storm-tossed 1998 race aboard Sayonara when six lives were lost in the event. Last year, West Coast Beneteau dealer Charles Devanneaux did the Sydney Hobart aboard his Beneteau First 44 Lenny.

The J/133 Bacchanal has been a frequent sighting in numerous events on the Bay over the past few years.
The J/133 Bacchanal has been a frequent sighting in numerous events on the Bay over the past few years.
© 2024 NorCalSailing

This year, Corinthian Yacht Club racer Ron Epstein will join that list by racing his recently launched 39-ft JPK 11.80 Bacchanal, which was built in Australia. Epstein started as a recreational sailor, growing up in Southern California. Just a few years ago he decided to get back into sailing with the purchase of a J/133, also called Bacchanal. He started recreational sailing on the Bay, but soon found himself in the CYC Friday night races and then stepping up to more competitive YRA racing and the Rolex Big Boat Series. In 2024 he finished second in ORC C in the RBBS.

It was while racing his J/133 that he decided to build a race-purposed boat. Bay Area-based Australian sailor Keiran Searle was his key crew member and led the effort to build the JPK 11.80 in Australia. Searle will join Epstein for this year’s race.

.There are 105 boats entered in this year’s 79th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, with Ron Epstein and his new JPK 11.80 Bacchanal the only American boat entered. Following the race, the boat will be shipped back to the West Coast, where Epstein will resume his transition from casual daysailing to competing on the West Coast racing circuit.

Bacchanal has been practicing in Sydney Harbor and will start the Sydney Hobart on Boxing Day (Christmas Day in the US).
Bacchanal has been practicing in Sydney Harbor and will start the Sydney Hobart on Boxing Day (Christmas Day in the US).
© 2024 Bacchanal Racing

Over the past 78 years the race has been known as featuring one of the most challenging courses in the world. The often-grueling conditions have forced many boats to retire, and others have been lost at sea. Looking ahead on Windy, this year’s conditions look more benign.

Sydney Hobart racers are probably happy they’re not starting today. Today is on the left, and the Boxing Day forecast on the right.
© 2024 Windy

Oakland resident Rodney Daniel will also be back for another run in the Sydney Hobart aboard the 100-ft LawConnect. Last year Rodney sailed on LawConnect with US navigator Chris Lewis aboard, covering the 628 miles in 1 day 19 hours 3 minutes 58 seconds, just 51 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Andoo Comanche.

Best wishes to Ron Epstein and his crew aboard Bacchanal. You can follow the event on the Sydney Hobart tracker here. (And don’t forget, Australia is a day ahead of us, so for us West Coasters, the race will be starting 6:00 p.m. on Christmas Day.)

 

4 Comments

  1. milly Biller 2 months ago

    Don’t leave David Allen’s Improbable, skippered by Skip Allan, with Commodore, Dave Walhe, and other notable locals aboard, off your list of West Coasters who have raced Sydney- Hobart !

    • John Arndt 2 months ago

      Milly – Thanks for adding Improbable, currently being restored in the Pacific Northwest by Bruce Schwab. – to this we must add Jim Kilroy who took line honors with Kialoa II in 1971 and with Kialoa III in 1975 setting a new race record. What other West Coast boats have raced the Sydney Hobart?

  2. robert cleveland 2 months ago

    Yes west coast sailors have made a small mark down under where I’ve lived for past 40years starting with Kilroy 👏👏👍👏👍👍

  3. John Arndt 2 months ago

    Jack Halterman wrote in to remind us that he and Malcolm Park were aboard Bay Area sailor Roger Sturgeon’s STP65 ‘Rosebud’ when, in 2007, they joined Ted Turner and Jim Kilroy as the third American boat to win the Sydney Hobart: https://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/rosebud-wins-rolex-sydney-hobart/

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