Tag: #sydneyharbour

Today I experienced another “first”. Born and bred in Sydney, only 15 minutes from Sydney Harbour, I finally attended my first Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race start . It is known as the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race for the past 77 years. This race commences in Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day and finishes in Hobart on New Years Eve. I normally am too hungover on Boxing Day to get to this event. Not this year though. A friend, Brian, purchased a ticket for me on the Sydney Princess Cruises MV Jerry Bailey. It is ticketed as a Boxing Day Cruise so most may not realise that it goes to the yacht race starting area. The race is across 1,000 kilometres (628 nautical miles) and there is no prize money. Many of the sails are now black as they are made with carbon fibers, the strongest material for sails. I will try to do this again as I don’t need a reason to sail on Sydney Harbour because I love it so much, but it is quite the experience watching this race start and all the boats trying to get a great spot. It is very dangerous and you need to be on a boat with an experienced captain as there are many small boats on the harbour who are so inexperienced they can cause havoc. I highly recommend Sydney Princess Cruises as the ticket was $75 for 3 hours and included a lovely hot buffet of pasta, beef stew, chicken, salads, tea, coffee and dessert. The boat only had 70 people (can take 150) but everyone had a table allocated. There is a top deck but you could view the race from any part of the boat. This was a very unexpected surprise.