SYDNEY (AP) — Lindsay May will notch a first in the 78-year history of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race when he becomes the only sailor to start it 50 times — all of them consecutively — when it begins Tuesday in Sydney harbor.
May, with three overall titles and one line-honors win, will navigate “Antipodes” in the expected 103-boat fleet in the annual race that will head down the New South Wales south coast and across often treacherous Bass Strait to the island state of Tasmania.
The finish line of the 628-nautical mile (720-mile, 1,170-kilometer) race is at Constitution Dock in the state capital of Hobart.
May’s sailing career began in 1973, when the-then 24-year-old stepped off his surf board and on to a yacht.
“I never thought I would get to 50 and I had no idea what I was in for,” May said. “I had done very little racing. Then I went sailing here on the harbor with a mate of mine who was in the navy and I was just hooked.”
In 2006, May and his crew won handicap honors as the skipper and navigator of the 33-year-old wooden vessel Love & War. But he counts his most memorable race as the one he didn’t finish.
In 1993, when only 38 out of 104 starters finished due to poor weather conditions, May plucked fellow competitor John Quinn out of the Tasman Sea. Quinn had been washed overboard and spent nearly six hours in the water.
Last year’s fast conditions appeared to put the line honors record of one day, nine hours, 15 minutes, 24 seconds, under threat. That record was set by 100-foot super maxi Andoo Comanche in 2017, and Comanche also won last year’s race.
On Sunday, skipper John Winning Jr. suggested Andoo Comanche would defend its line honors title in any conditions as the race’s weather forecast remained unpredictable.
The Bureau of Meteorology says uncertainty remained as to wind, wave and weather conditions.
The four 100-foot super maxi yachts may have to contend with stormy conditions from late Tuesday into Wednesday, with showers, gusts and hail all possible for the far south of New South Wales and Bass Strait.
“Pack another set of thermal gear. It’ll be cold,” said SHK Scallywag skipper David Witt, another of the super maxis.
The forecast has changed throughout the week, leaving crews to suggest that having an adaptable navigator on board could be a game-changer.
“For us, it’s about trusting each person’s role on the boat,” Winning said. “We back our boat in any conditions to win the race, whether it’s upwind, downwind, light wind, reaching or whatever it is.”
Last year, Comanche finished at Constitution Dock in one day, 11 hours, 56 minutes and 48 seconds — the second-fastest time behind its 2017 record.
LawConnect, runner-up for line honors in the last three Hobarts, is Comanche’s biggest threat to clinching back-to-back wins. LawConnect, formerly known as InfoTrack and Perpetual Loyal, is particularly strong upwind.
“If we could get that all the way, that’d be awesome,” said sailing master Tony Mutter.
Super maxi LawConnect won’t shy away from the rough conditions that could come with a predicted low pressure system.
“We actually prefer it, the more tactical it is, the better for us, we feel,” Mutter said. “We kind of need that to be a thing for us to have a chance to win.”
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