By James Dunlevie , ABC News The sight of dozens of yachts zigzagging around Sydney Harbour's blue water on Boxing Day has competed with the cricket for TV audience eyeballs for a while now - so why all the fuss? Is it just a case of rich sailors and their toys? Where is the start line? What happens if someone falls off? So many questions - let's try and answer them. When was the first Sydney to Hobart yacht race? The race - officially called the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - is now in its 79th year and has been described as "one of the toughest, most respected ocean races" on the world sailing calendar. The Australian National Maritime Museum notes the event began "in an off-the-cuff fashion" among World War II sailors keen to get back to peacetime activities by forming the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) in Sydney.
"At the end of the war, three of the members ...
planned a cruise to Hobart," the ANMM states. "One evening John Illingworth gave a talk to members, and afterwards Peter Luke suggested Illingworth might like to join the cruise. Illingworth's reply was: 'I will, if you make a race of it.
'" On Boxing Day in 1945, "nine yachts set forth, including Illingworth in his recently purchased yacht Rani", a 34-foot wooden cutter. The first race was a sign of things to come; a "strong southerly gale hit the fleet on the first day and many were unprepared for the rough seas", with several yachts thought lost, including Rani. Illingworth, a Royal Navy Captain, press.
