RISK AND DANGER ON THE SYDNEY TO HOBART RACE


had some discussions with friends about the risks involved in this race.

Here are my ideas about it:

The Sydney – Hobart race is known to be one of the toughest offshore races in the world and there is, without any doubt, also an element of risk in it (where is that not the case?) There was also a tragic race in 1998 when 6 sailors lost their lives.   

See the short video:

From Wikipedia:

The 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race was marred by tragedy when, during an exceptionally strong storm (which had similar strength winds to a lower-category hurricane), five boats sank and six people died. Of the 115 boats that started, only 44 made it to Hobart. As a result, the crew eligibility rules were tightened, requiring a higher minimum age and experience.

And over the years boats often had to retire or some others sunk. To my knowledge there have been around 10 sailors in total who lost their lives in all these years. This race is done every year.

But don’t forget that this race is done since 1945 with thousands of sailors finishing the race and they had fantastic times with thrilling moments. And it is things like this what makes life spicy and interesting, right?

On this race we will usually face at least once stormy conditions which is no a problem at all for a well-prepared boat and crew. So yes, there is definitely a risk involved in this race but the risk is so small that you could say it is safe (relatively speaking) to do it. We face risks daily. How many car accidents do we have every year? Who didn’t lose a relative or friend in such an accident? Then there are other risk in our jobs, hobbies, sport, at home and so on. I would bet that the  casualty and injury rate relation is higher on the street then on the Sydney-Hobart race and do we think that driving the car is dangerous? Well, I guess it depends on the driver.

But ironically, it is this very rare tragedies which make these kind of races famous and tempting to the offshore sailors.

 Here a beautiful video clip and song from Dave Lee:

Enjoy the music and the video.