How to Watch the Sydney Hobart Race

Merry Christmas! Can’t make it to the Sydney Heads to watch the Sydney Hobart start with the other 600,000 spectators? Watch the Sydney Hobart Race online via Yahoo!7.

Live coverage of the start will be from 7:30pm-9:00pm CT on Christmas Day in the US, with the start at 8:00pm CT (local time in Sydney: 12.30pm AEST livestream begins, 1pm start, Friday December 26, aka Boxing Day).

The Seven Network and Yahoo!7 will livestream the start and also promise to post a replay soon afterwards. Here are some other options for following the race – you can also watch the livestream on rolexsydneyhobart.com, follow on Twitter (@rshyr) or Facebook.

Joining the 109 boats on the start line will be the fleet of 12 Clipper Race 70-footers, including Linda McDavitt’s ClipperTelemed+ team.

The fleet ranges from 34-footers to the amazing 100-foot super-maxis Comanche (steered by Ken Read) and Wild Oats XI. For Clipper Race teams, this counts as “Race 5” in their round-the-world event.

The 71st annual Rolex Sydney Hobart Race is one of sailing’s marquee events, with a start out of Sydney harbor, then heading south 628 miles through Bass Strait to Tasmania. Since the first race in 1945, winning times have dropped from six days to under two days.

Track the race in realtime on the Yacht Tracker page, which shows each boat’s position, distance to finish, and ETA.

The weather looks like 20-25 knots from the NE at the start, with a cold front expected to bring 25-35 knot southerly headwinds over the weekend and then dying over the next week.