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The 2024 Sydney Hobart Race extends 628-nautical miles from Sydney Harbour to Hobart, the state capital of Tasmania. The start on December 26 takes place in the heart of the Australian summer, with 105 yachts set to take on the 79th edition. Kimball Livingston reports on one of the entrants for the NY Times:
A slow epiphany brought Ron Epstein and his boat to Australia as the only U.S. entry in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, starting Thursday (Dec. 26).
“I’m not the poster child of who should be doing this,” he said.
Growing up sailing casually with family in Southern California, Epstein, a patent attorney, carried on the tradition when he relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, bought a J/133 yacht and sailed with family and friends. He shared the experience of sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge, looping around Alcatraz or lazily drifting past the downtown towers.
Competition was not on his mind, Epstein said, until a guest said that his 43 footer was as much a race boat as a cruiser. “I told him, ‘I don’t think so. Look at all that wood down below.’”
That one comment, however, sparked two years of cautious experimenting as Epstein discovered that he could succeed at racing, and that he liked it, and that he might like it even more with a boat that did not have all that wood down below. – Full report
Event details: https://rolexsydneyhobart.com
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