Australians celebrate December 26 (a national holiday called Boxing Day) in a numberof ways. One is the annual start to one of the sailing world’s premier events: the Sydney toHobart yacht race. Unlike many other major sailing events, the race is not restricted toa single class of sailing vessel, leading to a complex handicap system under whichboats of different sizes are scored differently. The most highly sought after prizeis line honours for being the first across the finish linein Hobart’s Derwent River. Another prize is awarded for being the fastest boatbased on the calculated handicaps for different boat classes.
It is an exciting and potentially dangerous race, traversing 627 nautical miles from startto finish, including the crossing of the often treacherous waters of Bass Strait. Foulweather provides strong winds that sometimes help sailors set new speed records, but can also overwhelm sailing vessels, leaving them in need of rescue. In 1998, for example, strong winds resultedin new record times for the race with boats that took line honours and those placingclose behind, but strengthening storm winds in Bass Strait caused many boats behindthose leaders to founder and six sailors died despite a major rescue effort. Sincethen, rules for safety gear, qualifications, and liability have tightened a greatdeal.
The 2003 event was quite unlike 1998. Weather conditions were much calmer and oldrecords were not broken, though water eddies off Flinders and Eden Islands inBass Strait gave some savvy skippers a significant boost. There was also considerable well-deserved excitement aboutthe presence of two 30-meter (98-foot) boats, Skandia and Zana, thelargest boats ever entered in this race and correctly figured to be lead contendersfor line honours. The event, however, is not just a race of large boats: of the 57 vessels inthe 2003 race, about one third were in the small 12-meter (40-foot) class.
This MODIS scene was acquired by the Terra satellite approximately 30 hours afterSkandia took line honours with a racing time of two days, fifteen hours,fourteen minutes, and six seconds; Zana was just fourteen minutes behind. While well beyond the reach of MODIS’s 250-meter per pixel maximum resolution, this scene does include much of theracing fleet behind the front runners still sailing across Bass Strait towards the finishing line.
References & Resources
Image created from data provided by the MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
