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What is it? The first Sydney-to-Hobart race took place in 1945 and was won by a British naval captain, John Illingworth, in Rani. He triumphed despite the fact that he had been out of radio contact in a storm for several days and his crew had had to shove a blanket between the boat's wooden planks to plug a leak. One of the victims of the 1998 race, the Winston Churchill, had also taken part in 1945. Now organised by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the race begins in Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day each year – the height of summer in Australia – and finishes at the Tasmanian state capital of Hobart four days later. Participants face a 630-mile course in sometimes treacherous seas on the edge of the Southern Ocean. Elsewhere, the two races that most resemble the Sydney-to-Hobart are the Fastnet race from England to Ireland and back again and the race between Newport, Rhode Island and Bermuda. Earlier incidents The 1998 race wasn't the first to witness fatalities or ferocious weather conditions. In 1984, one crew member died and 104 of the 150 boats were forced to retire. Four years later, 38 of the 119 starters gave up early, nearly half of them with broken masts or rigging, after enduring two days and nights of 25-35mph winds against the current. In 1989, one sailor suffered fatal head injuries when the rigging of the yacht on which he was sailing collapsed during a gale. In 1993, four days of waves up to 10 metres (33 feet) and 60mph winds sank two yachts and damaged 64 badly enough for them to retire: the repair bill was estimated at more than £1 million. One skipper, John Quinn, survived five hours in the water before he was rescued. The bad weather was caused by a low pressure system off the south-east Australian coast; storm-force winds whipped against the southward East Australia Current, creating huge waves. Political triumph Former Prime Minister Edward Heath became only the second British entrant to win the race, when he skippered Morning Cloud to victory in 1969, the year before he entered 10 Downing Street. At 10.4m (34ft), his was the smallest yacht ever to win. En route, the crew had to bale out with buckets during a storm that produced 35mph winds and hailstones. Heath particularly savoured the fact that the positive publicity that this victory afforded him had Labour PM Harold Wilson 'gnashing his teeth'. Facts and figures
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