As the 85 yachts in the 2005 Rolex Sydney to Hobart Race settle in for the night off the New South Wales coast, the competing sailors have described the first day of the race as close to perfect, but probably the happiest is Neville Crichton, the skipper of Alfa Romeo, as he maintains his lead over Wild Oats.
 
"This is champagne sailing," said Andrew Short, a veteran of 13 previous races and skipper of the Volvo 60 ABN Amro. I have never had such a great start to the race." Steve McConaghy on Quantum Racing said "I've never known the seas to be so flat. It's incredible out here."

Not everyone has been happy though. One of the smallest boats in the fleet, the Mumm 30 Tow Truck is much further back in the pack than expected. "We would like to be up with the Sydney 38s and the Beneteau 44s," said crewman Brett Filby. "We are desperately waiting for breeze and looking forward to getting the spinnaker up tomorrow and getting ahead."

Certainly the tight reach of the first hours of the race has not suited the pure downwind boats like Tow Truck. It has been manna though for the bigger 50 and 60 footers, which have been contesting the early handicap lead and especially the big 30 metre maxis. However, as the wind has eased as night settles in, the advantage has been swinging to the frontrunners. With their long waterline length and massive sail areas Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo, Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI and Grant Wharington's Skandia have been able to maintain most of their early speed despite the softening breeze. They have been able to extend their lead, with Alfa Romeo moving into first place on handicap as well as maintaining her position at the front of the fleet.

Alfa Romeo is two miles ahead of Wild Oats XI, with Skandia a further four miles astern. In the race to break the record, the three lead yachts are still ahead of Nokia's 1999 schedule, but the softening breeze is steadily working against them. The forecast is for good northerly winds tomorrow.  The leaders will be sweating on the wind coming sooner rather than later to keep their record hopes alive.

Wild Oats First Out Of The Heads, But Alfa Romeo takes the Lead At Botany Bay

In perfect Sydney summer weather the 85 boats of the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart fleet staged an incident free start to the race, with Wild Oats leading Alfa Romeo through the heads, but Neville Crichton's super maxi took the lead just off Botany Bay. In a light 8 knot north-easterly breeze, surrounded by a fleet of spectator craft and watched by hundreds of thousands from the foreshore, the boats set off from the two start lines (one for the biggest boats, the other about 100 metres astern) on time at 1:20 pm AEDT. Only two boats, Toecutter and Inner Circle, were recalled to start again, having crossed the line early. Both were starting from the second starting line.
 

As expected the two biggest canting keel maxis, Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI and Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo quickly pulled away from the fleet, with Wild Oats XI in command at the first mark. The newer of the two maxis showed astonishing speed in the smooth harbour waters, rounding the first mark almost thirty seconds ahead of her rival. Grant Wharington's Skandia, the rebuilt maxi from Melbourne rounded the mark about a minute behind Alfa Romeo. Best of the smaller boats was the Queensland 50-footer Heaven Can Wait (Peter Hollis).

As first out of the harbour Wild Oats XI won the first little contest of this long, 628 nautical mile race, but as the two boats raced neck and neck towards the offshore mark neither Wild Oats XI seemed able stretch her lead nor Alfa Romeo to shave the gap. It did appear though that Alfa Romeo was a little more settled in the washing machine conditions created by the almost solid wall of spectator craft and the more open waters Once around the seaward mark the strategy for both boats became clear. Find the shortest route to Hobart and go for it. An hour into the race the two front runners were crossing Botany Bay, the rocks of La Perouse just a few hundred metres from Alfa Romeo as she finally inched ahead of Wild Oats XI on the inside.

At the start of the race Marion Cooper, Commodore of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania dropped a white rose into the harbour in honour of John Bennetto, veteran of 44 Rolex Sydney Hobarts and one of the great characters of the race who died in Hobart just a few days ago. At the seaward mark the crew of John's boat, Quest, also cast a wreath into the sea as they turned for home.