Rolex Sydney Hobart Race: Christmas classic ahead, premiere for "Alithia"
Tatjana Pokorny
· 18.12.2025
The fleet for the 80th edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is one of the largest in this century. 132 yachts are expected on the starting line. Among them are five 100-foot maxis, including former winners such as the Juan K 100 Custom "LawConnect", which has won the Line Honours twice in a row. The VPLP Verdier 100 "Master Lock Comanche", which has just been celebrated as "First ship home" in the Cabbage Tree Island Race, and the Reichel Pugh 30 "Palm Beach XI" (ex-"Wild Oats XI") with sail number AUS 10001 are also aiming to be the fastest.
Rolex Sydney Hobart Race: Start on "Boxing Day"
The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, which also hosted the sailing regatta of the Olympic Games at the turn of the millennium, has organised the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race since 1945. The watch manufacturer Rolex has been a loyal title partner since 2002. The Australian Christmas classic, which traditionally starts on Boxing Day, is one of the most important yachting events that the company has supported for a total of 70 years.
Jost Stollmann's "Alithia", which will be competing for the Düsseldorf Yacht Club, is a newcomer to the challenging 628 nautical mile race from Sydney via Bass Strait to Hobart on Tasmania. The Solaris 80rs was built in Trieste especially for a round-the-world voyage around the famous capes. Entrepreneur Jost Stollmann had already sailed around the world in two years in 2002 and 2003 with his wife Fiona and five children on the former 130-foot "Alithia". The predecessor had run aground on a reef in Fiji, whereupon Stollmann had the yacht inspected for structural damage in Brisbane.
Jost Stollmann remembers it well: "We finally fell in love with Australia and settled in Sydney in 2004." Now he will be entering a regatta for the first time with the blue water Solari "Alithia" with the sail number SYD 7. "We have a custom boat and have never raced before," he says, outlining the XXL-sized task. "Alithia" is designed as a performance cruiser that sails around the six capes of the world on the most remote routes.
With a performance cruiser against racing machines
The 24-metre sloop was delivered in June 2020 and, after many adventures, will now make her regatta debut in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Jost Stollmann says: "We have worked our way up from category nothing to category 1 and are looking forward to demonstrating the performance of our 50-tonne blue water circumnavigator and the skills of our crew in competition with the world's elite." The circumnavigators are aware that they are competing with an experienced amateur team against dozens of racing machines and hardened professional crews. Click here for the entry list.
On board with Jost Stollmann are another 14 crew members, recruited from the Australian and German circle of friends. Among them are the Hamburg sea sailors Freddy and Arno Böhnert. Father and son competed in their first Rolex Sydney Hobart Race in 2018 on their own "Lunatix", which took part in the Australian long-distance classic as part of a circumnavigation. Navigator Jim Nixon, who is looking forward to his 31st race, is one of the crew members on "Alithia" with a wide range of experience.
Regatta premiere for "Alithia" in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race
For Jost Stollmann and his team, the switch from cruising to racing mode is a big one. After five years and more than 61,000 nautical miles with experiences in Svalbard and the Outer Islands of the Sychelles, they have prepared the 50-tonne one-off boat for the challenges of racing in the best possible way. "The boat is designed to sail the six capes. It has already experienced a lot. As a crew, we have to learn at breakneck speed," said Jost Stollmann before the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
One of the most famous mottos of the race applies to his team: the participation of the circumnavigator and his crew on "Alithia", who are inspired by a spirit of adventure and discovery, is a huge achievement in itself. The race will show what can be achieved with the blue water yacht and her sailing friends. However, according to the latest forecasts, the hope for powerful winds at the start of the Christmas race does not seem to be fulfilled for the time being.
Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Edward Townsend-Medlock said on December 18 that the current outlook for the 80th race, while still subject to considerable uncertainty, pointed to a relatively favourable start on Boxing Day due to an area of high pressure in the Tasman Sea. "We're talking about something seven, eight or nine days ahead, so there's a lot of uncertainty," Townsend-Medlock said.
The wind forecast: gentle at first, then sometimes rough?
Nevertheless, according to Townsend-Medlock, "the models are in good agreement in terms of the main features". Light easterly to south-easterly winds in the 5 to 10 knot range are forecast for the start of the race on 26 December, just over a week away. Townsend-Medlock said the strength could vary slightly depending on the exact position of the high, but the trend was similar across the models. An alternative scenario, which was considered less likely the week before the race - could bring stronger northerly winds if the high remains west of Tasmania.
As the fleet sails along the New South Wales coast on the first day, the forecast suggests that the wind could gradually shift to the north-east and increase to between 20 and 25 knots. "After that it's very hard to tell," says Townsend-Medlock. "Usually one or two fronts move through and bring stronger winds into the Bass Strait, but that's well outside the forecasting capability of the models at the moment." You can read about how the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2024 went here.
