A leading Sydney to Hobart navigator has a blunt message for any crew hoping for smooth sailing as forecasters warn of potentially ferocious winds during this year's race.
Jenifer Wells, who'll be aboard 50-footer Wild Rose in her sixth Sydney to Hobart, isn't expecting conditions to match the infamous 1998 race - when six sailors died - as some are anticipating.
But Wells nevertheless had a word of warning for any rivals looking for an easy ride.
"If your boat and your crew are not prepared to go in, say, 40 and 50 knots in Bass Strait or elsewhere, even on the south coast of NSW or the eastern coast of Tasmania, you should not be going," Wells said on Tuesday.
"It is a part of the Hobart race that you would expect that.
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"For us, the smaller boats, we expect it at least once. We could be facing it twice.
"So we need to be prepared and that is the absolute backbone of safety first for this race."
Wells was confident that if conditions did indeed turn dire the 109-strong fleet would cope, even if inevitably many boats didn't finish.
"I think we have learned a lot of about seamanship and safety from `98 and I don't believe we are looking at that scenario this year," she said.
Mike Broughton, navigator of Pretty Fly III, also a 50-footer, agreed that major advances in technology, training and know-how should ensure there would never be a repeat of the deadly 1998 race when, apart from the six casualties, five boats sank and 55 sailors were rescued in devastating 70 to 90-knot winds.
"A huge amount of things have changed since `98 - communications, EPIRBS, personal locator beacons, trackers, AIS, they're all new since `98," Broughton said.
"So you think of the difference as an ex-search and rescue helicopter pilot, the amount of information to find somebody as I used to do when I used to fly in the 90s to what we have now is a huge difference.
"The training with a view back to `98, there was no mandatory safety training.
"There wasn't even a mandatory first aid requirement in `98 either.
"So all those things that have happened since the `98 inquiry and they have been embraced across the world.
"The `98 race changed ocean racing ... now it's a much better sport and a much safer sport."
