Smaller boats appear favoured for Sydney to Hobart race handicap honours by a weather forecast which makes a race record extremely unlikely.
Strong southerlies of up to 30 knots on the first night will challenge the 117 boat fleet, with the skippers of the five super maxis faced with decisions about how hard they should push their expensive craft in the tough conditions.
They can expect south-to-south easterly breezes of around 15 knots for the Boxing Day race start on Sydney Harbour.
Wind Forecasts from BOM
Wind forecast, 2pm, Friday, December 26, 2014. (Map: BOM)
Wind forecast, 2pm, Sunday, December 28, 2014. (Map: BOM)
Wind forecast, 2pm, Sunday, December 28, 2014. (Map: BOM)
Wind forecast, 2pm, Tuesday, December 30, 2014. (Map: BOM)
Wind forecast, 2pm, Tuesday, December 30, 2014. (Map: BOM)
The fleet will then encounter freshening southerlies of up to 30 knots and choppy conditions as they head down the coast.
The winds will still be up around 20 knots late on Friday before abating on Saturday morning.
On Saturday afternoon, the winds will shift from the south-east to the north-east, moving down the NSW coast.
By Saturday midnight, fresher westerlies are predicted off the north-east coast of Tasmania, while fairly consistent north-easterlies developing along the NSW coast will give the smaller boats further back in the fleet a helpful push.
Fresh to strong nor'easters forecast for Sunday night also bode well for the smaller yachts.
"It's certainly not a forecast for a record," Wild Oats XI skipper Mark Richards said.
"The record will get smashed one year, but I don't think this will be the year."
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