Darwin Dili Yacht Rally
- July 12, 2014
A fleet of 9 yachts and over 60 crew will set sail for Dili, Timor-Leste, at 10.00am on Saturday 12 July in the 2014 Darwin Dili Yacht Rally. The Start Line is to the west of the Darwin Sailing Club, and the best vantage point for watching the Start is from East Point
The 2014 event is the fifth Darwin Dili Yacht Rally of the modern era, having recommenced in 2010 after a 36 year hiatus following successful events in 1973 and 1974. In 2013, the 9 yachts are sailing in three divisions: Division I – Monohull Competitive Cruising, Division II – Monohull Cruising and Division IIA - Multihull Cruising.
Division I is headed up by Jon Wardill’s Australian Maid, which set a new Rally record in 2013 with an elapsed time of 52.12 hours. Other local monohull yachts in Division I includes Bob Colman’s Raucous and Barrie Morgan’s Evolution NT.
Division II comprises a diverse fleet of cruising yachts from Darwin, Brisbane and Launceston, ranging in size from 9 to 24 metres. Launceston-registered Skye Melody, owned by Graeme Hay, will be carrying over 120 boxes of donated medical and educational supplies to Dili for the humanitarian sailing vessel, Vega, for distribution to needy communities through Timor-Leste and Indonesia.
This year’s fleet also has the honour of having the Rally’s first-ever Timorese participant. Eleven year old, Tommy Lee Fawcett, will be sailing aboard the Skye Melody.
Once in Dili, the Rally yachts will be treated to a range of sightseeing tours and gala events, after which they are free to cruise through Timor-Leste’s pristine waters and enjoy world-class coral reefs and spectacular mountain scenery.
We are proud to be providing tracking solutions for the rally. All of the boats in the fleet will have a Yellowbrick tracker installed onboard which will wake up at predetermined intervals to collect and send data through the Iridium satellite network. This data goes to Yellowbrick HQ servers and is then visualised on the race player which is available along with more information on the rally at sailtimorleste.org
