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The biggest Sydney to Hobart danger (apart from weather)

Anthony Sharwood, Thursday December 26, 2024 - 06:00 AEDT

The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race is famous for its potentially dangerous weather conditions – who could forget the infamous 1998 race in which six sailors lost their lives?

But most years, you hear of one or two boats which have another unfortunate reason for an unplanned early race exit: a collision with a sunfish.

But what exactly are sunfish, and why do we rarely hear about them the rest of the time?

Sunfish, also known as common mola, are a huge bony fish that can weigh more than a tonne. The unusual giants get their name from their tendency to sunbathe near the surface of the sea – which they do to warm themselves up after deep diving to cold waters for food.

Blob-shaped and ungainly with a tough rubbery exterior instead of scales, sunfish have won few marine beauty contests. Perhaps that's why you never hear much about them: they're just too ugly to be popular.

But sunfish are actually really fascinating creatures. Here's a fun sunfish fact: they're closely related to puffer fish and young sunfish are born with protective spikes which they later shed.

Image: Looks a little like a starfish. Source: Molalavdj via Wikimedia Commons.

Here’s another fun sunfish fact: while they look positively prehistoric, they have actually been around for only 50 million years or so, making them relatively new fish on the evolutionary block.

The not-so-fun sunfish fact, as mentioned at the top of this story, is that they are very dangerous to ocean-going yachts.

In the 2022 Sydney to Hobart, the 40-foot yacht Huntress was abandoned by its crew after its rudder was sheared off by an unidentified object. The skipper said the culprit was most likely a sunfish.

In the 2021 race, the 37-footer Maverick met a similar fate. "Geez, it was violent," the captain told the My Sailing website of the collision. "It basically ripped the rudder out of its bearing and jammed it up into the boat."

There have been many, many other collisions with sunfish over the previous 78 Sydney to Hobarts. Little wonder that one skipper whose boat was forced to retire after a collision said "It’s a sun monster, not a fish."

Image: A sunfish basking on the ocean surface. Source: NOAA.

As for the weather in this year's race, a bright sparkling start is expected on Sydney Harbour, with dangerous weather looming a couple of days later as a cold front pushes through Bass Strait right when the leaders are expected to arrive in those notoriously treacherous waters.

For all the oceanic obstacles, the Bass Strait weather is still the biggest monster in this race.

- Weatherzone

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