Sydney Hobart 2026 Start Time: 1 p.m. Dec. 26 in Sydney Is 9 p.m. ET on Christmas Day

The 2026 Rolex Sydney Hobart yacht race starts at 1 p.m. Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT) on Boxing Day, Saturday, Dec. 26, 2026, according to the Rolex Sydney Hobart race site and the New South Wales (NSW) Government, which is 9 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Friday, Dec. 25 in the United States. For readers in the U.K., Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), it is 2 a.m. on Dec. 26. The table below converts the start into every U.S. zone, the harbour rules after it, and the viewing spots on the water. A start-day planner printable at the end puts the times on one sheet.

The race is 52 days away from Nov. 4. It is the 81st edition of the 628 nautical mile blue water classic, the race site says, run from Sydney Harbour to Hobart. This story has no entry list, forecast or results. Mark the date on the December 2026 printable calendar.

What time does the Sydney Hobart start in the US, UK and Australia?

The race site gives the start as 1300 AEDT on Boxing Day, and the NSW Government says the race “will start at 1pm on Boxing Day.” AEDT is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) plus 11 hours in December. U.S. clocks are on standard time, so ET is UTC minus 5 hours and Pacific Time (PT) is UTC minus 8 hours. The U.K. is on GMT. We computed the other rows from the 1 p.m. AEDT start, so the race begins on the evening of Christmas Day in the U.S.

Place	Local clock for the start	Day
Sydney (AEDT)	1 p.m.	Sat., Dec. 26
Perth (AWST)	10 a.m.	Sat., Dec. 26
Auckland (NZDT)	3 p.m.	Sat., Dec. 26
London (GMT)	2 a.m.	Sat., Dec. 26
Eastern Time (ET)	9 p.m.	Fri., Dec. 25
Central Time (CT)	8 p.m.	Fri., Dec. 25
Mountain Time (MT)	7 p.m.	Fri., Dec. 25
Pacific Time (PT)	6 p.m.	Fri., Dec. 25
Hawaii	4 p.m.	Fri., Dec. 25

Perth is on Australian Western Standard Time (AWST), UTC plus 8 hours, and Auckland is on New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT), UTC plus 13 hours. For the holiday itself, see when Christmas falls. For the broader gap between the two countries after the U.S. clock change, see our U.S.-Australia time difference story.

How can you watch the Sydney Hobart start live?

The race site says the Boxing Day start “will be broadcast live on the Nine Network and streamed on 9Now.” The page says international viewers can catch the live broadcast on the race website or through YouTube on the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) television feed. The page names no U.S. broadcaster, so none is listed here.

Sails Magazine reported on Sept. 3, 2026 that coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. ahead of the 1 p.m. start. The race site does not say that, so treat it as reported and check the broadcast page closer to the date. By our conversion 12:30 p.m. AEDT is 8:30 p.m. ET on Friday, Dec. 25.

Where to watch the Sydney Hobart start in person, and the harbour rules

The race site says Sydney Harbour’s headlands and bays “provide excellent vantage points for the race start,” and names the spots in the table. It also lists a CYCA “Big Screen” at the Rolex Sydney Hobart Sydney Race Village. The NSW Government page gives the start at Nielsen Park on Sydney Harbour and sets rules for boats. The NSW page prints no year beside its times, so we call them NSW Maritime’s rules for the start. The ET column is our conversion of the local times.

Item	Detail	Local time (AEDT)	ET, Fri., Dec. 25
Land viewing	South Head, North Head, Christison Park (Vaucluse), Watsons Bay, Lady Bay Beach	Race start 1 p.m.	9 p.m.
Big Screen	CYCA screen at the Sydney Race Village	Not stated	Not stated
Speed limit	6 knot maximum speed and no wash restrictions	11:30 a.m. to 2:20 p.m.	7:30 p.m. to 10:20 p.m.
Exclusion zone	Active around the start	12 p.m. to 2:20 p.m.	8 p.m. to 10:20 p.m.
Non-competing vessels	No sails hoisted	12 p.m. to 2:20 p.m.	8 p.m. to 10:20 p.m.
Kayaks, paddleboards, inflatables	No passive craft or anchoring around the zone	12 p.m. to 2:20 p.m.	8 p.m. to 10:20 p.m.

For West Coast and U.K. readers, by our conversion: the speed limit starts at 4:30 p.m. PT on Dec. 25 (12:30 a.m. GMT on Dec. 26), the exclusion zone at 5 p.m. PT (1 a.m. GMT), the race at 6 p.m. PT (2 a.m. GMT), and both rules end at 7:20 p.m. PT (3:20 a.m. GMT).

The NSW page warns small vessels to avoid South Head and North Head after the start, citing “very high vessel density.” Its information line is 13 12 36, staffed 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during major aquatic events.

What happened in the 2025 Sydney Hobart?

These are last year’s figures, not 2026 ones. The 2025 race was the 80th. Master Lock Comanche took line honours in 2 days 5 hours 3 minutes 36 seconds, the race site reported on Dec. 29, 2025. The race record, 1 day 9 hours 15 minutes 24 seconds, was set in 2017, the same page says. The 2026 entry count is not confirmed as of Nov. 4, 2026, so none is given here.

For another Boxing Day event converted to U.S. and U.K. times, see the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Readers in the U.K. can check the Boxing Day substitute bank holiday on Dec. 28 in our bank holiday story.

Sydney Hobart 2026 start-day planner printable

The one-page planner lists the harbour speed limit, the exclusion zone, the race start and the end of the exclusion zone, each with its ET, PT and GMT time, the viewing spots and the broadcast, plus a line for where you are watching. The note names the NSW Government and the race page, and the times were converted by Fresh Calendars.