Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta 2010 Day One - morning

10:36 PM Fri 5 Mar 2010 GMT

'Audi Sydney Harbour regatta 2010 - 06/03/10 - Sydney (Australia) - Dockside' Andrea Francolini / Audi &copy

The IRC and PHS 0 divisions will be the first off the starting blocks this morning, their offshore passage race due to start near Watsons Bay at 1130hrs.

Weigh-ins, last minute paperwork and run through the sailing instructions, hot coffee and sizzling bacon and egg rolls and final rig checks for the lightest body on the boat created plenty of buzz at Middle Harbour Yacht Club, home of the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta.

As the corporate guests arrived at the Club, the race management vessels with their inflated Audi buoys and allocated teams aboard are pulling out of the dock.

They were joined by a procession of boats leaving MHYC and most other Sydney yacht clubs and headed to their respective course areas for the opening day of what is Australia's largest keel boat regatta with 300 plus entries divided into 24 divisions.

The weather has so far come to the party with overnight rain clearing and the forecast for N/NE winds 8-13 knots early, increasing to 13-18 knots during the day.

Audi Sydney Harbour regatta 2010 - 06/03/10 - Sydney (Australia) - Dockside - Andrea Francolini - Audi &copy

'The weather will be good. The cloud is expected to burn off before a lightish gradient nor'easter fills in,' said PRO Denis Thompson this morning.

'We are expecting great racing offshore and on what will be a very busy harbour.'

The forecast for tomorrow, the second and final day of racing in the fifth annual regatta, is for a NE 10-15 knot breeze increasing to 18-23 knots in the afternoon.