Tony Bullimore’s weather router Lee Bruce has put the yachtsman on ‘Orange Alert’ to start the Blue Ocean Wireless Round the World Challenge over Easter.

‘Looking at the predicted weather patterns, these are the best I’ve seen since we began monitoring the Tasman area back in December,’ said Bruce. ‘Assuming a launch at 08:00Z (10:00 Sunday Hobart time), the wind stays good at least to the 12th of April, based on an average of 400nm/day (17kt).

If Doha made 500nm/day (21kt), it would take you to the 12th before you would outrun the good wind. The wind direction stays near north the whole time, and the speed ranges from 15-25kt. The start wind in Hobart is light, but it fills in quickly. So we could delay the start until later in the day, which would allow everyone to attend church!

Of course, nothing is certain with a week-long forecast, things can change dramatically, but conditions look good at the moment.’

Meanwhile, Bullimore is busy packing the last few items onboard and with help from members of the Bellerive YC later this week, will re-bend the newly branded sails back on the 102ft catamaran.