Comanche crew jump aboard Aussie supermaxi for Sydney to Hobart assault

CREW from the American Sydney to Hobart winner Comanche have jumped ship to join Sydney skipper Anthony Bell’s campaign to bring the line honours trophy back to Australia.

Perpetual Loyal bowman John Flannery in the firing line in last year’s Sydney to Hobart.

• Celebrities high and dry for Hobart race
• It's a women's world at International Sydney
• Surf star shows iron will
• The mighty minnow with a big dream
• Tour de France star's big ambition

CREW from the American Sydney to Hobart winner Comanche have jumped ship to join Sydney skipper Anthony Bell’s campaign to bring the line honours trophy back to Australia.

Former super model Kristy Hinze-Clark last year became the first female owner to win a Sydney to Hobart but she and husband Jim Clark have opted against returning from the US to defend their line honours crown.

Kristy Hinze was there first female owner of a yacht to claim line honours in the Sydney to Hobart.

Bell has made the most of the opportunity, enticing nine members of the record-breaking American yacht to Australia to contest the 72nd edition of the race on Perpetual Loyal.

A key member of his new team will be New Zealander Tony Mutter, who raced to Hobart last year and lead an international crew on Comanche in a record-breaking trans-Atlantic crossing midyear.

“After our damage last year we need to get Loyal back in racing mode and these guys have been fantastic,’’ Bell said of the Comanche crew members working with him ahead of the Boxing Day race.

Perpetual Loyal leads the super maxis out of Sydney Harbour last year.

“We broke down last year and now we have a real point to prove.’’

Bell has also secured one of Australia’s top sailors, 2012 Olympic champion and America’s Cup winning sailor Tom Slingsby, to do the race with him for a third time.

Bell has previously sailed south with up to five or six celebrities to help raise funds for his charity.

Comanche and Perpetual Loyal battling for an early lead in last year’s race.

But after the yacht failed to make Hobart last year due to hull damage, Bell has opted to refurbish his crew with sailing stars in a bid to complete “unfinished business’’.

And without the celebrity star power aboard — previous crews have included cricketer Michael Clarke, NRL star Anthony Minichello, surfer Sally Fitzgibbons and TV personalities Karl Stefanovic and Larry Emdur — Bell is hoping to fly under the radar in the lead-up to the race.

Anthony Miniciello, Michael Clarke, Erin Molan and Kurtley Beale were all aboard last year.

Perpetual Loyal is one of four supermaxis heading to Hobart on Boxing Day in a fleet of 93 yachts..

Three of the four super maxi skippers — Mark Richard (Wild Oats) Ludde Ingvall (CQS) and Bell — have previously raced off with the Sydney to Hobart fastest time honours.

Perpetual Loyal during the first day of the race in 2015.