Comanche, Wild Oats head best Sydney to Hobart supermaxi fleet as Ichi Ban chases another win

They were the main Sydney to Hobart antagonists a year ago but there’s no guarantee Comanche and Wild Oats will be the ones vying for victory in the 74th edition of the race.

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They were the main Sydney to Hobart antagonists a year ago but there’s no guarantee Comanche and Wild Oats will be the ones vying for victory in the 74th edition of the race.

Sailors have labelled the 91-strong fleet heading south on Boxing Day as the strongest line-up of both line honours and overall contenders in memory.

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Jim Cooney’s Comanche, which took line honours and the race record a year ago, and the Mark Richards skippered Wild Oats, handed a time penalty which stripped her of the win, will be under assault from various quarters including two former line honours winners and a crew fresh from a Volvo round the world campaign.

The trio - former line honours winners Black Jack and InfoTrack and the Hong Kong entry Scallywag - have the potential to overshadow the winner and runner-up in the controversial 2017 line honours race.

Comanche racing across Storm Bay during the 2017 Rolex Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Pic: RICHARD JUPE

“It is hard to predict, we are all very keen to win the race,” said Cooney, who has been racing Comanche weekly to bring her and the crew to peak for the race.

“It will come down to the conditions, it could come down to a little luck.’’

Richards said the controversy of last year was a thing of the past.

“What’s sport without a little controversy,’’ he said.

“It’s like a rugby match. What happens on the field stays on the field.’’

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The task of winning overall will be equally difficult with defending champion Matt Allen wary of any number of yachts in the 2018 fleet but still confident in his crew and boat.

“We think we are going a lot better than last year which gives the crew a lot of confidence,’’ said the Sailing Australia president who is hoping Ichi Ban becomes the first yacht since Freya between 1963-65 to claim successive overall titles.

Sydney to Hobart silverware up for grabs.

Cruising Yacht Club of Australian Commodore Paul Billingham said the 20th anniversary of the deadly 1998 race, which claimed the lives of six men, will be marked with a minute of silence the second day at sea.

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The same words spoken at a dockside memorial service in 1998 will be read over the radio to sailors at a positional report on December 27.

“We took advice from SOLAS (the Safety of Life at Sea trust set up in the wake of the race) and wanted to do something respectful and understated,’’ Billingham said.

Yachts ranging in size from 30 to 100 foot will race south, including 13 internationals and a number of former winners.

All Australian states will be represented along with China, France, Germany, Hungary, Hong Kong, Poland, Russia, the UK and the US with round the world sailor Stacey Jackson heading a professional all-women’s crew and Sydney sailor Tony Ellis the most capped as he heads south in a record-equalling 51st Sydney to Hobart.