LawConnect leads; Comanche retires as Sydney-Hobart gets off to chaotic start

Favourite Master Lock Comanche was forced to retire from the 79th running of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, leaving Law Connect as the new race leader in the South Pacific.

The race got off to a dramatic and chaotic start on Thursday, with last year’s Tattersall Cup winner, Alive, forced to retire due to engine issues just three hours into the race.

Alive, a 66-foot maxi skippered by Duncan Hine, put into Wollongong after being forced out of its championship defence just after 4pm. The withdrawal continued a cursed run for Alive, which had to pull out of its last two pre-race hit-outs, the Cabbage Tree Race and SOLAS Big Boat Challenge, with a damaged canard board.

Earlier, LawConnect led the fleet out of the Heads before a misstep while unfurling their headsail allowed rival supermaxi Master Lock Comanche to steal the lead.

But having set record-breaking pace, Master Lock Comanche retired in the early hours of Friday due to mainsail damage approximately 63 nautical miles of Green Cape – one among seven retirements from the race from the initial fleet of 104.

The drama began almost immediately after the starting cannon.

Line honours contender Wild Thing 100 was caught up in a desperate scramble when it almost collided with Celestial V70, seemingly not noticing it was on a collision course with the Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. After an incredibly late tack, Wild Thing almost capsized in the harbour, but somehow managed to recover and maintain a leading position in the fleet.

URM Group recovered after taking two 360-degree penalty turns, before ultimately retiring early on Friday due to demasting.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Earlier URM Group, a 22-metre-yacht crewed by five brothers, chose to take a double penalty turn after a near collision in the harbour. While the protest against them is still to be reviewed, the move was shrewd as they quickly made up the lost few minutes in favourable conditions, saving them from a potentially costly time penalty upon arrival in Hobart.

The wild manoeuvres in Sydney Harbour made for a dramatic start to what promises to be a thrilling edition of the bluewater classic, after a final weather briefing predicted thunderstorms, 3½ metre waves, wind changes, and reduced visibility for the 628-nautical-mile race south.

A predicted trough set to strike the fastest yachts in the fleet by early Friday morning will bring strong-to-gale-force southwesterly winds upon the approach to the Bass Strait.

“We are seeing strong wind warnings developing through the afternoon today and getting up to gale [force], so about 35 knots on the south coast of NSW, and further south towards Tasmania,” said Gabrielle Woodhouse, senior meteorologist for the NSW Bureau of Meteorology.

LawConnect and Master Lock Comanche in lockstep on the Sydney to Hobart.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“It’s going to be fairly strong. It’s going to be very abrupt. There may be some gale winds associated with that change.

“By this afternoon [the BOM has predicted] winds speeds of 20 to 30 knots, and by the evening, what we can see, particularly south of about Narooma, is those wind speeds getting up to 35 knots.”

Woodhouse also warned that winds could become unpredictable along the east coast of Tasmania, with certain sections of the route slowing considerably, while others may have gale-force winds.

“We could end up seeing some of the winds become much lighter … it’s a really tricky forecast for that eastern part of the Tasmanian coast.”

Master Lock Comanche co-skipper Matt Allen said the action would be “fast and furious” on Thursday night.

“The boat speeds are going to be through the roof,” Allen said. “I think we’ll be doing 30 to 40 knots through the water. It’s going to be a really tough night before we get into that front, which … will be quite good for the bigger boats. The rich will get, probably, richer through the course of tomorrow”

The key competitors for line honours are LawConnect, Wild Thing 100, and Master Lock Comanche.

James Mayo, co-skipper of Comanche, said that while crew safety and vessel maintenance were his top priorities, he had “one goal – I want to lock this up.”

“It’s going to be wild, and it’s going to be windy,” he added. “It’s about keeping this asset in one piece, and transitioning through that as best we can.”

At his pre-race press conference, Wild Thing 100’s skipper Grant Wharington had stressed his priority was to make it out of the harbour in one piece before consolidating its position, keeping in touch with the leaders and hoping for some luck.

“It’s all about tonight,” Wharington had said. “Keeping the boat together, keeping it going fast. Changing gears efficiently and just keeping in contact with the other guys. We’re not looking for any kind of magic. There are some excellent sailors out here, best in the world. So we’ve just got to stay in the same patch of water, and just do the best with our boat that we can.”

with Reuters

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