Record-breaker Comanche’s ‘swan song’, says skipper John ‘Herman’ Winning Jr

The 100-feet-long supermaxi has been a dominant presence in the Sydney to Hobart since it arrived on the scene in 2014. This year may very well be the last Australians see of the yacht for a while.

Sailing master Iain Murray and his crew take Andoo Comanche for some last-minute testing on Sydney Harbour before the start of the Sydney Hobart on Tuesday. Picture: John Feder

In a race of lasts for the favourite, supermaxi Andoo ­Comanche, 28-year-old Harry Price will be making his Sydney Hobart debut to a special family audience.

The 2023 race will likely be the last in a while for the 100-foot (30m) Comanche, having had a dominant run across the past eight editions of the bluewater classic, winning four of them.

It will also probably be the last time in a while that skipper John “Herman” Winning Jr, scion of the Winning Appliances family, will take part in the race.

However, for Price, the experience will be a novelty.

Price hails from a family of sailors: his sister Olivia won Olympic silver at the 2012 London Games, and some of his earliest memories involve the family packing into a boat on Boxing Day to chase the Sydney Hobart yachts down the harbour. “It’s my dad’s birthday on Boxing Day,” Price explained.

“Every year for as long as I remember, when I was a kid, we’d go out and chase (the fleet) down to Bondi.

Price said he had generally avoided offshore sailing competitions but could not pass up an opportunity to crew the hotly tipped favourite in the iconic race.

Comanche claimed line ­honours in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2022 – four of the past seven races – and it didn’t even enter two of the other three.

However, at the end of this race, the yacht will be disassembled and shipped off to ­Europe under the directions of its mysterious owner.

“The deal was two years for the sponsorship, we thought that would be enough time to hopefully get at least one win under our belt,” said Winning.

“We were lucky enough to be able to do that in year one so this one is hopefully our swan song.

“The owner of the yacht is going to campaign it in Europe, so after the Hobart it will go on a ship from Newcastle to the Mediterranean.”

Previous Australian owners Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant reportedly sold Comanche after the 2019 race.

Winning said the current owner is Singaporean.

Winning said this year’s Sydney Hobart – his fifth – would also likely be his last for a while. “I enjoy adventure and I don’t like repetition – so unless I’m trying to achieve a goal, doing it once is enough and certainly, twice is enough,” he said.

“If I set my sights on trying to win the America’s Cup for Australia – it has never been done in my lifetime … I’d like to play a role in helping that change.”