Comanche ready to dominate the Sydney-Hobart, Matt Allen eyes record-breaking finish

Comanche skipper Matt Allen has set his sights on shattering the Sydney-Hobart record with a ridiculously fast finishing time. Here’s what he said.

The crew has dubbed her the “Beast” and Comanche’s 2024 skipper Matt Allen is hopeful his 100-foot brute can obliterate the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race record by arriving at around 4-5pm on Friday.

A four-time winner of the 628 nautical mile class on overall handicap, Allen has commandeered the four-time Hobart line honours champion Comanche this summer for his shot at the Illingworth Trophy.

A fleet of 104 yachts will set sail at 1pm on Boxing Day, including eight Tasmanian yachts led by defending Tattersalls Cup champion Alive.

Allen has three things on his Christmas wish list for Comanche:

1 To be across the line first.

2 We hope to have an exhilarating ride.

3 And ideally get the race record.

“The way the weather is shaping up there’s a good chance of the race record being beaten,” Allen said.

Yacht Andoo Comanche competes during the start of the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Boxing Day at Sydney Harbour on December 26, 2023. (Photo by DAVID GRAY / AFP) -

“The modelling we think that is more accurate puts us in Hobart in one day, three hours.

“We will probably slow down a little bit, but that’s still well inside the race record.”

Allen won the Sydney-Hobart’s most coveted prize, the Tattersalls Cup as handicap winner, in 2021, aboard a 52-foot grand prix flyer.

Things are different this year with Allen and James Mayo stepping up a weight division to take on Comanche and a crack at its own race record of one day, 9 hours, 15 minutes 24 seconds it set in 2017.

“It’s a lot more complicated to sail than a 52-footer,” Allen said.

“There’s a lot more engineering systems, water ballast, and we just call it the beast.

“It’s a great boat to sail, really good fun, but everything’s big, everything’s heavy, and it’s a really fast boat.

Yacht Andoo Comanche competes during the the start of the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Boxing Day at Sydney Harbour on December 26, 2023. (Photo by DAVID GRAY / AFP)

“When you’re doing 25 knots it feels like it’s in second gear.

“It’s very fast and very controllable, and it’s very exciting to sail it.

“It accelerates very quickly.

“I’ve sailed on Ragamuffin, which is now Scallywag, I’ve done two TransPacs on it, LA to Honolulu.

“That boat is quick but you get up to speed and you struggle to keep there.

“This boat is a lot easier to maintain speed. You get up to that high speed and it’s much easier to stay there.

“You don’t have to work as hard to keep it going at that speed, it just sits there as long as you’re sailing correctly.”

Comanche went out on Monday for a “systems check”.

“It was just to double-check everything was working _ it’s a pretty complicated boat,” Allen said.

“We are really happy, we’ve strengthened a few things on the boat, on the battens, the mainsail and things like that, so they are a bit more Hobart-ready rather than inshore-ready.

“We tested those and we are ready to go.”