‘Drama’ at Tasman Island caused victorious Comanche crew to panic
A problem at Tasman Island pulled the rug out from under Comanche in the 2018 Sydney to Hobart yacht race — And there was almost a repeat this year on the way to line honours glory.
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COMANCHE skipper Jim Cooney has revealed a “drama” at Tasman Island almost cost him Sydney-Hobart glory for the second year in a row and caused heart palpitations to the supermaxi’s brains trust on its way to winning the 75th anniversary race this morning.
The 100-foot ocean racing rocket lost the 2018 race when it sailed into a hole in the breeze at Tasman and watched as fierce rival Wild Oats XI sailed by to claim its ninth line honours title.
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Comanche was first to Tasman again this time, and another drama could easily have cost it another line honours win.
Cooney and crew, including his wife Samantha Grant and their 21-year-old son James, sailed Comanche to victory at 7.30am for an elapsed time of one day, 18 hours, 30 minutes and 24 seconds — 9 hours and 15 minutes outside its own race record set in 2017.
Comanche beat Sydney supermaxi InfoTrack by 44 minutes, while Wild Oats stormed home from 12th in the fleet to pip Hong Kong supermaxi Scallywag by 38 seconds for third, and the other supermaxi Black Jack, of Monaco, came fifth.
A wind energy millionaire from Neutral Bay in Sydney, Cooney was ‘Mr Cool’ after the win, spraying champagne and then enjoying fish and chips and a chat with the crew before hopping off the yacht onto the winner’s pontoon for the accolades.
That is when he revealed Comanche’s close call.
“Something wrapped around the rudder as we came round Tasman Island and then we were hit with a 35-knot gust,” Cooney said.
“The boat was rounding up, we had no control in the rudder, and we couldn’t work out why.
“We managed to stabilise the boat and whatever it was, probably some seaweed, untangled itself and we got going.
“But the rudder cavitated and stopped doing what a rudder does in steering the boat.
“So we were in a little bit of drama, if only for a short time.”
It was Cooney’s second win on Comanche after buying it from American software billionaire Jim Clark, who raced it to victory in the 2015 Sydney-Hobart.
In 2017, Comanche’s crew successfully protested against an illegal manoeuvre by Wild Oats shortly after the race started on Sydney Harbour, and it was stripped of line honours and handed to Cooney.
It claimed a second title this year over five of the world’s six supermaxis.
“Winning a Sydney-Hobart is a wonderful thing — I can’t separate the two,” Cooney said.
“In 2017 we were the first legal boat across the finish line and we were the first legal boat across the finish line today.
“I haven’t seen any [protest] flags anywhere so fingers crossed.”
After an intriguing second day, when five different yachts led the race, Comanche grabbed the lead when its tactical plan to sail further offshore than its rivals paid dividends.
“The reason why we became comfortably in the lead coming down the Tasmanian coast was our positioning, being another 25 miles offshore [compared to rivals]
“We knew the wind was going to shift around to the north and we wanted to be further offshore so we’d have some leverage on that – and that’s what happened.”
Comanche slipped past the Iron Pot gathering spectator craft as it sailed under full main and code zero, her boat speed still in double digits.
But with 3nms to go, the wind disappeared and it came to a complete stop, its only way of moving was drift.
Cooney even sent a crewmen up the mast to spot patches of puff, and when a zephyr arrived it crept up the river hugging the shore close to Bellerive Bluff, and actually sailed past the finish line off Castray Esplanade before turning for the finish.
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