Powerhouse Comanche leads 2024 Sydney to Hobart, gunning for line honours and race record glory
The Beast Unleashed: Comanche threatens to break its own Sydney to Hobart record. What time to expect winner.
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Powerhouse supermaxi Comanche lived up to its nickname the “Beast” on the opening day of the 2024 Rolex Sydney to Hobart yacht race as it charged toward Tasmania threatening to break its own race record.
The world’s fastest 100-foot ocean racer, skippered by Matt Allen, set a blistering pace down Australia’s East Coast, clocking up to 30 knots, or 56kmh _ fast enough to get booked for speeding in a school zone or CBD.
To break its own race record of 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes 24 seconds, Comanche must cross the finish line in Hobart by 10.15pm on Friday night.
With northerly winds forecast for most of the first night and solid westerlies for early on day two, the record is under threat.
Hours before his defending Sydney-Hobart handicap champion was forced to withdraw with engine issues, Alive’s skipper Duncan Hine was confident the race record could fall.
“It’s one of the better races for them to break the record based on the forecast,” Hine said.
“So if they don’t break, they might break the record.”
The fleet was hammered by wild conditions on the first night, as a 40-knot north-easter delivered a combination of pleasure and pain for the 104 starters.
“Forty knots in any boat is a lot of breeze” Hine said.
The NSW two-handed entrant Transcendence Rudy Project, sailed by father and son team Martin and John Cross, was the second victim of the fierce weather.
It was dismasted off Kiama and several other yachts appeared to change direction to seek shelter.
Defending line honours champion LawConnect set the pace early, first out of Sydney Heads leading Comanche second and Alive in third.
The fleet’s third supermaxi Wild Thing lived up to its name, almost lying flat in the water in a spectacular maneuver trying to avoid a collision with a smaller boat.
NSW yacht Whisper put up a protest flag after a close call with the 72-foot NSW maxi URM.
Whisper’s owner and Cruising Yacht Club of Australia director, David Griffith, said URM had infringed.
URM’s crew performed a 720 degree turn after clearing the Heads to exonerate itself from the suspected infringement.
“We had a protest flag in relation to URM, but we saw them do a penalty turns so we dropped the protest,” Griffith said
LawConnect’s lead was short-lived.
Its furling headsail became tangled and the crew was forced to slow the boat to fix the issue.
In the 10 minutes it took to release the sail, Comanche stormed into a commanding lead.
The front runners were in for a Bass Strait battering overnight, with a “wind against current” sea state as they crossed the stretch of water they call “the paddock”.
That is expected to be followed by 35-know winds off Tasmania’s East Coast on day two before the fleet gets smacked with a potentially boat-breaking southerly.
The fleet includes 135 women, headed by Australia’s around-the-world hero Jessica Watson sailing on NSW yacht Oroton Drumfire.
The NSW yacht Zeus (skippered by Michael Firmin) led the race on outright handicap on the opening night, followed by New Zealand flyer Caro (Max Klink) and Tasmanian yacht Porco Rosso, skippered by Hobart doctor Paul McCartney.
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