Skipper of record breaking Sydney-Hobart supermaxi Comanche says he won’t make same mistake again

Comanche coughed up a golden opportunity to win the Sydney-Hobart for a third time last year when a mistake 40 miles from home cost her crew big time, but skipper Jim Cooney says he won’t make the same error twice.

I WON’T make the same mistake twice.

That’s the vow of Jim Cooney, skipper of race record holder Comanche heading into a five-way supermaxi battle for line honours in the 75th Rolex Sydney-Hobart starting on Boxing Day.

A two-time winner of the 628 nautical mile race to Hobart, Comanche led a quartet of 100-footers to Tasman Island in last year’s race, only to “fall in a hole” — sailing parlance for no wind — in a race-changing moment.

Comanche off the coast of Tasmania in 2017.

Cooney and his crew sat helpless as rivals Wild Oats XI, Black Jack and InfoTrack all sailed around Comanche.

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Wild Oats went on to claim a record ninth line honours crown, while Black Jack claimed second and Comanche pipped InfoTrack by nine minutes for third. The other supermaxi Scallywag had already retired from the race.

While the “Fab Five” will again contest the milestone race, last year’s rounding of Tasman Island continues to haunt Cooney and co.

Comanche skipper Jim Cooney. Picture: AAP/CHRIS PAVLICH

“You analyse everything very carefully after the event and the take out was we needed to go faster in different parts of the race,” Cooney said.

“We should have jibed in sooner than we did and Iain [Murray, tactician aboard Wild Oats] was probably watching us thinking why aren’t they putting themselves between us and the mark, which is probably what we should have done.

“Once we got to Tasman Island we sailed into a hole and the three other boats right behind us watching that happen were able to avoid it.

“There’s not much you can do about that.”

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Cooney took Comanche back to the US this year — where it was built — and it won line honours in the Transpac race from California to Hawaii.

After its return to home waters his team optimised its performance even further.

Comanche.

“This year is going to be even more exciting than last year,” Cooney said.

“It’s wonderful to see five 100-footers on the line.

“There is nowhere else in the world where you see this happen in such a prominent race — five big boats like this fighting it out.

“Everyone has worked on their boats over the past 12 months and I think we have all eked out a little bit of extra performance and I think we have all improved together so I think we are all going to finish in a short time of each other.”

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The race for handicap is headed by Tasmania’s reigning champion Alive, up against nine former winners of the Tattersalls Cup, including fellow-Tasmanian yachts Filepro, which won the storm-battered race in 1993 as Cuckoo’s Nest, and She’s Apples II, winner in 1991.

Matt Allen’s NSW flier Ichin Ban, the 2017 champion, is the bookies’ favourite.

As well as the Tasmanians, its competition will come from the oldest yacht in the fleet, the 1904-built Katwinchar (NSW), three-times winner Love & War (NSW), 47-footer St Jude skippered by CYCA Vice Commodore Noel Cornish, the TP52 Zen (NSW), the Farr 55 Hollywood Boulevard (NSW) and pocket-maxi Chinese Whisper (NSW). With a big blow, the Volvo 70 Maserati, raced by Polish pair Jacek Piotrowski and Jacek Siwek, also has a strong chance.

Officials say they have contingency plans in place to combat Sydney’s smoky haze while uncertain winds have skippers tipping one of the more unpredictable races.