Super-maxis Andoo Comanche and LawConnect yesterday dueled for the lead as the pair of 100-foot (30.5m) yachts separated themselves from the rest of the Sydney to Hobart fleet.
Wild weather on the first night ended any hopes of a race record, and eight of 103 starting boats had withdrawn 24 hours into the race.
Reigning line honors champion Comanche was exchanging the lead with LawConnect, runner-up at the past three events, as the pair crossed Bass Strait.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“We’ve had a little bit of everything. The wildest [weather] was literally 180-degree wind shifts,” LawConnect navigator Chris Lewis said in a video on social media.
Late yesterday afternoon, Comanche led LawConnect by about 10 nautical miles (18.52km) ahead of their expected overnight finish of the 628 nautical mile race at Constitution Dock in the Tasmanian state capital of Hobart.
Shane Connelly, skipper of two-handed yacht Rum Rebellion which retired on Tuesday night, said that he was briefly thrown overboard during a storm.
Connelly said a “micro-burst” of wind hit his yacht during a ferocious storm, throwing him off the port side. He managed to attach his tether and was lifted back on board as the yacht righted.
The skipper said he and crewmate Tony Sutton decided to retire as they were concerned he might have concussion.
“The safety drills and systems all worked and we could sort ourselves out,” he said.
Comanche and LawConnect have been clear front-runners since just out of Sydney Harbour. The pair began the trip down the New South Wales south coast at a fast clip, but have fallen off the pace of the race record of one day, nine hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds, set by Comanche in 2017.
“The race record is no chance,” said veteran sailor Peter Shipway, who has won the Sydney to Hobart twice on handicap and five times on line honors.
“They’d have to finish by quarter-past 10 tonight, and they are still not even halfway,” Shipway said. “We’re probably at least 24 hours, maybe 30 hours, from a finish. It could be a daylight finish.”
The highest-profile retirement has been SHK Scallywag, one of four 100-foot super-maxis jostling for line honors, which sustained a broken bow sprit and withdrew on the first evening of the race.
LawConnect was the first yacht out of the harbor.
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