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Wild weather on the first night ended any hopes of a race record, and eight of 103 starting boats had withdrawn 24 hours into the race.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.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
Olympic bronze medalist Lee Meng-yuan has become the first Taiwanese athlete to top the International Shooting Sport Federation’s (ISSF) men’s skeet world rankings, while top Taiwanese shooters won golds in each of yesterday’s finals in Taoyuan. Lee’s 6,610 points put him ahead of fellow men’s skeet medalists from the Paris Olympics Americans Vincent Hancock and Conner Prince. Lee on Monday said that he was surprised by the result, although he had expected his ranking to rise after the Games, which was also the first time a Taiwanese athlete had competed in men’s skeet. Despite topping the rankings, Lee said he believed Hancock, who