Wild Oats XI steals glory at the death

Thrilling finish in record time

AFTER 628 nautical miles of close combat, a near-miss and cat-and-mouse tactics, Wild Oats XI has pulled off one of the great comebacks of Australian sport to beat rival supermaxi LDV Comanche for a record-breaking line honours win in the 73rd Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.

Wild Oats XI finished in a time of one day, nine hours and 15 seconds, ahead of LDV Comanche in one day, nine hours, three minutes and 22 seconds.

It was third time lucky for the nine-time champion, sent packing in 2015 and 2016 with gear and sail damage and whose campaign could have been derailed again this year by two damaged sails.

But Mark Richards and his team must wait to see if Comanche goes ahead with a protest over a close call at sea — and any punishment that could follow if found guilty — before having their victory officially ratified.

The win is the first by the 12-year-old yacht since the death of her owner Bob Oatley, sailing lover and patriarch of a family with business in tourism and wine, who died in January 2016, aged 87.

Aboard, said Richards, was Oatley’s walking stick — affectionately called the voodoo stick by the crew — and carried for good luck. And it brought it plenty with Wild Oats XI trailing LDV Comanche for 24 hours before finally overtaking her rival with just five miles of the course to sail.

The race came down to the final 11 nautical miles on the River Derwent in a cliffhanger for the race annals, which saw Perpetual Loyal’s 2016 time of just over one day and 13 hours smashed.

Thousands of spectators flocked to the foreshore of the river to watch the engrossing duel played out in twilight before her eventual win in darkness at seconds past 10pm.

In an extraordinary final stanza of the race, LDV Comanche was clocked at 30 knots as she powered across Storm Bay with the win and race record in sight. But then disaster struck with Jim Cooney’s yacht grinding to a halt in a windless parking lot about 12 miles from the finish line.

Behind her Wild Oats XI made up ground to come within about 500m of her rival to set up the thrilling finish.

Wild Oats XI finally clawed her way beside Comanche at 8.26pm but could not overtake. About eight minutes later the world 24-hour record breaker LDV Comanche’s fate was sealed when Wild Oats X1 wafted by.

Both crews had teams standing almost 30m in the air on the top spreader wind-watching in a search for any advantage. But in the end it was game, set and match to Wild Oats XI.

Pre-race favourite for the coveted overall honours Ichi Ban was one of numerous boats to suffer sail or gear damage on the second day. While racing at high speed downwind, Ichi Ban navigator Will Oxley reported the yacht blew out a crucial sail.

Ichi Ban was losing ground to other major contenders for the handicap honours. Bob Steele’s Quest, which won the race two years ago as Balance, was leading the handicap race from Chutzpah, Celestial and the Italian yacht Mascalzone Latino.