Comanche skipper elbowed out of race

A FREAK accident has cost defending champion Comanche its skipper for the 2018 Rolex Sydney to Hobart yacht race and its American navigator as well.

Australia’s champion America’s Cup skipper James Spithill was earlier this week flown to the US for surgery on a strained elbow that has ruined his Sydney-Hobart race.

The Comanche team said: “With a primary focus on being healthy for his America’s Cup campaign with Italian team Luna Rossa, Spithill flew to Los Angeles to be evaluated by his surgeons Robert Bray and Andrew Bulczynski, who conducted surgery immediately. Taking prompt action, rather than aggravating the injury with continued training or racing, averted potential months of downtime.

“Spithill is expected to be fully recovered early in the new year.”

Spithill will return to Australia for the race and will assist from the shore.

“The team is strong and we have reserves ready, so I think the team will be fine,” Spithill said.

The injury happened during Comanche training.

“It was a bit of a freak injury — I was pulling myself on to the boat when leaving the dock and my foot slipped as I was holding a lifeline and I hurt my elbow,” he said.

“Stan Honey, our navigator, also tore his hamstring getting off the boat on to a chase boat. So we had two freak injuries.”

Spithill has no doubt the Comanche campaign will not be too affected.

“We have a lot of guys who are great sailors with all round skills, and can fill in no prob- lem,” he said. “I’ll help the guys any way I can, just like Stan.”

Comanche, owned by Sydney businessman Jim Cooney, is the defending line honours champion as well as setting a new race record last year of 1 day, 9hrs 15min 24sec.

“Jim Cooney has been pushing the team hard, and I think the team has trained harder than any of the others,” Spithill said. “Our preparation has been ideal.”