Sydney to Hobart 2019: Comanche takes line honours in 'dramatic' race for third time
Supermaxi Comanche has taken out the 75th edition of the Sydney to Hobart, but not before some nervous moments on a windless River Derwent.
The massive yacht finished the bluewater classic just after 7.30am on Saturday to win line honours for the third time in five years.
Comanche made the most of strong overnight winds to break away from a five-strong pack of supermaxis down Tasmania’s east coast. But she slowed in the River Derwent, hampered by light winds.
“That was dramatic,” skipper Tim Cooney said. “That was 30 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. It was really very stressful.”
Comanche crossed the line in a time of one day, 18 hours, 30 minutes and 24 seconds, about 45 minutes ahead of InfoTrack in second place.
Nine-time winner Wild Oats XI held off Hong Kong’s SHK Scallywag 100 by a mere 38 seconds to finish third across the line at about 9.30am.
Comanche’s celebrations were subdued at Hobart’s Constitution Dock after several nights of intense racing.
The yacht fell behind on Friday morning but regained the lead in the afternoon after taking a wider Bass Strait route to pick up winds.
“It was a long night. Everybody is pretty tired,” Cooney said. “We treated the race as a sprint, we didn’t take too many breaks. We wanted crew on deck all the time. It was relief more than elation.
“We put the boat where we wanted it to be. It all went very much to plan, the weather was what we expected.”
Comanche ran into a bit of strife near Tasman Island, where an unknown object wrapped around the yacht’s rudder rendering it immobile.
“We were in a little bit of drama for a short period of time,” Cooney said, adding it didn’t cost him much time.
Scallywag’s gutted skipper said a collision with a shark ruined the Hong Kong supermaxi’s chances of a podium finish.
Mark Witt, who launched a scathing attack at officials over radio checkin protocols in the lead-up to the race, said the accident happened on Friday night.
Scallywag had led the 75th edition of the race for much of Friday before being overtaken late in the day by Comanche. The overseas yacht was locked in a tussle with the other three supermaxis when things went awry near Tasman Light off the state’s south-east.
“We hit a shark and it wrapped around the rudder,” Witt said. “We had to drop all the sails and back the boat up to get the dead shark off the rudder. We lost about four miles.”
“It basically cost us running second, … We’re really, really disappointed because it’s probably the best the team has ever sailed.
“I’ve never been so upset with a result in my life.”
Wild Oats XI skipper Mark Richards said of the late challenge from Scallywag: “If we’d have been going for about another 30 seconds, I think they would have beaten us. They were flying.”
Comanche’s previous wins were in 2015 and 2017, the latter coming in race-record time after Wild Oats XI was stripped of the title in a post-race protest.
NSW boat Minerva became the fleet’s third retirement overnight, reducing the number of yachts in the race to 154.