Duo battle for lead as storms force 11 boats out of Sydney-Hobart race

SYDNEY – Two 100-foot supermaxis battled for the lead on Dec 27, in a storm-struck Sydney-Hobart race fleet reduced to 92 yachts after 11 entrants pulled out of the punishing ocean event.

As at press time, favourite Andoo Comanche edged around two nautical miles ahead of LawConnect after a “cat-and-mouse” chase, with the lead switching throughout the night.

The duo were left in a duel after Hong Kong-owned supermaxi SHK Scallywag, which had been in a three-way battle for the lead, became the first major casualty on Dec 26 evening when it suffered a broken bowsprit.

“We are pretty close after we were neck and neck overnight,” LawConnect captain Ty Oxley said in a racing update before losing the lead.

“It’s raining and there are squalls everywhere, clouds on the horizon,” he added, reporting winds of more than 30 knots, sometimes exceeding 40 knots, as the rivals sailed southwards across the Bass Strait towards the Tasmanian capital.

Andoo Comanche was first across the line in 2022 and still holds the 2017 race record for the bluewater classic of one day, 9hr 15min 24sec.

LawConnect has been runner-up in the three previous editions.

Lying third, nearly 83 nautical miles behind it, was the 72-foot URM Group, captained by Marcus Ashley-Jones, with the 69-foot Moneypenny and 66-foot Alive (from Tasmania) in a close battle for fourth.

Less than 24 hours after the 103-boat fleet left Sydney Harbour, 11 yachts had withdrawn, most with equipment damage.

Geoff Cropley, on the Hong Kong-owned 72-footer Antipodes, said the sailors had endured “lightning and thunder for hours”.

They had been “hunkered down”, he added, with the weather slowly beginning to improve. “There is a little bit of blue sky. It’s quite nice out here,” he said.

First held in 1945, 2023 marks the 25th anniversary of a violent storm that tore into the 1998 race fleet, with wild winds whipping up mountainous seas in which six people died, five boats sank and 55 sailors were rescued.

Vessels still on the water on Dec 29 could face a south-easterly swell with waves of three to five metres, the Bureau of Meteorology warned in a final weather briefing before the start on Dec 26.

In 2022, Andoo Comanche crossed the finish line first after one day, 11hr 56min 48sec.

But the overall winner of the race under a handicap system was 52-foot Celestial, which claimed the coveted Tattersall Cup.

Another 52-footer, Caro, and URM Group are also among the favourites for overall race honours this edition. Nine-time line honours-winning supermaxi Wild Oats XI did not enter. AFP