Sailing: Andoo Comanche wins Sydney-Hobart but misses race record
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Andoo Comanche skipper, John Winning Jnr, celebrates during the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2022 in Hobart, Australia, on Dec 28.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
SYDNEY – Australian supermaxi Andoo Comanche secured a fourth line honours victory in the gruelling Sydney to Hobart ocean race on Wednesday, but fell short of setting a course record.
The 100-foot yacht, skippered by John Winning Jr, triumphed in a nail-biting finish in the early hours of Wednesday after leading the blue water classic for much of the race.
It completed a quartet of line honours wins for the boat in the prestigious event since 2015 under a third different owner.
Andoo Comanche crossed with a time of one day, 11 hours, 56 minutes and 48 seconds – about 25 minutes in front of rival supermaxi LawConnect – and just under three hours short of its own record.
The current race record of 1:09:15:24 was set by the same Comanche boat under a different skipper in 2017.
Winning Jr, greeted at the finishing line by his father, who competed in the race in the 1970s, was part of the team who won the event in 2016, but said it was something special to skipper his own crew.
“To do it in a campaign that I was part of putting together is really quite exceptional,” he told national broadcaster ABC. “It feels pretty unbelievable at the moment, it’s still sinking in.
“It was less than an hour ago we were sort of still thinking, are we about to have a shutdown, what’s gonna happen, it didn’t feel real until the last minute and then now it’s just starting to settle in.”
Last year’s champions Black Jack crossed third, followed by Hamilton Island Wild Oats, who fell behind after tearing one of their sails earlier in the race.
The 109-strong racing fleet set off from a sun-splashed Sydney Harbour on Monday afternoon, charting their way through the 628-nautical mile course (1,163km) to Hobart.
Favourable weather early in the race raised the prospect of toppling the record, but the strong winds faded as the boats barrelled towards the finishing line in Hobart.
The Bass Strait, which separates Tasmania from the mainland, can unleash perilous conditions.
A deep depression proved catastrophic for the fleet in 1998, when six sailors were killed and 55 more were rescued after five boats sank.
Race officials on Tuesday evening said only three of the starting fleet had been forced to retire so far. One of them, 40-foot yacht Hutchies Yeah Baby, withdrew less than four hours into the race after reportedly colliding with a massive sunfish. AFP, REUTERS