yacht line honours sydney to hobart

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LawConnect wins Sydney to Hobart line honours after tight finish with Andoo Comanche

• Supermaxis tussle for lead in final moments on River Derwent
• LawConnect overtakes Comanche to win by 51 seconds

Perennial bridesmaid LawConnect has claimed Sydney to Hobart line honours, coming from behind to pip fellow supermaxi Andoo Comanche by just 51 seconds.

LawConnect, runner-up in the past three events, edged across the River Derwent finish line in light winds shortly after 8am (AEDT) on Thursday.

It was the second-closest finish in Sydney to Hobart history after Condor of Bermuda beat Apollo by seven seconds in 1982.

LawConnect and Comanche, who were in a tight battle the whole race, each had their nose in front in the dying stages.

Skipper and owner Christian Beck said his maiden line honours win in the 628-nautical-mile blue-water event was a dream come true.

“They took the lead pretty close to the line and we thought there was no way we could get it back,” Beck said.

“A wind gust came around. It was a complete surprise. There were guys who couldn’t watch. It was very nerve wracking.”

Pre-race favourite and 2022 winner Comanche took a lead into the River Derwent after holding the advantage down Tasmania’s east coast on Wednesday night.

“It is pretty painful,” Comanche skipper and owner John Winning Jr said.

“We’ve got an amazing boat that should have won. The other guys sailed their guts out and left nothing on the table.

“They beat us with an underdog boat, those guys deserve all the praise they get.”

Winning, whose two-year ownership of Comanche will come to an end after this race, lamented a slow start and getting caught in unexpected low pressure.

“It was one of the most epic finishes in probably any sailing race I know,” he said.

“In the last three minutes I think the lead changed three times.”

Beck, who said he would return to defend the win, jokingly described LawConnect as a “shitbox” compared to Comanche.

“I know it looks good on TV but you go up close … she’s rough as anything,” he said.

“Comanche is better in every way. The fact [our crew] can make that boat beat Comanche is amazing.”

LawConnect arrived in Hobart with a red protest flag flying after they slowed for 30 minutes for Comanche who they believed was in distress.

LawConnect sailing master Tony Mutter said they didn’t assert any wrongdoing on Comanche’s part, with the winners finishing in one day, 19 hours, three minutes and 58 seconds.

She was first out of the Heads in Sydney during a dramatic opening day which included the retirement of fellow supermaxi SHK Scallywag because of a broken bow sprit.

Eleven of the race’s starting 103-strong fleet have pulled the pin, with some reporting damage and seasickness after a challenging thunderstorm on the first night.

Moneypenny, URM Group and Alive are together about 60 nautical miles from the finish, with the third remaining supermaxi Wild Thing 100 further back in sixth.

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LawConnect pips Andoo Comanche by 51 seconds to win Sydney to Hobart

LawConnect has won the 2023 Sydney to Hobart line honours in incredible fashion, in what was the second closest finish ever.

The 100-foot supermaxi sailed into Hobart harbour just after 8am on Thursday, 51 seconds ahead of Andoo Comanche.

The closest recorded finish to the race was in 1982, when Condor Of Bermuda beat Apollo by just seven seconds.

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The race came down to the wire as the two superyachts duelled over the final few miles, and LawConnect made up significant ground to overtake and then beat Andoo Comanche before the line.

Andoo Comanche had led by as much as four kilometres only half an hour earlier. Andoo Comanche was the reigning champion.

LawConnect and its owner Christian Beck had been runner-up in the race the past three years.

The yacht was first out of Sydney harbour, while Andoo Comanche ran into trouble and almost collided with fellow supermaxi Scallywag, which was forced to retire six hours later.

LawConnect wins the 2023 event in one day, 19 hours, three minutes and 58 seconds. Andoo Comanche took one day, 19 hours, four minutes and 49 seconds to complete the 628-nautical mile course.

Earlier, Beck had spoken as his yacht attempted to chase down Andoo Comanche, who several media outlets had already declared the line honours winner.

"You can watch where they go, and if they go slow, we go somewhere else," Beck told the broadcast.

"We've come second three times in a row, so we really want to win...we're obviously happy to be in the Derwent too, but we'd like to be a little closer to Comanche."

LawConnect was flying a protest flag as it crossed the finish line, which confused spectators.

Sailing master Tony Mutter later explained the crew were protesting Andoo Comanche, but may not follow through with it.

"We did notify the race committee that we were flying a protest flag... for an incident during the race that we thought affected our performance," Mutter said.

"We slowed down for half an hour… on standby for a boat we thought was in distress.

"There was no intent on their part to create that problem...we're not suggesting that at all."

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Andoo Comanche takes out Sydney to Hobart as supermaxi makes race history

Australian supermaxi Andoo Comanche secured a fourth line honours victory in the gruelling Sydney-Hobart ocean race Wednesday, but fell short of setting a new course record.

The 100-foot yacht, skippered by John Winning Jnr, 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 20 minutes in front of rival supermaxi Law Connect -- and just under three hours short of its own record.

The current race record of one day, nine hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds was set by the same Comanche boat under a different skipper in 2017.

Winning Jnr was part of the team that 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.

Last year’s defending champion Black Jack crossed third, followed by Wild Oats, which fell behind after tearing one of its 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 (1163km) to Hobart.

Favourable weather early in the race raised the prospect of toppling that mark, but the strong winds faded as the boats barrelled towards the finish 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 Yeah Baby, withdrew less than four hours into the race after reportedly colliding with a massive sunfish.

Dozens of smaller yachts were still in the water Wednesday morning, competing for the handicap prize, which compensates for boat size.

READ BELOW FOR A FULL WRAP OF ALL THE ACTION FROM THE RACE!

Comanche held a consistent lead of 20 nautical miles throughout the afternoon as it moved towards the Derwent with LawConnect telling the Nine papers they expect to arrive at Constitution Dock in Hobart at around 2am AEDT.

As darkness neared, Wild Oats XI fell back into fourth having suffered sail damage overnight while reigning line honours winner Black Jack was third, some five nautical miles behind LawConnect.

FOLLOW THE LIVE RACE TRACKER HERE

Comanche led the fleet into Bass Strait in the early morning, but slipping well behind LDV Comanche’s race record from 2017. Three of the four supermaxis (100-plus-footers) ran well east of the rhumbline to take advantage of marginally stronger winds, before turning back towards the coast of Tasmania around midday.

There were two retirements on the first day, with two-hander Avalanche the first to pull back to shore with a damaged bowsprit after a collision with Llama II just outside the Sydney Heads. Llama II escaped with only superficial damage.

Yeah Baby then retired in the evening after sustaining rudder damage near Wollongong due to a collision with a sunfish, but returned safely to Sydney.

Koa then became the third retirement after breaking her rudder, and is set to be towed to Eden on the NSW south coast, leaving 106 yachts still in the race. Enterprise Next Generation put in a request for redress after helping their stricken rival.

WILD OATS COPS DAMAGE OVERNIGHT

Hamilton Island Wild Oats came within 0.3 nautical miles of Black Jack around 2am overnight in the hunt for third position, before Black Jack surged in the early morning.

The pair traded positions throughout the day, with Wild Oats taking a line significantly closer to rhumbline.

It followed a wild start where both Comanche and Wild Oats were forced to take penalty turns following a series of near-misses in Sydney Harbour (more below).

Wild Oats - hunting a record tenth line honours win - then suffered damage to one of their two largest sails overnight.

Their veteran crewman Chris Links told NewsLocal a seam across one of their large downwind sails split, requiring running repairs on deck.

“It is not an easy job,’’ Links said.

“It has a cable in it and we had to do the repair on deck.

“It took around one and a half hours to repair.’’

LIVE STREAM

Watch live on-board action from LawConnect below.

WILD START CAUSES CHAOS

“Protest, get the flag up, that was f***ing bull***t,” someone yelled on Andoo Comanche in the first two minutes after being cut off by rival supermaxis LawConnect and Black Jack.

URM and LawConnect were also “inches” away from crashing into each other, according to URM skipper Ashley-Jones.

Less than a minute later, one of the crew was heard barking: “you’re asking for a clusterf***, we’re going to be in a collision,” and labelled one rival a “f***ing idiot”.

Comanche hit a turning mark as it exited the heads and was later spotted flying a protest flag of their own, after another boat protested them.

On Wild Oats, which took two penalty turns, skipper Mark Richards could be heard yelling “furl, furl, we are going to do a 720 (penalty turn)”.

Wild Oats famously lost the win in 2017 upon arrival in Hobart, after being handed a one-hour penalty for a rule breach over an incident with Comanche.

That race saw the record time set, with 2022’s Comanche roughly eight nautical miles behind the 2017 edition’s pace late on Monday night and falling further back overnight.

EARLY RACE UPDATES AND PREVIEW (via AFP)

More than 100 yachts set sail Monday on the Sydney-Hobart race as favourable winds raised hopes for a record time in one of the world’s most punishing ocean events.

Fans gathered at coastal vantage points and on spectator boats in a sun-splashed Sydney Harbour, which hours earlier had been shrouded in a thick fog that halted all ferry traffic.

The starting cannon fired to release 109 yachts on the 628-nautical mile (1,200-kilometre) blue water classic.

Crews dashed to get out of the city’s harbour on the first leg of the race down Australia’s eastern coast and across the treacherous Bass Strait towards the finish line in the Tasmanian state capital.

A final weather briefing on race day predicted “fresh to strong” north to northeasterly winds in the next day or so, giving the fastest, 100-foot supermaxi yachts a chance to challenge Comanche’s 2017 record of one day, 9 hours, 15min and 24sec.

Mark Richards, skipper of nine-time line honours-winning supermaxi Wild Oats, said his crew was buoyant after preparing for exactly these conditions.

“We put all our eggs in one basket and we put all our money on black for a downwind forecast and we have ended up getting it,” he told public broadcaster ABC.

“I think Wild Oats is going to be very fast,” Richards added. “The world is going to find out who is the fastest boat downwind.”

Wild Oats is competing for line honours against three rival supermaxis: Andoo Comanche, last year’s line honours winner Black Jack, and LawConnect.

Weather is a critical factor in the race, which was first held in 1945. Though the supermaxis are expected to be powered by northerly winds to a quick finish as early as Tuesday, slower mid- to small-sized boats will still be in the water in the following days facing possible gales and changes in wind direction.

In 1998, when a deep depression exploded over the fleet in the Bass Strait, six men died, five boats sank and 55 sailors were rescued.

Black Jack took line honours last year after a tight tussle with LawConnect, ending years of frustrating near misses to cross the finish line on the River Derwent after two days, 12 hours, 37min and 17sec.

Ichi Ban, which is not racing this year, was the 2021 winner of the overall handicap prize, which takes into account the yachts’ sizes. The boat pipped rival Celestial in a race where dangerous waves and weather conditions saw many withdraw.

International boats are making a return after the race was cancelled in 2020 for the first time due to the pandemic, and Covid hit the fleet last year.

Entrants come from Germany (Orione), Hong Kong (Antipodes), Hungary (Cassiopeia 68), New Caledonia (Eye Candy and Poulpito), New Zealand (Caro), Britain (Sunrise) and the United States (Warrior Won).

Sunrise is a proven ocean racer, winning the 2021 Fastnet Race in Britain, while Caro has been tipped to take out overall handicap honours, although skipper Max Klink played down his prospects ahead of the race saying: “I do not think we are the favourite.”

Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2023

Andoo Comanche wins Line Honours in 2022 Rolex Sydney Hobart

• 28 Dec, 2022 12:40:00 AM

Andoo Comanche has taken Line Honours in the 2022 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

The 100-ft maxi, skippered by John Winning Jr, crossed the line in 1 day, 11 hours, 56 minutes and 48 seconds.

This is a fourth Line Honours win for the boat, a Verdier/VPLP design, under a third different owner.

She first won as  Comanche  in 2015 for Jim and Kristy Clark. 

The 2017 Line Honours win as  LDV Comanche,  when owned by Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant, was achieved in a time of 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds, which still stands as the race record. 

Cooney and Grant also won Line Honours with  Comanche in the 75th anniversary race in 2019.

More to follow.

Congratulations to all the divisional winners of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2023

PHOTOS | 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Official Prizegiving

PHOTOS | Day 5 Morning - Tasman Island and Storm Bay

PHOTOS | Day 5 and Day 6 finishers

PHOTOS | Official Presentation of Tattersall Cup and Rolex Timepiece to the Overall Winner

2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - A Race for the Ages

VIDEO | 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - Rolex Daily Video Summary

VIDEO | Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2023

VIDEO | 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Official Prizegiving

VIDEO | Race Update - 31 December Morning

AUDIO | 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Sked 10

AUDIO | 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Sked 9

AUDIO | 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Sked 8

AUDIO | 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Sked 7

AUDIO | 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Sked 6

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Full Standings available approximately three hours after the start.

OFFICIAL ROLEX SYDNEY HOBART MERCHANDISE

Shop the official clothing range of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in person at the Club in New South Head Road, Darling Point or online below.  

From casual to technical clothing, there is something for all occasions. Be quick as stock is limited!

Yacht Mark Twain being refurbished in bid to compete in Sydney to Hobart race once more

For the better part of five decades, one yacht returned to the starting line of the Sydney to Hobart race more than any other.

The timber and fibreglass hulled Mark Twain was built in 1971 and has competed in the race a record-breaking 26 times.

But since its last effort in 2018, it has languished at port.

The yacht's new owner, Rob Payne, who refers to himself as the boat's custodian, has grand plans to refurbish the vessel, a Sparkman and Stephens 39, and return the Mark Twain to its former glory.

Although he hopes to return the boat to the starting line of the Sydney to Hobart, he also believes the yacht can be used for a greater good.

Along with Beaconsfield mine disaster survivor Brant Webb , Mr Payne has plans to establish a group called Old Saltys, which will aim to use sailing as a vessel to empower youth through sharing knowledge.

"Sailing is a metaphor for life. You've got to trim your sails and set your course and you're gonna get buffeted around," he said.

The Old Salty's motto will be 'well-weathered wisdom', and the men believe they have a lot of life experience they can share with young people anywhere Mark Twain can sail.

Mine collapse survivor finds solace on the sea

Brant Webb, who was one of two miners rescued after spending 14 days trapped almost a kilometre underground when a Tasmanian mine collapsed in 2006, says sailing helped him after the ordeal.

"After Beaconsfield, if I was having a bad day I'd call up the GP and he'd say 'get the boat ready, we're going sailing'.

"I've been sailing since I was eight years old. All my life. That's the great thing about it, you can turn your phone off out there and no-one can find you."

Mr Webb said the Old Saltys group was intended for "sailors who are too old to race and too young to cruise".

"It gives us old folk a new lease on life. The whole thing is to connect people, to put the unity in community, which we lost during COVID."

Mr Payne, a recent transplant from New Zealand, said he was heartbroken by the condition of the Mark Twain when he first found it in 2020.

"When I saw it, it broke my heart," he said, adding that he had the opportunity to "do something about" refurbishing the "old girl".

"We're only ever the custodians of these extraordinary vessels."

Once a fine racing yacht, the Mark Twain had fallen into disrepair in port at George Town in recent years.

From its first entry in the Sydney to Hobart in 1971, the boat long held the steadily increasing record for the greatest number of entries in the iconic race, even managing to clinch podium finishes for its class on several occasions.

Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, it competed in more than 20 Sydney to Hobart races, and in 2002 became the first-ever boat to have sailed in 25.

"Thousands of men and women have sailed on this beautiful vessel," Mr Payne said.

It was bought and refurbished for its 26th entry by veteran Sydney to Hobart skipper Michael Spies in 2018, but that was the last time it took part.

Mr Payne spent several months last year refurbishing the boat's hull himself and on Wednesday, March 27, the mast and boom were removed to be restored by a Beauty Point shipwright.

Along with Mr Webb, he hopes to take the Mark Twain around Tasmania, Australia and New Zealand and share their knowledge of the seas.

"My encouragement to youth is to get into sailing and you know, become part of the community within those sailing clubs," Mr Payne said.

"You don't necessarily have to own a huge boat … you can be in a little sabot [dinghy] and have that experience on the water. It's life changing and transformational."

He is keen to share the refurbishment project with anyone who wants to be involved and hopes the Mark Twain will sail again in the next two to three years.

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