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Comanche wins Sydney to Hobart race
Update: 4:50PM Weather-damaged Comanche has overtaken fellow United States entrant Rambler 88 in the 71st Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Pure terror at one stage.
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“To fight on, we could have put the crew into real risky situations”, Wild Oats skipper Mark Richards said when the yacht returned to Sydney.
With the giant American super maxi Comanche looking certain to carry off the line honours trophy in the 2015 Rolex Sydney Hobart, second-placed Rambler may yet live to console herself with the biggest prize of all: the Tattersall’s Cup for the outright victor, the one that performs best according to its size.
Comanche hit an unidentified submerged object which broke one of her twin rudders and a daggerboard, but after initially considering retirement the crew made repairs and continued on.
I’ve sailed around the world two-and-a-half times, and I thought I’d seen it all, but that is one really tough body of water, so, the people who have done this race something like 25 times, God bless them.
Syd Fisher’s Ragamuffin 100 crossed the finish line in Hobart at 8:47:30 this morning to take second on line honours.
“I was most anxious about the sharp edges of the dagger board puncturing up through the hull of the boat so we desperately were trying to cut the ropes to get rid of the dagger board”, Read told reporters after the race.
“Comanche, with the lead she has on the rest of the fleet, will be the first boat in”, he told the Seven Network on Monday.
“We were sailing on starboard tack from the start and three boats got locked together – we were in the middle with nowhere to go”, Lupa’s tactician Laurent Pages said.
A front tore across the fleet, as forecast, late last night turning the north-easterly sleigh ride into crash upwind with winds overnight of over 40 knots and a confused sea.
Australian entry Ragamuffin 100 was in third position, followed by the Giovanni Soldini-skippered Maserati, Chinese Whisper and Ichi Ban.
More than 30 of the 108 yachts entered in the race had withdrawn by Monday, mostly because of damage.
Previous year on race debut Comanche came second to defending champion Wild Oats XI which in 2015 retired on day one with sail damage.
It would be a sweet success for Comanche, who led the field early past year but were ultimately run down by Wild Oats XI, who secured a record-breaking eighth win.
“Lucky it was”, Witt said, adding they had overtaken George David’s Rambler once up the Derwent and then just before the finish.
The race had a chaotic beginning in Sydney Harbor, when the official start boat took on water and its passengers had to be returned to the docks, while a hooter launched the competitors rather than the traditional cannon.
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He raced on the famous boat 10 times in Sydney to Hobarts, but had moved to America by the time it won in 2003.