In the overall race standings, the early handicap leader is small NSW boat King Billy, which is due to reach Hobart on Wednesday.
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Depending on weather and wind conditions, the 628-nautical-mile race to Hobart, the capital of the island state of Tasmania, could take two to three days.
The retirement of Wild Oats XI – which holds the race record of one day, 18 hours, 23 minutes and 12 seconds set in 2012 – left the race in the hands of U.S. challengers Comanche and Rambler 88, with just two nautical miles separating the pair.
They overcame a lost daggerboard, damaged rudder and steering problems to claim a treasured victory – the first foreign boat to claim line honours since 2009 and the first American victor since 1998.
As the American super maxi Comanche neared the finish of the Sydney to Hobart on Monday night to win line honours, skipper Ken Read’s call to hand the wheel to Kristy Hinze-Clark was more than a polite gesture.
Australian entry Ragamuffin 100 was revealed as the latest of the supermaxis to be damaged, with the port daggerboard completely sheared off in the race organised by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. “Going to be close”.
When Comanche came to its destination in calm conditions at the River Derwent at 9:58 p.m. local time, Rambler was fighting off Australian yacht Ragamuffin in the battle for second place.
The crew has been reduced from 24 a year ago to either 19 or 20 this time in a bid to make the boat lighter and faster.
“All of a sudden (there was) a big bang and a lot of crunching carbon fiber”, Read said.
“Of course when we cut the ropes to get rid of the dagger board we saved the hull but cleaned out the rudder”.
“I have been hearing all the time that we couldn’t perform in light wind” Read said, “and I have been saying that we’re really different from past year”.
The navigator on one of the leading yachts, Ichi Ban’s Will Oxley, had reported gusts of up to 43 knots while another boat, CEX Dolce, was returning to Sydney with a broken mast, it said. “In those sort of conditions you are trying to keep the boat in one piece, especially when you see what’s happening to your rivals”, he said. It had all come so terribly unstuck on that first night of the race, when something destroyed one of their daggerboards.
Italian yacht Maserati was expected to finish in fourth place later Tuesday.
A savage southerly blasted the yachts, resulting in 32 of the 108 entrants pulling out of the race.
“Ark323, one of two Chinese entries, retired following a collision 300 metres after the start”.
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American 100-foot super maxi Comanche was the first yacht out of the harbor on Saturday to take the early lead in the Sydney to Hobart race ahead of eight-time and defending champion Wild Oats XI.
