yacht tracker sydney to hobart 2022

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.

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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.’’

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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.”

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Four supermaxi yachts made it safely through the opening night of the 2022 Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

Andoo Comanche led the field into Bass Straight, but despite ideal conditions the race record began to slip away.

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Only two retirements were registered overnight with Avalanche the first to go followed by Yeah Baby.

Comanche holds the lead in the race for line honours, with rival supermaxis LawConnect, Black Jack and Wild Oats chasing, an online race tracker showed.

“We always think we’re going to be the best boat out there and do as well as we can,” Comanche skipper John Winning said ahead of the race.

“We’ll just try and outsail the others and win it on that.”

Just before 8am (AEDT), Andoo Comanche led LawConnect by 12 nautical miles , with both Black Jack and Wild Oats inside 20 nautical miles of the leader. The four are pushing forward on the back of 15+ knot northerlies.

There were wild scenes shortly after the starting cannon when Comanche and Wild Oats were forced to make wild turns following near-misses in the Sydney Harbour.

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

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)”.

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.

Morning! Comanche with an 11nm+ lead over LawConnect and Black Jack. Wild Oats well back. Record is fading. They'll jibe soon and start heading for the SE corner of Tassie. Still plenty of racing to go #SydneytoHobart pic.twitter.com/Ys9qyOPpmz — Paul Colgan (@Colgo) December 26, 2022

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 overall handicap honours, although skipper Max Klink played down his prospects ahead of the race saying: “I do not think we are the favourite.”

– with AFP

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ROLEX SYDNEY HOBART YACHT RACE

For over three-quarters of a century, the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, organised by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in collaboration with the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania has offered an enticing platform for human achievement, spirit and endeavour; qualities with which Rolex, partners of the race for near twenty years, has a deep affinity. First held in 1945, the start has a traditional lunchtime slot on 26 December. The famous 628-nautical mile (1,010-kilometre) course starts from Sydney Harbour and finishes in Hobart, the capital of the island state of Tasmania.

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Celestial crowned overall Sydney to Hobart yacht race winner after bitter 2021 loss almost saw skipper walk away

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Celestial has been crowned overall winner of the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race, taking home the Tattersall Cup after a fast and furious run down Tasmania's eastern coast.

Key points:

• Gweilo placed second overall, with Caro and Warrior Won coming third and fourth
• Skipper Sam Haynes said a penalty in last year's race that saw him place second almost made him step away from the sport
• Andoo Comanche won line honours on Wednesday morning

The New South Wales boat arrived in Hobart on Wednesday, but the result was announced on Thursday afternoon after a redress hearing requested by another yacht.

It was a sweet moment of redemption for skipper and owner Sam Haynes, who had victory snatched away by a penalty in last year's race.

"I'm screaming loud and proud. It means everything, everything, especially after last year," he said.

"It's like an elation — it's huge for me and the crew. I can't believe it; it's a bit of a life-changer.

"If you look around, there are a lot of boats that can win this and you have to push extremely hard to get to … even to get in the top 10 is major.

"So we weren't expecting anything more than just being competitive and putting in a really good show."

Haynes said conditions had started off "pretty good" but became rougher on reaching Tasmania's east coast.

"We were getting a lot of heavy conditions and it was blowing hard from the north," he said.

"The sea was massive, there were really big waves coming over the boat, people getting washed around on the deck, and we had to obviously have all our safety equipment on."

Despite its win, Celestial almost did not even make the 77th edition of the race — a 40-minute penalty last year that saw it place second to Ichi Ban was devastating for Haynes.

An international jury ruled Celestial had breached rules that stipulated competitors must keep a continuous watch for radio contact.

Haynes said the loss almost saw him step away from the sport.

"Last year certainly hurt ... but we made a very conscious decision to come back and get back into it," he said.

"Last year was terrible, but this is one for the ages.

"It's a sport we love; we've got a great crew, and they stood by and really wanted to compete as hard as possible in this year's race.

"There are plenty of times, even on a good day, where you're looking at it and you think, 'Here I am at the bottom of the boat, soaking wet, tired ... why am I out here?'

"But it is a beautiful sport and I love the competition, I like the camaraderie of it as well, and I like the technicality of sailing and what it takes to make these boats the way they are.

"There are a lot of reasons to be in it."

Andoo Comanche takes line honours after two-boat tussle

Celestial's win was announced after a redress hearing requested by Enterprise Next Generation, which stood by the stricken yacht, Koa, which later retired with a broken rudder.

Fellow NSW yacht Gweilo placed second and New Zealand's Caro and the USA's Warrior Won placed second and third overall, respectively.

Line honours were taken out by Andoo Comanche after it triumphed in a two-boat tussle up the River Derwent early on Wednesday morning.

Favourable weather led to a speedy race this year, but it came down to the John Winning Jr-skippered supermaxi and LawConnect, which finished a little over 20 minutes later.

Black Jack followed closely behind the pair and all three chased each other down the east coast of Tasmania, hooked a sharp right turn around Tasman Island and closed in on Hobart in quick succession.

Comanche skipper John Winning Jr said the line honours win felt "pretty unbelievable at the moment" and was "still sinking in".

"I was on [line honours winner] Perpetual Loyal as one of the skippers in 2016 so I sort of know what to expect in terms of all of this," he said.

"But to do it in a campaign that I was part of putting together is really quite exceptional."

LawConnect crew member Gavin Smith said on Wednesday morning the team was exhausted but happy with the result.

"We were always hoping we would be able to catch them in the end, it was just a case that we didn't get there this year, but hopefully next year."

Although a number of other yachts have retired from the race, including White Noise, Mondo, Navy One, Sail Exchange and Huntress, it is a stark contrast to last year, when almost a quarter of entries dropped out before finishing.

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Andoo comanche claims sydney to hobart line honours victory as severe weather slams remaining fleet.