American yacht Comanche was closing in on line honours in the Sydney to Hobart Monday, staging a stunning recovery from damage sustained in a punishing squall which saw a quarter of contenders pull out of the race.
As the much diminished fleet pushed on towards Tasmania’s Hobart, Comanche charged ahead of her nearest rival fellow American Rambler which was slowed by a lack of breeze.
“Almost nothing can stop her winning now,” the official Sydney Hobart twitter feed stated, putting Comanche’s estimated arrival time at Constitution Dock at about 10pm (1100 GMT).
With less than 15 nautical miles to go, Comanche was more than 50 miles ahead of 88-footer Rambler late Monday with Ragamuffin 100 and the Giovanni Soldini-skippered Maserati chasing them further back.
A savage southerly blasted the boats off the New South Wales coast on the first night at sea on Saturday, resulting in 32 of the 108 entries retiring from the gruelling 628-nautical mile race down Australia’s east coast.
Among the casualties were two strong contenders for line honours — eight-time fastest finisher Wild Oats XI, forced back to Sydney after her mainsail ripped, and supermaxi Perpetual Loyal with rudder damage.
Comanche hit an unidentified submerged object during the fierce conditions on Saturday night which broke one of the 100-footer’s twin rudders and a daggerboard.
Skipper Ken Read had initially considered retiring but “decided to punch on through” and running repairs were made to the boat.
“I don’t care if we limp over the line. We are going to finish this damned race,” he said.
Comanche finished runner-up for line honours to Wild Oats XI in her first Sydney to Hobart last year, and has been a hot favourite after setting a new 24-hour monohull record of 618.01 nautical miles in July.
Her biggest competition for line honours had been from Rambler which also hit something in the water on Saturday, sustaining similar damage.
“We have no idea what we hit, we couldn’t see it,” the yacht’s navigator Andrew Cape said.
“It might have been marine life or flotsam, but it was a solid hit. It shook the boat.”
Of the 108 boats which started the race in Sydney Harbour on Saturday, 32 have been forced out, including some with shredded sails or hull and steering damage and one with a broken mast.
Sailors returning to Sydney on Sunday spoke of the terrifying conditions, with winds of up to 40 knots.
Julia Cooney, on board Brindabella, told The Australian newspaper that “nothing can prepare you for something like that”.
“It was like hitting a wall of water; hitting you in the face, sea water, rain water — you couldn’t tell.
“It was pitch black and the boat was crashing through the waves at 11 knots.”
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.
“We’ve had our fair share of problems but we’re still on track to get to Hobart and we haven’t given up,” sailing master David Witt said earlier Monday.
“We broke our port daggerboard; it snapped off. We don’t have one any more.
“We didn’t hit anything, we just dropped off a wave in the fresh stuff and loaded it up and snapped it off.”
The race record — set by Wild Oats XI in 2012 — is one day, 18 hours, 23 minutes and 12 seconds.