S2H updates, Comanche unveiled—Sailing news from the U.S. and beyond

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 30 Dec 2014 All across North America, sailors and land lubbers alike have been enjoying a relaxing holiday season with their friends, their family, and their connection to Sail-World.com, where many of us (your editor included!) spent more time than they care to admit glued to the latest developments from the Sydney to Hobart Race (S2H), which recently concluded on the island of Tasmania. Snow may have been falling in the mountains and on the plains here in the States, but in Australia the S2H sailors faced stiff headwinds for the first half day or so of the race before things softened substantially.

While the S2H takes place each year, this year carried extra expectation as it was the 70th anniversary of this classic bluewater thrash, and it was also the debut offshore contest for Jim and Kristy Clark’s new 100-foot 'Comanche', which was skippered by Ken Read and crewed by a team of Volvo Ocean Race veterans and offshore experts. Stir in the fact that there were numerous other 100-footers on the starting line, and expectations for a line-honors contest grew wildly in the weeks preceding the race.

Ultimately, however, the light (for the S2H), upwind conditions proved to be far better suited for a pencil-thin super-maxi, rather than a max-beam, max-power super maxi, and the crew of 'Wild Oats XI', which is owned by the Oatley family and skippered by Mark Richards, took line honors for a staggering eighth time in the boat’s spectacular racecourse history. 'WOXI', as she is commonly called Down Under, beat the American-flagged 'Comanche' by a mere six miles, finishing the 628-mile course in two days, two hours, three minutes and 26 seconds-some eight hours shy of their course record in 2012.

When asked if 'WOXI' would be going for a record ninth line-honors win, owner Bob Oatley, age 86, responded accordingly. 'Ten wins sounds better to me,' said a happy Mr. Oatley.

'This was by far the most satisfying [line-honors win], we had a real race,' said Richards. 'It was long race, with a lot of competition from 'Comanche' from the start. We worked hard from the beginning, and it paid off. It was a tough first night in the southerly as the boat sustained damage and we had to hang on in there as 'Comanche' had the edge on us.'

As for Read and his 'Comanche' crew, they were realistic from the start about the fact that that this was the boat’s first offshore outing and they had precious little work-up time prior to the S2H’s December 26 start. 'Huge credit to Wild Oats, they deserve their record,' said Read. 'We tried hard to take it from them. Our team did an unbelievable job. On one hand we are disappointed, on the other, proud of what we put together. Very rarely you go through a race like this and say in hindsight you should have done 'x'. Both boats sailed a flawless race.'

Inside this issue, get the latest news from the S2H-including the latest updates on a photo plane that reportedly crashed while shooting imagery of the race-and be sure to stay tuned to the website for the latest handicap results, as they become known.

Also inside, get the latest news from the Boxing Day Race at the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach, California, and don’t miss the video footage of Team Vestas Wind removing their Volvo Ocean 65 from the Cargados Carajos Shoals, which they tagged at 19 knots several weeks ago during Leg Two of the ongoing Volvo Ocean Race.

And finally, be sure to spend some time scrolling through ace photographer Carlo Borlenghi’s great image gallery of newly arrived raceboats reaching Hobart, as well as the great, Ken Read-guided video walk-through of 'Comanche'. Enjoy!

May the four winds blow you safely home,