2018 Sydney Hobart – Cut and shuffle the deck
by John Curnow, Editor, Sail-World AUS 26 Dec 2018 06:48 PST
Comanche (foreground) begins her rise to the top, after rounding Zulu in sixth place. InfoTrack in front with Wild Oats XI inshore. Giddy up! 2018 RSHYR © Andrea Francolini
Prior to the beginning of the 74th Sydney Hobart race, the theory went Black Jack in the light, Wild Oats XI as the all-rounder, Comanche in a blow and with anything more than cracked sheets, with Scallywag and her mods unproven but notable, and InfoTrack a previous Line Honours winner.
That all seemed pretty much on target, as various members of the five supermaxis held sway at various times in the quarter of an hour it took to the armada exit Sydney Harbour. Ultimately, Black Jack did a stellar job and got busy getting a kite up, whilst Comanche found herself behind a sixty-footer, Winning Appliances, at the clearance mark.
Given that most of the world’s 100-footers call Australia home now, it was a shame to lose Hong Kong’s Sun Hung Kai Scallywag so early in the piece with a broken bowsprit (the prodder out the front). Her new North Sails wardrobe had been making her motor along nicely. At any rate, a drag race South ensued, with places being swapped amongst the four local owned supermonsters, as first Comanche hauled them all in to take the lead, then Wild Oats XI held sway once more.
They sped South at 18-24 knots, and just before the 0005hrs safety sched, came the first of the declarations for Green Cape. This is the jumping off point and all craft must advise race control that they are fit, well, and intact. This declaration was one of the many safety management requirements introduced to the race after it was discovered that some boats sailed into 70-90 knot winds in the ill-fated 1998 race either with no engine, no functioning HF radio, or with injured crew.
Wild Oats XI, standing almost 67 miles offshore, pronounced she was abeam Green Cape, 193 nautical miles from the start, ready to make for Tasmania, and declared all crew were well, and the boat sound, as they are required to do. They did this very carefully, for in 2010 the Race Committee protested them, as they alleged WOXI had not made their declaration. However, they were saved when Hobart Race Control found they had a tape of the HF radio traffic.
A few seconds after WOXI’s declaration, Jim Cooney’s Comanche followed suit. According to the tracking site she was still five miles back, but perhaps it was that her ultra-competitive afterguard, including navigator Simon Fisher (SiFi from GBR), did not want anyone reminded of that.
At the same time, Black Jack was three miles inside the eight times Line Honours winner, WOXI, and three miles further astern. Now Christian Beck’s InfoTrack was a mile further back, and a mile wider than the leader, but the most Easterly of the boats in the fleet aiming for more pressure was Comanche, seventy-six miles off the coast.
Pre-race, SiFi had commented that he anticipated Comanche would go very wide to try and avoid the week frontal system that could slow them down, and overnight we shall see which of the boats has chosen the best course!
You can listen to all the Green Cape declarations here, as recorded by the dedicated HF team (Mark Rutherford, Tony Lathouras, Clayton Reading, and Eric van der Neut), who have been providing Sail-World with mid-race HF traffic recordings for the last decade. Muchas Gracias!
12 hours into the race, when this article was written, the TP52 Ichi Ban was the overall leader by 90 minutes from the Carkeek 60 Ichi Ban, racing as Winning Appliances, with earlier leader, Bruce Taylor's Chutzpah, in third place. This goes to show just how volatile the leaderboard can be, and why one of the most trusted rules of the Hobart is, I'll telly you who won when they are tied to the quay at Constitution Dock!"
Over the last few hours, the Farr 40 (modified) out of WA, Enterprise, has been providing some concern for Race Control. They were not able to get them on radio originally, but did see them light up just before the sched. It was thought they had a PLB that was transmitting, and AMSA had received it.
At any rate, AMSA did task one of their Bombardier CL-600-2B16 recon jets, (RSCU660, call sign VH-XND) to depart Melbourne, and commence a fly over. They went from 30,000 feet to just 3,500 once over water, and we felt that apart from a convenient training run, it maybe a protocol on account of the beacon being detected via satellite. They would even track at 2,400 feet right above the main group of the fleet, which you can see in the overlay of the two diagrams. Almost in homage to the mantra of the USAF F-16s, she did one pass and then hauled ass, about 100nm South of Enterprise’s position.