Comanche has snatched the narrowest of Sydney to Hobart leads, with all five supermaxis locked in a tight cat-and-mouse battle across Bass Strait. About eight nautical miles separated the pack of massive yachts at 5pm (AEDT) on Friday, with the lead switching hands several times across the day.
Comanche was less than a mile ahead of InfoTrack, while Hong Kong’s SHK Scallywag 100 dropped to third after leading early in the afternoon. Comanche, a two-time winner, has made the most of a more easterly route into Bass Strait. The 75th edition of the race has picked up pace courtesy of a north-easterly breeze, which could reach 30 knots into the evening.
“It makes for some pretty exhilarating riding at night but it could also be a little bit damaging to the boats,” said Cruising Yacht Club of Australia race commodore Paul Billingham. “It’s a bit of cat-and-mouse at the moment.”
An early Saturday afternoon finish on Hobart’s River Derwent is tipped, but Billingham conceded weather models were “all over the place”.
“We’ve been a bit spoiled the last few years, we seem to have a race record every few years,” he said. “What we’re seeing now is perhaps a purer yacht race with variable conditions testing all the boats.”
New South Wales 72-footer URM was in sixth and about 18 miles behind Wild Oats XI, which made a surge on Friday after dropping to ninth in the morning. “We getting the boys fully rested and making sure that we’re ready to push hard through the night,” URM crew member Tony Tindill said.
Tom Slingsby, the 2012 Olympic Laser gold medalist and senior member of InfoTrack’s 2016 line-honours winning crew when the boat was called Perpetual LOYAL, said the windier it got the better it looked for Comanche.
“But if it stays pretty light from the north-east, Comanche will have a tough time with Scallywag and Black Jack,” Slingsby said. “Light VMG (velocity made good) running is not its strong point for sure. If the breeze comes in, I think Comanche is going to be hard to beat.”
Just two of the race’s starting fleet of 157 have retired, Hollywood Boulevard and Faster Forward pulling out on Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, two previous overall winners, Ichi Ban and Quest, were showing up well in the early stages of the battle for handicap honours.