Supermaxis Andoo Comanche and LawConnect are going tit-for-tat at the head of the Sydney to Hobart fleet as the skipper of a retired yacht revealed he was flung overboard during storms.
The wild weather has put paid to hopes of a race record, veteran sailor Peter Shipway said, with eight of 103 starting boats pulling the pin before Wednesday lunchtime.
Reigning line honours champion Comanche has been exchanging the lead with LawConnect, runner-up at the past three events, as the pair crossed Bass Strait.
LawConnect was two nautical miles ahead of Comanche according to tracking shortly before 1pm local time on Wednesday.
“We’ve had a little bit of everything. The wildest [weather] was literally 180-degree wind shifts. It’s been pretty wild,” LawConnect navigator Chris Lewis said in a video posted to Facebook.
Shane Connelly, skipper of two-handed yacht Rum Rebellion which retired on Tuesday night, said he was briefly thrown overboard between Cronulla and Wollongong on the NSW coast.
Connelly said a “micro-burst” of wind hit his yacht during a ferocious storm, throwing him off the port side. He managed to attach his tether and was lifted back on board as the yacht righted.
The skipper said he and crewmate Tony Sutton decided to retire after being concerned he may have suffered concussion.
“The safety drills and systems all worked and we could sort ourselves out,” he said.
Comanche and LawConnect have been clear front-runners since just out of Sydney Harbour and remained in step through Tuesday night.
The pair began the trip down the NSW south coast at a decent clip but have fallen off the pace of the race record of one day, nine hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds, set by Comanche in 2017.
“The race record is no chance,” said Mr. Shipway, who has won the sydney to Hobart twice on handicap and five times on line honours.
“They'd have to finish by quarter-past 10 tonight, and they’re still not even halfway.
“We’re probably at least 24 hours, maybe 30 hours, from a finish. It could be a daylight finish [on Thursday].”
In-form URM Group, a contender for overall honours, is among the next-best yachts despite suffering damage to her jib and losing her code zero spinnaker on the first night.
Alive, the 66-footer that won on handicap in 2018, was in fourth place, among a cluster of boats including the race’s third supermaxi Wild Thing 100.
The highest-profile retirement has been SHK Scallywag, one of four 100ft supermaxis jostling for line honours, which suffered a broken bow sprit and withdrew on Boxing Day evening.
Hobart veteran Peter Jones, crew on Maritimo 52, said there was “as much lightning as we'd ever seen” before his boat retired early on Wednesday.
One of eight TP52s starting the race, Maritimo was skippered by dual Hobart winner Michael Spies and boasted an experienced crew.
But she retired just south of Jervis Bay after breaking a fitting on her forestay and ripping her mainsail, with 50-footer Sticky also calling it a day overnight.
“We’re shattered,” Mr. Jones said.
“We were trying to work a million ways around it, but at best we were going to be at 50 percent.”
The damage came as stormy weather hit the fleet on the NSW south coast.
Popular two-hander Currawong, the race’s equal-smallest boat, on Wednesday morning became the sixth withdrawal.
Co-skippers Kathy Veel and Bridget Canham last year became the first all-female two-handed entry in the race and were greeted by thousands on arrival in Hobart.
But a repeat of those jubilant scenes was not to be as the pair reported “multiple issues” with their boat and bowed out south of Wollongong early on Wednesday.
Fellow two-hander PacMan retired less than an hour later, leaving the two-handed division at 15 boats.
