Sydney-Hobart 2017

So close Wild Oats in Lead 21:04

 

Port tack - Wild Oats covering Comanche

 

Wild Oats will be able to make a starboard lay-line to the finish after this port tack, but Comanche will have to do an extra tack as they run out of water.

 

Commentators saying the wide body of Comanche is slowing her down in the light wind and outgoing tide. Both using the slight westerly shift to lay the line.

 

Last minute local wind change putting Oats on Port tack close to the line.

 

OK. Wild Oats crossed the line first ... now the protest.

 

More proof of two things;

1- if you have a class where the only limit is LOA, you end up with very beamy boats with huge rigs that cost a huge amount but are often marginally faster.
2- the ultra-beamy boats may provide fantastic reaching speeds but their overall speed advantage is often marginal or non-existent despite their cost.

 

Comanche took a long time to get across the line. Looks like she got headed as well, and with even less wind than Wild oats at the end

 

WOW! I should have stayed up!!!! Congratulations to Wild Oats-what a race! Now, will she survive the protest?
Mr. Watson thanks for the blow by blow account!!
This is the second time Wild Oats has whuped Comanche IF she survives the protest......
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From the SH website:
Mark Richards has steered the Oatley family’s Wild Oats XI to her ninth Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours victory after a protracted battle with Jim Cooney’s LDV Comanche on Tasmania’s River Derwent this evening, reclaiming the race record Anthony Bell’s Perpetual LOYAL took from her last year.

Wild Oats XI smashed last year’s record of one day 13hrs 31mins 20secs by after crossing the Castray Esplanade finish line at 21:48:50 this evening, in the new time of one day 8hrs 48mins 50secs, taking 4hrs 42mins 30secs of Perpetual LOYAL’s time.

This is a record ninth line honours for Wild Oats and a third record – nobody in the history of the race has achieved this honour before.

But will she hold on to line honours? LDV Comanche is flying the protest flag she raised after an incident after the start and then advised in the first sked she would be protesting Wild Oats XI. LDV Comanche must file her protest within six hours of finishing.

But in the meantime, Richards and his 20 crew members were celebrating their victory to huge cheers at the dock in Hobart tonight, spraying Champagne Mumm over each other as the huge crowd waited for LDV Comanche to also finish.

The J.H. Illingworth Trophy looked set to be in the hands of Jim Cooney, who recently purchased the 2015 boat dubbed the ‘aircraft carrier’ due to her girth. Boat and crew revelled in the strong north-easterly wind, but in the end, Wild Oats XI held her ground and showed her superiority in the extremely light breeze both boats found on rounding Tasman Island that at times stopped both yachts in their tracks.

A full story with quotes will follow.

 

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Of all the Line Honors boats Comanche is the ONLY "very beamy" boat!!

 

Just got out of bed Holy Moses what a race. No wind up the river was indeed the kryptonite for Comanche.

 

The story so far: No Cookies | The Mercury http://www.themercury.com.au/sport/nailbiting-finish-in-2017-rolex-sydney-to-hobart-yacht-race/news-story/dbb7e33e5c2e3901f3fc501048911033

 

Another article: Wild Oats XI reels in LDV Commanche to win Sydney to Hobart race in record time https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/100198103/first-sydney-to-hobart-yacht-race-ends-early-for-german-skipper-as-commanche-leads

 

Rumor: protest to be held Thursday at 1500 local time-that's tonight about 11pm eastern USA-so Ray you'll have to stay up again!!