The Matt Allen- and James Mayo-owned Comanche finished in two days, five hours, three minutes and 36 seconds, a year after being forced to retire in the blue-water classic due to mainsail damage.
For a few hours on Sunday, the race had its third leader, and first since the opening hours of the race when Scallywag, skippered by David Witt, took the lead as the yachts reached the Tasmanian coastline.
As the lead trio neared Tasman Island and rounded for home Comanche soared clear, building a nine-nautical-mile lead as they moved up the Derwent.
“We had a great lead. It evaporated this morning and we had to have, effectively have a restart. We’ve never seen anything like that in the Sydney to Hobart race where all the boats were so close together, really on day two,” Allen said.
“We wanted to really defend from inside the coast, closer to the coastline. That eventually worked for us, the breeze filled in from inshore and we got the lead back and just extended throughout the day.
“Everyone stayed really calm. We stayed with the game plan and the game plan worked so it was fantastic.”
Comanche has won five Sydney to Hobart events under different sponsor names, also finishing first in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2022.
LawConnect’s line honours title defence stumbled early on Sunday with a broken sail. Crew scrambled to tape up the shredded mainsheet, in footage posted on social media.
LawConnect, owned by Australian tech millionaire Christian Beck and winners of the race in 2023 and 2024, finished runners-up.
Scallywag was third.
This year’s race saw initial southerly winds battering the 128-strong fleet and causing heavy seas.
More than a quarter of the field had retired from the race by Sunday morning either with boat damage or because their crews were suffering from severe sea sickness. (Agencies)
