The notoriously light and flukey night sailing conditions of the Derwent River in the final stages of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race are frustrating what has been an otherwise textbook performance by Jim Cooney's super-maxi LDV Comanche writes W M Nixon at 1000 hrs Wednesday December 27th.
Having led the rival Wild Oats XI (Oatley family) ever since clearing the entrance to Sydney Harbour in an often strong favourable breeze which saw both boats topping 30 knots at times, LDV Comanche’s much beamier hull has been at a disadvantage in the gentler going in the long sheltered approaches to the finish, whereas the extra-slim Wild Oats has been making ground all the time, and accelerating more quickly when a favourable puff of wind arrives.
Now with darkness coming on at 9.10 pm local time, Wild Oats has just 5.5 miles to sail and has accelerated to 9.5knot, while LDV Comanche has 6.3 miles to sail and is recording 8.2 knots. In the rest of the fleet Matt Allen’s Ichi Ban with Gordon Maguire as sailing master continues to lead the TP 52s on the water, but at the moment is lying fourth overall on IRC with 152 miles still to race.