It was the late great Bruce Kirby, designer of the ILCA which every civilised person still thinks of as the Laser, who was a lone voice calling in the wilderness of the outer darkness when the mighty VPLP-designed 100ft Comanche first appeared in 2014.
For the new big boat was so awesome in so many ways that praise was almost universal. But it was Kirby who pointed out that it was surely ridiculous that a boat of this size had to be heeled at 20 degrees or even more in order to give her best performance.
Power and then some – MLC revelling in the returned breeze at Tasman Island. (Photo: Rolex)
Short-Leg Crew?
In typical style, Kirby quipped that they’d have to start breeding a special sort of new sailor with one leg significantly shorter than the other in order to optimise crewing arrangements.
And in truth, it has to be admitted that when you see Comanche – particularly from astern – while she’s sitting in the water absolutely upright, she looks to have the racing performance potential of a glued-to-the-water Mississippi Flatboat.
The Heeling is All
But as she starts to heel when sailing along, it’s like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. The drag of extensive speed-impairing wetted area fades away to mean that – as far as the sea is concerned – she is no longer a barge, but is something of an ultra-skinny canoe that barely disturbs the sea, relatively speaking, yet is still able to carry enormous spreads of sail.
Which means that when Comanche Conditions prevail, she’s doing a horizon job on anything remotely comparable. And as she has hopped from one favourable wind setup to the next to lengthen away from the opposition in the final quarter of the Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race 2025, it seemed the Gods were on their side, regardless of the fact that a very great sage like Bruce Kirby once said it was all absurd.
Creating Own Luck
When things go like this, you seem to make your own luck. Thus although the 100ft Scallywag from Hong Kong – with Kinsale’s Frank O’Leary and Crosshaven’s Gratt Roberts on the strength – was at one stage yesterday theoretically marginally nearer to Hobart, her experienced skipper David Witt knew it was only a flash in the pan, and that after a brief but maddening calm, the more powerful Master Lock Comanche was poised to build on her lead in the developing wind pattern.
The nearer they got to Hobart, the better things got for Master Lock Comanche. (Photo: Rolex)
Then too, the closely-challenging hundred footer Law Connect experienced the special big boat nightmare of a torn mainsail. Once a boat gets above a certain size, sail repairs at sea are a dangerous business – even if modern super-tapes make a rough and ready repair possible – for Law Connect has one very big mainsail.
Where to begin? Getting to grips with the torn mainsail on Law Connect. (Photo: Law Connect)
Sail Repair Hazards
The sheer size and weight of the sail can be overpowering on a heaving deck. So once the job was done, there was a certain gallows humour in counting the 20-plus crew, for it was feared that just as the Titanic reputedly sailed from Belfast in 1912 with two ship-building apprentices lost for eternity between the double skins of the hull, so it was feared that a small Law Connect crewman might be somewhere in the mainsail under all that torn cloth and smothering tape.
Clontarf Hopes
Meanwhile on down the fleet, Trevor Smyth of Clontarf and his shipmates on Michael Martin’s TP52 Frantic have been slugging along in the Corinthian division with notable consistency at 17th in line honours with 250 miles still to sail, good going when we remember 33 boats have retired. But whether the fast sailing conditions to the finish hold up for long enough for them to maintain the pace remains to be seen, for all the long-term weather predictions of a week ago – or even two days ago – have proven to be more than somewhat off target.
That said, when the breeze did arrive to bring the Super Maxis rapidly towards the finish with Master Lock Comanche lengthening away, it made for ending things on a high. As Matt Allen of Comanche put it, in 33 Hobart races this was the most straightforward finish he’d ever experienced.
“The best and easiest finish in 33 Sydney-Hobart Races” – co-skipper Matt Allen’s opinion as he brings Master Lock Comanche in to the line at Hobart. (Photo: Rolex)
