MELBOURNE, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Master Lock Comanche took line honours in the Sydney to Hobart race on Sunday after pulling clear of a three-way tussle with supermaxis LawConnect and HSK Scallywag 100.
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.
The winning time in difficult conditions was well outside the record of one day, nine hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds set by Comanche in 2017.
"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.
Bad weather forced dozens of boats out of the 128 starters to retire.
Covering about 630 nautical miles), the gruelling annual race takes yachts south along Australia's east coast, across the notoriously treacherous Bass Strait and on to the finish in Hobart, capital of the island-state of Tasmania.
Last year's race was marred by the deaths of two sailors, the first loss of life in the prestigious ocean race since 1998.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Additional reporting by Aadi Nair; Editing by Sonali Paul and William Mallard)
