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Written by Zuzana Bednarova

The US builder, Hodgdon Yachts , has successfully launched the all-new fast carbon 30,5m (100’) Super Maxi yacht Comanche . The pre-preg sailing yacht Comanche is expected to attend major ocean races around the world and break records on existing ocean crossings. She will be put to the test for the first time during the 2014  Rolex Sydney to Hobart Race . Below are the photos from the launch of this impressive vessel, North Sails President Ken Read and shared by Hodgdon Yachts.

Hodgdon Yachts ready to launch the 100ft sailing superyacht Comanche - Photo credit to Ken Read

Superyacht Comanche ready to be launched by Hodgdon Yachts - Photo credit to Ken Read

Sailing yacht Comanche on the water - Photo credit to Ken Read

Please contact CharterWorld - the luxury yacht charter specialist - for more on superyacht news item "Photos from launch of 100 Super Maxi Yacht COMANCHE by Hodgdon Yachts ".

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Jim Cooney buys Comanche – the super maxi will now call Australia home

One of the favourites to take line honours in the 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, LDV Comanche, was purchased today (14 December 2017) by Sydney’s Jim Cooney from its American owner Jim Clark, making the super maxi yacht an Australian owned and skippered entry when it starts the Boxing Day classic.

“LDV Comanche is a truly awe-inspiring yacht, and the chance to race to Hobart, alongside my children Julia and James with a world class crew, is a once in a lifetime opportunity too good to pass up. I started ocean racing 30 years ago and we have raced as a family in many parts of the world for 12 years, but this is an incredible opportunity for us to challenge for the world’s toughest blue water classic,” says Jim Cooney, who finished sixth on line in last year’s race at the helm of his Volvo 70 ‘Maserati’ and campaigned his iconic maxi Brindabella for seven years before that.

“This year competition is fierce, with the strongest line up of super maxis ever seen in one race. Depending on conditions, any of the 100 footers could take line honours, it threatens be one of the best races in the history of the event,” Cooney stated today.

Jim Cooney is the Chairman and majority shareholder of TCI Renewables, a professional wind energy development company headquartered in Oxford, UK. Jim is a Chartered Engineer who co-founded TCI in Australia in 1996 and successfully developed the business to span the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and the United States. He is an accomplished industry leader in renewable energy, specialising in wind energy, and under his direction TCI Renewables has developed some of the largest wind farms in the UK.  In 2005 Jim was honoured with the prestigious Ernst & Young Australian Entrepreneur of the Year.  He holds degrees from the University of Sydney, University of London and Imperial College, London.

LDV Comanche will continue to carry the colours of the Chinese vehicle manufacturer LDV, which is using the yacht and the race as part of the launch of  its new LDV T60 Ute.

The crew on LDV Comanche reads like a who’s who of the sailing world and following the change in ownership, will gain some new names. As well as Jim Cooney, the crew will now include Jim’s son and daughter Julia and James Cooney alongside Waratah Jeremy Tilse.

The stellar crew includes three time America’s cup winner and 2015 Rolex Sydney Hobart Winner Jimmy Spithill (Australia); eleven time winner of the Transpac race and round the world race winner Stan Honey (USA); round the world race winner Brad Jackson (New Zealand); Olympic and round the world sailor Dirk de Ridder (Netherlands); multiple America’s Cup sailor and Rolex Sydney Hobart winner Warwick Fleury (New Zealand); America’s Cup sailor, Nick Burridge (New Zealand); Olympic, America’s Cup and round the world sailor Shannon Falcone (UK); Rolex Sydney Hobart race winner on Comanche, John Von Schwarz (USA); six time round the world racer and seven time America’s Cup competitor, Tony ‘Trae’ Rae (New Zealand); Sydney Hobart winner on board Comanche and the sport’s world renowned ‘Mr Fixit’, Casey Smith (Australia); Extreme sailing expert Stuart Pollard (Australia); round the world sailor Justin Slattery (Ireland); Rolex Sydney Hobart winner on Comanche Keats Keeley (USA); round the world sailor David Rolfe (Australia); and project manager Tim Hackett who has managed some of the leading teams around the world.

Launched as ‘Comanche’, and now called ‘LDV Comanche’ for the 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, the 100 foot maxi racing yacht holds a remarkable list of records, all of which show her to be the ideal yacht for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. The yacht holds the 24 hour sailing distance record for monohulls and the trans-Atlantic crossing record of 5 days, 14 hours, 21 minutes and 25 seconds. In addition to the 2015 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, she won the no less tough Fastnet Race. This year she smashed the monohull record in the Transpac race with an average speed of 20.2 knots.

‘LDV Comanche’s nickname, “the aircraft carrier”, gives away what sets her apart from two of her rivals, Black Jack and Wild Oats XI. Indeed, her beam at the stern is so great it could accommodate both Black Jack and Wild Oats XI. Her optimum heel angle is anything over 20 degrees and she has the same wetted surface as Wild Oats XI at 25 degrees. The 46 metre/150 feet high mast sits directly above the canting keel and she designed deliberately to be able to – just – slip under Sydney Harbour Bridge. The mast has a static load of 75 tonnes and 150 tonnes under sail, or, to put it another way, the same weight as 80 LDV T60 Utes hanging from the mast.

Suspended from the mast is a 410 square metre mainsail, which will carry a massive picture of an LDV T60 Ute for the race. In downwind configuration, this expands to a massive 1022 square metres and the largest spinnaker is 1100 square metres. Under the yacht is a canting keel that may be swung out 35 degrees in either direction in as little as 25 seconds, while there is space on either side of the hull for 6.5 tonnes of water in the ballast tanks.

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Comanche – A Fast Racer

October 18, 2015 By Daniel Mihai Popescu 2 Comments

Comanche is a 100ft (30.5 meters) sailing yacht, which has been built with the scope to break every yachting record possible, winning prestigious yacht races, and meaning that it will probably become the fastest. The beautiful yacht, a Super Maxi class, has been commissioned by the Netscape creator, James H. Clark and his wife, the former Victoria’s Secret’s Australian model, Kristy Hinze.

The sleek black and red yacht has been built under a contract with a lot of confidentiality clauses by Hodgdon Yachts from Maine. Comanche has one of the largest single-infusion hulls constructed in America, and even globally. The oven used to cure the hull and superstructure is the largest one in the United States, and has been built by Hodgdon Yachts itself. They have been using advanced composites for several years, both for yachts and for military projects.

Super Maxi Class Yacht, Comanche

The naval architects are Van Peteghem Lauriot Prévost (VPLP) and Guillaume Verdier, acknowledged names in the racing world. The 150 foot mast has been constructed by Southern Spars and the sails are from industry leader, North Sails , including a spinnaker of more than 11,000 square feet. Launched in September 2014, Comanche is the result of studies of the IMOCA Macif and Banque Populaire, first and second in the 2012 Vendee Globe. Different from her other 100′ rivals, like Wild Oats XI or Perpetual Loyal , with her large beam, her mast far aft and a boom directly over the transom, Comanche has a much larger sail plan. The cockpit has been designed for manual maneuvers rather than hydraulic and therefore saves weight. Comanche has a powerful hull shape and a maximum draft of 6.5m in order to enter most ports. With a low freeboard and lateral ballast the center of gravity has been lowered to gain power.

Comanche and its crew, downward view

Comanche is commanded by renowned US skipper Ken Read, and raced by a world-class crew of twenty-one international sailors.

Her performances, like what Ken Read has explained that happened during the Transatlantic Race 2015, an average speed of 25 knots per total, a top speed of 38.8 knots, and large distances passed in the mid 30’s knots, are things which will make me to dedicate more space to this kind of posts. I am thrilled by what man can achieve with a good boat, and pure racing, like this, using just the power of the wind and the ability to float over the furious waves, even to brake them if necessary.

Comanche Sails!! FAST!! from Onne van der Wal on Vimeo .

Above is a very short (too short) video made by Onne van der Wal, which shows Comanche sailing. Before publishing this, I have been looking for more videos, maybe more relevant, like I wish for this website to be, a better compilation of related sources on different matters.

So, I found this on YouTube, posted by sailingshack, where Ken Read presents the magnificent boat.

It really is a great boat, a very expensive one as well, it took $15 million to be built, and many millions more for the rest (called “campaigns”), and it made second place in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, losing to Wild Oats XI , and also second in the Transatlantic race 2015 (TR 15), loosing to Rambler 88 with a difference of only seven hours, which is really incredible, because in such a competition, they arrive at days distance. More on racing, in future posts, maybe I’ll make a new category.

I hope you like it and I’ll tell you more about yacht racing in general. What do you think, are you speed racers?

If you like what you read, please subscribe to this blog by completing the form . If you want to help more, start by following us on Twitter , and like our page on Facebook . You don’t know what good things may happen. To lighten your day, check our pins on Pinterest , we can be friends there too. Oh, and if you need a really good looking blog attached to your site, or just for fun, to express your feelings more competitively, read this Own Your Website offer! Thank you very much.

Copyright © 2015 The Yacht Owner – Comanche – A Fast Racer

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About Daniel Mihai Popescu

Daniel Mihai Popescu is a ship engineer with background in sea transportation, real estate, yacht brokerage, construction, entrepreneurship. Avid reader, traveled the world, explorer of the human nature. Never stopped learning, now I create and manage Wordpress based sites . • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • Instagram • Pinterest • Goodreads • Medium •

January 7, 2016 at 14:04

Buna ziua, Mi-as dori un articol scris de dvs. despre velierele cu chila leagan, swing keel sailboat cum sunt cunoscute. Multumesc.

January 7, 2016 at 20:31

Am să caut mai multe informații despre ele, mie tipul ăsta de chilă mi se pare o complicație inutilă deși îi văd utilitatea. Mi-ar face plăcere dacă v-ați abona la newsletter, șamd…

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Published on December 14th, 2017 | by Editor

Comanche finds new owner Down Under

Published on December 14th, 2017 by Editor -->

Comanche, the innovative record-breaking 100 foot maxi yacht designed by VPLP and Guillaume Verdier and launched in 2014 for Jim and Kristy Clark, has been sold to Australian Jim Cooney.

The yacht was to compete in the 628 nm Sydney Hobart Race as LDV Comanche under partnership between Clark and two-time race winner Neville Crichton, but the last-minute sale now will have Sydney skipper Cooney at the helm.

“I have stepped down as skipper, we still have sponsorship for the boat, and if for any reason he can’t do it, I will step back into this shoes,” Crichton said.

Crichton had assembled a world-class crew for the race – including America’s Cup skipper James Spithill and many of the men who raced her to victory in the 2015 Hobart race. The crew will stay aboard while Cooney, daughter Julia, son James and Waratah Jeremy Tilse join the crew.

“We are all just so excited about doing the race on her, she is one not the most remarkable yachts in the world. I’ve actually never sailed it before. We are all going sailing on Tuesday (Dec. 19) to understand what sort of beast she is.’’

The new ownership means every supermaxi on the start line of the Sydney to Hobart will be racing for an Australian victory. The other three are Black Jack (previously Alfa Romeo), Infotrack (previously Perpetual Loyal), and Wild Oats XI.

“How amazing that pretty much the four fastest boats in the world are now all Australian owned,” said Cooney, chairman and major shareholder of TCI Renewables, a wind energy development company.

“This year competition is fierce, with the strongest line up of super maxis ever seen in one race. Depending on conditions, any of the 100 footers could take line honours, it threatens be one of the best races in the history of the event.”

The race starts on Boxing Day at 1300hrs AEDT and will be broadcast live on the Seven Network throughout Australia.

Event details – Entry list – Facebook

Source: perthnow.com

Tags: Comanche , Jim Clark , Neville Crichton , Sydney Hobart

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Yacht Racing for Fun and Profit — Schooner America and Maxi Comanche

International yacht racing has traditionally been a sport for the rich. The cliche that a yacht is a hole in the water into which the owner pours money, is often repeated because it is, more often than not, highly accurate.

In rare cases, however, there are exceptions. One such example was the syndicated formed by John Cox Stevens , the founder and first commodore of the New York Yacht Club. The idea was to build a racing yacht to show off U.S. shipbuilding skill and to make money through competing in yachting regattas. 

The design of the schooner America was based on George Steers’ pilot boat designs, whose concave waterlines were influenced by the designs of American clipper ships. On August 22, 1851,  America won the Royal Yacht Squadron’s 53-mile (85 km) regatta around the Isle of Wight by 18 minutes and was awarded the squadron’s “One Hundred Sovereign Cup.” 

What does this have to do with the sale of Comanche ? Just as Comanche was sold shortly after her recent Sydney Hobart race, so too was the schooner yacht America sold within weeks of winning the One Hundred Sovereign Cup to John de Blaquiere, 2nd Baron de Blaquiere. I am not aware of any record of the transaction, but it was rumored that Stevens and his investors netted a tidy profit in the deal. Stevens and his team sailed home with the cup which would subsequently be known as the America’s Cup . 

In the first America’s Cup challenge race of 1870, the famous schooner was one of the competitors. After passing through several owners, including a short career as a Confederate blockade runner during the Civil War, schooner America was owned by the US Navy in the first America’s Cup race.  The schooner came in 6th overall.

Yacht Racing for Fun and Profit — Schooner America and Maxi Comanche — 5 Comments

Boat is a accronym. Bring On Another Thousand

I get so pissed off with “the rich man sport” bit. The sport employs tens of thousands of people worldwide in an industry which is nothing short of philanthropy.

This is a quote from my soon to be published book:

“Often associated with privilege and class, the reality could not be further from the truth. In it we participate in a dangerous sport in a confined space working with all creeds, colours, religions, ages, backgrounds and any other box that one might be put into and who you may or may not like. Regardless you must perform physically and mentally demanding choreographed manoeuvres, problem solve, work as a team and as an individual. More importantly, of an evening, you must socialise with your crew of all creeds, colours, religions, ages, backgrounds and who you may or may not like. As a sport, sailing creates young people with sound team working, man management and social skills of the highest level.”

It is the guys low down that the generosity of the guys at the top makes possible creates some of the best sport in the world.

The Comanche cost a reported $15 million to build. That doesn’t include outfitting, upkeep or crew costs. I have no doubt that the other four maxis in race cost more. To my mind, that is a rich man’s sport. This doesn’t mean that anyone with a boat is rich or that the thousands of those employed in the industry are rich either. This is also the case in all other “rich men’s sports” from horse racing to grand prix racing.

You can have a boat or you can have money. You cannot have both.P

I only wish sailboat racers knew to follow rules of the road. Or at least, not traipse back and forth across harbor entrances (pet peeve of Squalicum Harbor).

As to the rest, if some fraction of things that racers commission to design and build trickle down to reproducible technology the rest of us can employ, terrific. Fin keel with a hefty bulb? Antiquated in the elite racing world but at my level, I like . Buying one attached to a boat at an affordable price? Even better. And somebody else paid to cut all of that brush. 🙂

Yachting World

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Fastest yacht: The giant record breakers

• Toby Heppell
• October 29, 2021

Skorpios is the latest in a long list of giant monohulls designed with a view to becoming the fastest yacht on the planet. We take a look at some of her predecessors

Every so often the yacht racing world sees an ambitious owner with pockets deep enough to want to step things up a gear and produce a new record-smashing fastest yacht.

The latest of these to hit the water is the jaw-dropping ClubSwan 125 Skorpios built for its Russian owner, Dmitry Rybolovlev. Almost everything about this new monster yacht is bigger, stronger, faster and higher tech than any boat which came before it.

Pretty much any metric you care to look at on Skorpios is mind-boggling. The five-spreader Southern Spars mast stands at 175 feet tall, and she can carry 11,324 square feet of sail upwind, and 21,108 square feet downwind.

Enough sail? Skorpios off the Dorset coast. The ClubSwan 125 is named after owner Rybolovlev’s famous Greek island, where Jackie Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis. Photo: Mark Lloyd / Lloyd Images

Skorpios has been built with the express brief to break offshore records as the world’s fastest yacht. Her recent win in the 2021 Fastnet Race – only weeks after hitting the water for the first time – shows she certainly has what it takes to take line honours in big races.

And the numbers Skorpios has shown while racing initially seem to indicate that it is really only a matter of time until she starts claiming some of the biggest records on offer in the sailing world.

But Skorpios is only the latest in a long line of new yachts built with the express purpose of winning line honours and taking records, each bigger, faster and more technologically advanced than that which came before.

The current transatlantic record holder, Comanche , is probably the yacht that most readily springs to mind when we’re looking at the development path for Skorpios .

Before Skorpios , Comanche was the most recent, highly ambitious racing yacht on the planet. She was built with one thing in mind and one thing only, to break ocean records and win line honours in some of the world’s most famous races.

Comanche showing off her considerable beam. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

“The design office were told specifically by me that if this boat wasn’t the worst rated boat in history they have failed,” stated the owner Jim Clark on Maxi, Comanche ’s launch, reaffirming the aim of the boat to break records and win line honours without any consideration for handicap wins.

Comanche was something of a revelation when she was first launched. Over the years boats had been carrying more beam (width) towards the transom to create more power – at the expense of outright light weather, upwind and VMG running performance.

Comanche took this line of thought to the extreme with what seemed an impossibly wide stern, which led to the boat being nicknamed the aircraft carrier.

Although Skorpios is technically beamier than Comanche (8.75m vs 7.85m) the ClubSwan’s hull shape has a more modest beam-to-length ratio, and far greater internal volume and higher freeboard, all products of the project starting out with some focus on cruising in addition to outright performance.

But despite a slightly less powerful hull shape compared to Comanche , when you look at the rig, you see that this will likely be overcome by sheer grunt in terms of sail area. Skorpios ’ mainsail alone is 7,093 square feet, compared to Comanche ’s 4,413 square feet.

Comanche was, indeed is, a yacht that pushed technology to the absolute limit and when she was launched her extreme design caused quite a stir.

She is still considered one of the fastest yachts on the face of the earth and, in addition to her transatlantic record, Comanche also holds the monohull 24 hour sailing record at an impressive 618.01nm (averaging 25.75 knots) in a 24 hour period.

These two records will almost certainly be two of the key prize scalps Skorpios will be hoping to take.

Mari Cha IV

Although for many Comanche is the most obvious boat to which Skorpios can be compared, arguably a closer comparison could be that of Mari Cha IV , particularly when you consider length and ambition to break oceanic records.

The 140ft Mari Cha IV was launched in 2003, at this size both Mari Cha IV and (140ft) Skorpios face a similar problem, there are several top races that have an upper LOA limit of 100ft – neither could take part in the Sydney Hobart race for example.

Mari-Cha IV held the Atlantic record for 12 years. Photo: Thierry Martinez

In 2003, Mari-Cha IV set a new west-east transatlantic record with a total time of 6 days, 17 hours. During the run, she also set a new 24 hour monohull distance record of 525.5 nautical miles . This record stood until Comanche snatched the crown in 2016.

Due to her size and the sail area needed to power the giant, Mari Cha IV was built as a two-masted schooner. This meant that each mast could be smaller – within the bounds of the technology available at the time.

The twin rig on Mari Cha IV also meant each of the sails could be smaller than would be needed on a single masted yacht, reducing loads and enabling the boat to be sailed without resorting to powered winches.

That Skorpios is a single masted 140 footer demonstrates two things. The ClubSwan 125 shows the advances in technology with a single 175ft mast now being much more easily managed and understood – thanks, in no small part to advancements in load sensing technology which have filtered down from the America’s Cup and high tech offshore yachts such as the Ultime trimaran and IMOCA 60 fleets.

However, sail handling for sails of the size needed on Skorpios is still an issue and the ClubSwan 125 still needs powered winches, which will put her out of contention for a number of records that require exclusively human power.

In 2008, Speedboat was launched . The Juan Kouyoumdjian -designed 100ft Maxi was a yacht designed to produce blistering speeds and was built with the express purpose of ocean record breaking.

Speedboat , Newport Bermuda Race 2010

The yacht was built by Mick Cookson at Cookson Boats in New Zealand and her radical underwater features, including an incredibly flat run aft were all features that would later be included in the design of Comanche – features that demonstrate a yacht built for record breaking as they offer serious compromises in lighter winds.

In many respects Speedboat was the first to take the wide flat hull concept and transplant it wholesale into a 100ft Maxi.

Speedboat was also the first Maxi to have a deck-stepped rig, which was produced by Southern Spars, and she has plenty of other radical features.

To an extent Speedboat was built as a scaled up version of the Volvo 70 ’s which had been impressing in the Volvo Ocean Race . As such it is hardly a surprise the boat was the product of Kouyoumdjian’s design house, as he had created several of the fastest Volvo 70s then racing.

Unfortunately Speedboat arrived at the very start of the financial crisis and she only sailed in a number of events before she was mothballed and eventually sold.

She went through a couple of incarnations before being purchased by George David and was sailed as Rambler 100 during which time she dramatically lost her keel and capsized while competing in the Fastnet Race .

For his part David would go on to commission Kouyoumdjian to draw Rambler 88 , an impressive bit of kit in its own right and aimed at winning line honours and races outright in an 88ft package.

Wild Oats XI

No list of record breakers and record holders would be complete without a mention of Wild Oats XI , the 100 ft Maxi belonging to the Oatley family, which has won the Sydney Hobart no less than seven times.

Wild Oats XI ( WOXI for short) was actually launched back in 2005 and is a prime example of what can be done to a yacht to keep her on pace with current trends and developments.

In 2009 she was lengthened at bow and stern from 98ft to 100ft. In 2011 her forward balanced spade canard was removed and twin daggerboards were added amidships. In 2012 she received a bow centreboard as well as caudal fin winglets on her torpedo bulb.

Wild Oats XI . Photo: Kurt Arigo / Rolex

In 2013 she was equipped with a Dynamic Stability System (DSS) foil, which is a retractable horizontal foil deployed on the leeward side of the boat.

In 2015 her stern was shortened by 2m and her 12m forward sections were replaced by a 14m longer, sleeker bow, keeping her midship sections unmodified and in effect moving her entire existing sailplan aft by 2m, a trend which had been seen in many of the newer maxis to be produced since.

The various appendages which have been added and removed over the years have lent the yacht the affectionate nickname the ‘Swiss army knife’.

By today’s standards WOXI remains a very skinny boat in the Maxi world – she and almost-sistership at the time of launch, Alfa Romeo II both had a max beam of a little over 5m.

Wild Oats XI remains a potent race boat and particularly for races like the Sydney Hobart, her relatively narrow beam gives her an edge in light winds, VMG running and beating, all of which mean she is still very hard to beat over a race with mixed conditions – if ultimately working against her should she ever look to set oceanic records.

Leopard 3 ( ICAP Leopard as she was launched) hit the water in 2007 for serial Maxi owner, Mike Slade. The Farr design had a number of unique features at the time of launch, which made her one of the most impressive superyachts on the circuit.

ICAP Round Britain and Ireland Race 2010

Leopard ’s mast was a towering 154ft and she could set a total downwind sail area of 17,265 sq ft. At the time this was a vast amount of sail – though Skorpios ’ 21,108 sq ft is something of a stark comparison.

Leopard is capable of speeds of over 35 knots. But her similarities to Skorpios actually centre around the plans the British boat had from the start to enable cruising and racing in a little more comfort.

Leopard featured a luxurious removable interior, which could be removed for racing and refitted for cruising or for charter – for which she had also been specifically designed and built.

Although Skorpios does not go quite as far as a fully removable interior, there is, at least, a nod to comfort in her design when compared to the out and out racer that is Comanche .

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Maxi Rolex Cup 2024

Seconds in it but j class svea completes title hat trick at maxi yacht rolex cup.

By winning the second and final coastal race of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup by only a handful of seconds, the highly polished crew of the Swedish J Class yacht Svea won the Super Maxi division overall.

After finishing second on the first coastal race behind the successful swan 115 moat – winner at the regatta last year and at the summer’s giorgio armani superyacht regatta on the same costa smeralda waters, svea clinched the overall title on count back..

Even then the overall class victory was down to their slender winning margin of just 28-seconds earned over the 31-nautical miles course clockwise around La Maddalena and Cabrera islands.

Svea finished second on the first coastal race which was won by the big NautorSwan, only just pipping the persistent Velsheda by 17-seconds after a thrilling head to head all the way around the route through the beautiful La Maddalena Islands archipelago. The pinnacle regatta was blighted somewhat by the strong Mistral which blew through most of the week, allowing only these two races to be contested.

After two days of waiting the first coastal was on Wednesday morning in perfect conditions – starting in 11kts, peaking at 13kts but the breeze fading to seven – whilst Saturday’s finale was a test of crew work and speed in the brisk conditions, 13-24kts of W’ly wind meaning a beat up the so called ‘bomb alley’ and broad reach down the outside of the islands to finish back off Porto Cervo on the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda finish line.

After winning the J Class twice in a row, in 2022 and 2023, this is Svea’s third successive victory at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup.

Svea’s boat captain Paul Kelly enthused “Today [Saturday] we managed to extend on Velsheda all the way up and around the top but on the downwind they had some serious, serious boat speed. We thought they were going to roll us at the finish but we managed to hold them off. It was enough for the overall win, three years in a row we are super, super happy. Time on water is key for us and having a game plan and sticking to it. That is what we do. Moat was gone on the reach but we ate into her on corrected time.”

Tom Dodson, tactician on Velsheda reported, “We had a clean day today [Saturday] but we got our timing wrong before the start and Svea got a much better start than we did, on our bow. We had a sniff of Svea up the first short beat – at 1.8 miles it was pretty short and so it was only a sniff, we got to the lay line too quickly and from there it was just trying to see if we could keep it tight and wait for them to make a mistake. We got into them a little on the downwind. Once the boat speed is over 11kts, Velsheda is enjoying it, but it was one of those courses where you could catch up but unless you could find somewhere to catch up there would always be a corner they could push you back into.”

“It is a shame but I think the race committee did the best they could, it was always going to be tight to get more than a couple of races in. They did that and looking after these boats is pretty important too, you don’t want to be out there breaking gear or people.”

All eyes on the J Class Barcelona Regatta 2024 now, taking place 5-11 October.

by J Class Association

YachtBoatNews

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