SYDNEY: Australian supermaxi LawConnect took back-to-back line honours in the Sydney-Hobart ocean race early Saturday, leading a fleet shaken by the deaths of two sailors in wild weather conditions.

LawConnect, the 100-foot defending champion skippered by Christian Beck, arrived first in Hobart after main rival Comanche dropped out with a damaged mainsail on the first night.

The crew navigated to victory along the final stretch of Tasmania’s River Derwent in the dark, early hours of the morning after a day-and-a-half of drama since the fleet departed a sun-splashed Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day.

Christian Beck’s LawConnect was in second place in the early hours of Friday but moved into the lead when favourite Master Lock Comanche, which had set a record-breaking pace, retired due to mainsail damage.

Fans on the dock cheered her arrival but there were no signs of the usual celebrations aboard, a livestream by the race organisers showed.

LawConnect had finished the 2023 race by 51 seconds in a dramatic finish but this time the Supermaxi beat second-placed Celestial V70 with a healthy lead in the 628 nautical miles race. Wild Thing came in third.

“It was challenging conditions, probably the roughest race I’ve done out of the 11 that I have done,” said LawConnect sailing master Tony Mutter.

“But we came through okay. We didn’t break too much stuff, and people are okay, we have got a few bumps and bruises,” he told reporters in Hobart, explaining that his skipper was unable to appear because of a stomach bug.

The crew faced 35-45 knot gales downwind out of Sydney, big waves and tricky currents, he said.

“We are obviously hugely disappointed in the news that we heard during the race with the loss of a couple of fellow competitors and our heartfelt condolences go out to all the friends and family,” Mutter said.

“We are obviously not doing any celebrations on the boat and we will do that quietly later on.”

Earlier, on Friday, organisers and local authorities said two experienced sailors were killed in separate incidents, the fatalities the first in the race since 1998 when six men died, five boats sank and 55 sailors were rescued after a deep depression exploded over the fleet in Bass Strait.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2024