A total of 17 yachts have now retired from the 628 nautical mile Rolex Sydney Hobart race, with 111 still racing, including 15 of the original double handed crews.
High profile retiree was Grant Wharington and Adrian Seiffert’s Wild Thing 100 . . . The retirement followed a punishing stretch of “ugly, nasty” seas that exposed the limits of both boat and crew punching into a brutal sea state off the New South Wales coast.
The turning point came after a runner block failure — the runner jumping the sheet, destroying the block and damaging the runner tail. That caution is grounded in hard realities. The towering rig above Wild Thing 100 represents an enormous investment.
After Celestial V70 crossed ahead, erasing what had once been a comfortable lead, with concerns mounting for the boat and the prospects on corrected time evaporating, the call was made to retire. They are safely back in Sydney.
Line Honours leader at 10:00 hrs UK time is Master Lock Comanche with 255 nm to the finish in Hobart.
Followed by LawConnect with 259 nm to go, then SHK Scallywag 100 with 264 nm to go, the 88ft Lucky, and Palm Beach XI and Celestial V70.
Leading double handed for Line Honours is Mistral in a close battle with BNC-my::NET/LEON with with 451 nm to go.
Sam Haynes Celestial V70 is leading IRC with 311 nm to the finish, second is Damien King’s MRV and third USA entry Bacchanal of Ronald Epstein.
Steve Dettre/RSHYR media
