Sydney Hobart: Race is Not Over

Sydney, Australia (December 27, 2017) – For Jim Cooney, this race is not over yet. Crossing the line 26 minutes after Wild Oats XI, LDV Comanche will take the provisional line honours winner to the protest room.

The boats came perilously close to colliding about 15 minutes into the race on Boxing Day, with the LDV Comanche crew raising a protest flag shortly afterwards.

When Oats’ skipper Mark Richards rushed over to the quay to see whether the protest would go ahead, Cooney told him: “Yes, I’m going to pursue it.”

“OK, no worries, mate, no problem,” Richards said.

Later, Cooney explained the incident shortly after the start.

“It was a port/starboard infringement. We were the right-of-way boat: they were the give-way boat.

“We hailed starboard; they were the give-way boat and they left it until far too late to tack and they tacked right in our water. We had to take evasive action or possibly take both of us out of the race.

“We could have taken their backstay out; they could have broken our bowsprit.”

He said a few minutes in the race could have made all the difference.

The protest will be heard by an international jury on Thursday, December 28 at 1500 local time. The review could see a time penalty slapped of five minutes on Wild Oats XI – meaning Comanche could still be declared the winner.

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Source: RSHYR media