Max Klink's "Super TP52", the Botin 52 Caro with Gordon Maguire (ex-Howth) and Cian Guilfoyle (Dun Laoghaire) on the strength, and racing for New Zeland where she was built - even though her sail number says Cayman Islands, while her owner is Swiss resident - has taken over the lead in the superhot Division 1 in the Sydney Hobart Race, after success has emerged from her tactic of holding to the east.
The multiple majors winner (she already has the overall win in the Fastnet Race 2023, and the Class win in the Middle Sea Race 2023 on her scorecard) had looked to be in the crab-grass on the figures as she trended to the east, while the fleet battled through thunderstorms and ultra-flukey winds after they'd cleared Sydney and made south.
But now, facing into their third night at sea with winds from the east in reasonably good reaching conditions with 280 miles to go before the sticky patch, which is the final 60 miles funnelling into the Derwent and upriver to finish at Hobart, Caro shows narrowly ahead in class with
arch-rival Celestial very hot on her heels, and France's Eric de Turckheim's NYMD 54 showing third.
Teasing Machine, Eric De Turckheim's NYMD 54 from France, currently lies third in class to Division 1 leader Caro
Overall, in line honours, the Super-Maxi Andoo Comanche has spent today (Wednesday) taking over and firming up the line honours lead by about five miles from fellow super-max Law Connect, though in their class of Division 1, the IRC leader is Sean Langman's RP69 Moneypenny with Ireland's Will Byrne (National YC) in the crew, while third overall is the Tasmanian RP66 Alive, where Adrienne Cahalane calls the shots as navigator.
Despite the slightly smaller craft in those prime placings, it's currently very much a big boats' race on this Wednesday evening in Australia, but Caro's cool tactics have her back in the overall picture too, as her top place in Div. 1 has her seventh overall.
Down the line in Div 3, the most consistent performer has been Richard Williams' Cookson 12 Calibre, with Kinsale YC's Stephanie Lyons in the bowman role for her fourth race to Hobart. Calibre shows second in class for now, but for much of the race she has been in first.
The Cookson 12 Calibre, with Steph Lyons as bowman, emerges ahead of the melee in the early stages to begin her successful progress towards Hobart
SIZE COUNTS IN TWO-HANDERS
In the two-handers, the hugely experienced team of Rupert Henry and Jack Boutell with the Lombard 34 Mistral have taken every advantage of their boat's slightly large size to steadily open out a lead on the water, and currently in IRC too, over the Kinsale duo of Cin McCarthy & Sam Hunt with the Sunfast 3300 Cinnamon Girl-Eden Capital. CG-EC had been in the top three until now, but the latest postulated figures show her as seventh in the Two-Handers. However, as the Caro performance has shown, the speculative rankings issued as the race progresses indicate the weakness of an admittedly primitive version of AI in stating placings.
As for the merry men from Ireland and everywhere in Mickey Martin's TP52 Frantic ex-Patches, they show as 7th in a depleted Division 1. For here as in other classes, the sudden squalls with ultra-heavy rain and sometimes non-existent visibility during the phase of very unsettled weather soon took its toll.
Race Tracker here
Here's a boat to jingle memory bells. The former Patches (the TP 52 first campaigned back in the day by Eamonn Conneely from Connemara) is now Mickey Martin's Frantic, seen her with a strong Irsh contingent of Trevor Smyth, Conor Cotterdell and Cillian Ballesty in her crew as she settles into the race to Hobart
