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72nd Sydney to Hobart: Perpetual Loyal smashes yacht race record with historic win

AUSTRALIAN supermaxi Perpetual Loyal broke the race record by almost five hours when it took out line honours in the gruelling Sydney to Hobart race.

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SYDNEY skipper Anthony Bell and his underdog Perpetual Loyal crew have reclaimed the line honours trophy for Australia while racing into history as the fastest yacht to win the Sydney to Hobart by smashing the old record of a rival.

The 100-footer sailed across the finish line on the Derwent River at 2.31am to put her name into ocean racing history.

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There you have it folks! @PerpetualLoyal smashes the @rshyr line honours record by almost 5 hours! pic.twitter.com/y9HQDtLe1u — Brent Costelloe (@brentcostelloe) December 27, 2016

This saw her slash almost five hours off the record as she covered the course in one day 13hrs 31min 20 sec.

“I will never get sick of saying this; race record breaker,” said delighted skipper Bell.

“It really doesn’t get much better than this. To do something so special with a crew so special is something else. It was a great race and we had a great time. What a morning.”

Bell confirmed he would not be returning to defend his Sydney to Hobart line honours title.

“We have called last drinks,” said Bell, who won his first Sydney to Hobart on a different boat in 2011.

With her sails lit up by spotlight and camera flashes, around 24 boats braved a chilly Hobart morning on the river to witness the historic feat.

“Don’t write us off, We have a few tricks up our sleeve,” Bell warned just prior to the 1pm start of the 628 nautical mile race on Boxing Day.

Under the cover of darkness, the supermaxi with a crew of locals and internationals — including numerous members of the US Comanche team which won last year — raced to her record win.

She held off a concerted attack from New Zealand boat Giacomo to take the victory — finishing almost five hours ahead of the 7.23am deadline to beat Wild Oats’ 2012 record of one day 18 hours 23 minutes and 12 seconds.

Looks like Hobart ahead to us! @PerpetualLoyal cross the line & WIN line honours at the 72nd #RolexSydneyHobart pic.twitter.com/cZUs4infMi — Rolex Sydney Hobart (@rshyr) December 27, 2016

Ironically, around an hour earlier the Mark Richards-skippered Wild Oats had motored into Eden on the NSW far south coast after pulling out of the Sydney to Hobart on Tuesday with a mechanical issue.

The victory was one for the underdogs with Wild Oats and Scallywag more highly rated than Bell and his team to win this year in the best conditions the race has witnessed in recent memory.

But Bell promised his supermaxi would surprise and it did — delivering the Sydney accountant his second line honours win in one of the most famous ocean races.

It was in stark contrast to a year ago when Bell and his team were sent to the sidelines with race-ending boat damage.

“I never want to experience a feeling like that again,” he said.

This morning, well before daylight, he in fact experienced the opposite with the elated skipper beaming as he crossed the finish line with his record-breaking team.

HOW THE RACE WAS WON

AFTER Perpetual Loyal raced to Hobart in record time, a Derwent River shutdown has this morning seen a trio of yachts take more than three hours to cover the final one nautical mile of the race.

The extraordinary turnaround in conditions saw the Queensland yacht Black Jack, the New Zealand boat Beau Geste and the Sydney yacht Maserati becalmed with their hopes of an overall victory ending on the fickle Derwent River within sight of the finish line.

Black Jack sent a crewman up the mast desperately searching for wind with the move paying off and the boat taking fourth place in the Sydney to Hobart - almost an hour ahead of the boats she had been within shouting distance of earlier.

Beau Geste and Maserati finished less than two minutes apart.

The New Zealand yacht Giacomo currently leads the race for the overall honours as her rivals experience first hand the vagrancy of the Derwent and Storm Bay.

“I never thought I’d say this but are becalmed in Storm Bay,” said a CQS crewman.

SUPERMAXI Perpetual Loyal is poised to smash the Sydney-Hobart yacht race record in the early hours of this morning.

The $15 million 100-footer is powering across Storm Bay like a runaway train and is due to finish about 2.30am. In doing so it would eclipse the 2012 race record of 1 day, 18 hours, 23 minutes and 12 seconds by more than 4 hours.

Accountant to the stars Anthony Bell is on course to bank his second Rolex Sydney to Hobart line honours title after the lead fell into his lap.

AS the fleet frontrunners romped down the east coast of Tasmania on Tuesday night, the Chinese crew on ARK323 reported they had broken their mast in Bass Strait.

It is understood the top section of the mast has broken off with the crew opting to sail on despite the damage.

The crew have reefed their mainsail and will be significantly slower for the damage.

However they failed to even make it out of Sydney Harbour last year when involved in a collision with a rival yachts and are determined to go the distance this year.

Perpetual LOYAL is on track to decimate the Sydney to Hobart race record, the leader in position to strip as much as seven hours off the 2012 mark.

While much will depend on the influence of Hobart’s changeable and often breathless River Derwent, LOYAL has already cleared Bass Strait and is closing in on the Tasmanian capital.

Current projections have LOYAL crossing the finish line by midnight (AEDT).

Given the leading boat only needs to reach the finish line before 7.23am on Wednesday to beat the race record of one day, 18 hours, 23 minutes and 12 seconds set by Wild Oats in 2012, the mark look set to be smashed.

“The wind is forecast to stay into the river and I think it will actually carry forward and bring them home very early in the morning,” Cruising Yacht Club of Australia commodore John Markos said of the lead pack.

“The Derwent usually shuts down but tonight it’s forecast to be having a fair bit of breeze from the northeast.”

Sydney to Hobart yacht race contenders Hartbreaker and Koa are heading to shore on the NSW far south coast to make engine repairs with hopes of continuing the dash south.

Officials confirmed that Victoria’s Hartbreaker and NSW 16-metre boat Koa will pull into Eden on the NSW coast.

As long as crews remain on board while repairs are undertaken they can then rejoin the race.

Also bound for Eden was supermaxi Wild Oats XI which was forced to retire and give up a race-record lead. She is due to reach shore by about 10pm (AEDT).

The starting fleet of 88 has been reduced to 84.

1:58pm (EDT)

Sydney skipper Anthony Bell and his crew on Perpetual Loyal have made it through Bass Strait unscathed and are heading down the east coast of Tasmania at high speed in the final stages of the Sydney to Hobart.

The 100-footer and five of her rivals are this afternoon still well ahead of the race record set by Wild Oats in 2012 and on course to break it sometime early Wednesday morning before 7.23am.

But in hot pursuit of Bell and his crew is a New Zealand 70-footer and its crew having the race of his life.

Winemaker Jim Delegat and his team on Giacomo are well within striking distance of their Aussie rival should opportunity present in the final run home.

Giacomo is just 20 nautical miles astern of Perpetual Loyal with Maserati and Scallyway another 10 odd miles back.

Bell and his crew on Perpetual Loyal are well aware they are being hounded by the New Zealander.

“We aren’t even thinking about the win yet, there’s way too many miles still to sail,’’ Bell told the Daily Telegraph from his yacht.

Perpetual Loyal was hitting speeds of 20 plus knots as it raced under spinnaker towards Tasmania.

“It’s all good but these boats are such angry beasts you can’t let your guard down at any stage,’’ said Perpetual Loyal navigator Tom Addis.

Earlier today Perpetual Loyal was gaining on Wild Oats when disaster struck the eight-time line honours winner who was forced to retire with a hydraulic ram issue.

10:45am (EDT)

Perpetual Loyal has assumed race leadership of the Sydney to Hobart after the shock withdrawal of Wild Oats XI on Tuesday morning.

The Anthony Bell-skippered supermaxi is leading from a pack of six or seven boats.

The race record is also still very much on the cards. The cut-off point to create history is 7.23pm (EDT) on Wednesday.

The frontrunners are revelling in the super-fast conditions but there are plenty of overtaking lanes ahead down the east coast of Tasmania.

Meanwhile, the crew of supermaxi Comanche have rushed to send their condolences to sailors on Wild Oats on hearing the news of the yachts retirement.

The Jim and Kristy Clark-owned Comanche last year won line honours while Wild Oats were licking their wounds when outed from the race by sail damage.

This year the American supermaxi opted not to contest the Sydney to Hobart.

“Very sad to hear,’’ Comanche wrote in response to a tweet from News Corp Australia that broke the news.

“To get so far and retire is heartbreaking.

“Condolences to Ricko and the Wild Oats X1.’’

9.30am (EDT)

Disaster has struck the eight-time Sydney to Hobart winner Wild Oats in the middle of Bass Strait with the 100-footer retiring with hydraulic issues while on track for a new race record.

The drama happened around 8am (EDT) on Tuesday morning.

It is understood the famous Aussie supermaxi retired with a broken hydraulic ram.

The damage to boat is to a pin that attaches the ram to the head of the keel. The crew have managed to lock the keel in the centre so she can continue to sail, with the boat now heading to Eden on the far south coast of NSW against the current and in a black nor’easter.

The Mark Richards-skippered boat was leading the fleet when disaster struck.

She was around seven nautical miles ahead of her nearest rival Perpetual Loyal when she was seen on the race tracker slowing and then turning around.

Wild Oats was in Bass Strait when the incident occurred, almost halfway to Hobart.

The drama follows on from Wild Oats also retiring from the 2015 race with major sail damage sustained in a storm.

The crew put themselves through its most intense preparation ever in the lead-up to this race to avoid a repeat of their bad fortune a year ago.

Despite their best efforts the ram, which drives the canting keel, failed as she was in the box seat to set a new time in the race.

Wild Oats holds the race record of one day 18 hours 23 minutes and 12 seconds which she set in 2012.

Wild Oats is the fourth retirement of the race.

AUSSIE supermaxi Wild Oats X1 has emerged from the first night at sea unscathed and is charging across Bass Strait on track to better her own race record in the Sydney to Hobart.

But there is a pack of boats following closely in her wake.

Racing in superb super-fast conditions down the NSW coast to the notorious stretch of water, Wild Oats held onto the lead she fought so hard to get on the first afternoon of the race.

It’s expected by midmorning on Tuesday that she will have completed more than half the 628-nautical mile course.

Within striking distance though are a group of yachts with the potential to overtake Mark Richards and his crew.

As daylight broke, Anthony Bell’s Perpetual Loyal was just seven nautical miles away.

In her wake were the 70-footers Black Jack from Queensland and Giacomo from New Zealand.

The 80-footer Beau Geste was next followed by the supermaxi Scallywag, much further out to sea than her rivals as she hunted for current and a better angle to Hobart.

There were no further retirements overnight with the Sydney yacht Patrice breaking her rudder before night fell on Boxing Day.

Queensland skipper Robo Robertson and his crew on Bravo were making an impact for overall honours along with the crew on the Chinese boat Ubox and Sydney skipper Rupert Henry on Chinese Whisper.

At the rear of the fleet was the old timber yacht Landfall with 510 nautical miles to sail — close to 150 nautical miles behind the leaders.

The race record of one day, 28 hours, 23 minutes and 12 seconds was set by Wild Oats in 2012.

“This us going to be an exciting race,” Richards correctly predicted on Boxing Day.

Originally published as 72nd Sydney to Hobart: Perpetual Loyal smashes yacht race record with historic win

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Sydney to Hobart yacht race line honours go to Black Jack in crawling overnight finish

Topic: Sport

Supermaxi Black Jack has taken out line honours in the 2021 Sydney to Hobart yacht race, in an incident-packed event. 

Key points:

• It was the slowest line honours win since 2004, finishing in 2 days, 12 hours, and 37 minutes
• Comanche still holds the line honours record, set in 2017, with 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes, 24 seconds
• Dozens of yachts were forced to retire early in the race due to bad conditions

The Mark Bradford-skippered, Monaco-flagged yacht crossed the line after 2 days, 12 hours, and 37 minutes, arriving just after 1:30am AEDT.

It was the slowest line honours time since 2004.

Black Jack held and extended its lead over LawConnect and SHK Scallywag in the final hours of racing but up until then it was a three-way tussle.

Bradford said he and yacht owner Peter Harburg had been working on the win for 14 years.

"We'll both be in tears at any time," Harburg said.

"It is very, very emotional … for me it's the first time I've been involved in the winning team. Mark has done it before but it's very special.

"We came to win, we can win the race. So yeah, we gave it everything."

Bradford said the first 30 hours of the race were "tough" but he knew straight away that they would have a good race.

"Pretty much after the start gun went, we had a pretty good feeling," he said.

"It's a long race and we had a tough race.

Black Jack skipper Mark Bradford (left) and owner Peter Harburg (right) have a lot to smile about. ( ABC News: Luke Bowden )

"We had a couple of minor things went wrong but this is a professional sailing team and this is a well-prepared boat."

Bradford said getting through the first night was a combination of good luck, good management and a good boat.

"These are really complicated boats and it's hard to keep on the water … the preparation, the time that we put into this project really shines through in those conditions," he said. 

Black Jack crossed the finish at Hobart in the early hours of the morning. ( ABC News: Luke Bowden )

The skipper spent the first 20 hours below deck.

"I just had internal problems, mostly my stomach was coming out of my mouth," he said. 

"Maybe it's in my DNA. But yeah, certainly I'll put it down to the conditions today."

Black Jack owner Peter Harburg (left) and skipper Mark Bradford (right) hoist the line honours cup at an early morning presentation. ( ABC News: Luke Bowden  )

He praised the efforts of rivals.

"With both the other boats, we dropped Scallywag near the end for a bit but she came back and then LawConnect was right there the whole way.

"They [LawConnect] led us for a bit, then we clawed it back at the end."

LawConnect finished less than three hours later with a time of 2 days, 15 hours and 11 minutes.

SHK Scallywag crossed third with 2 days, 15 hours and 30 minutes.

It was Black Jack's 14th attempt at the Sydney to Hobart. ( ABC News: Luke Bowden )

LawConnect hit by computer woes 

LawConnect skipper Ty Oxley said the team faced issues apart from the tough first night conditions.

"The first night was pretty tough we had a few issues, but we got through it," he said.

"We actually didn't know where we were because our computer got wet so we did the majority of the race not knowing whether we were in the lead or not."

LawConnect skipper Ty Oxley says one of the sailors is an IT expert and helped out when the computer broke down. ( ABC News: Luke Bowden )

One crew member who is not a professional sailor was able to help with the computer problems.

"One of them is an IT genius he works in the IT team, so when our computer went down we were able to reconfigure some networks and get back online," he said.

"Second day it got pretty light [wind], and it's pretty tough in this old girl, so against some of the lighter boats … but it is what it is.

"We got through but it was pretty tough the last 24 hours."

Oxley is now taking the boat straight back to Sydney.

"My goal is to be back in Sydney by New Year's Eve as we have a function on the boat … makes me crazy or stupid, I don't know which one," he laughed.

'Never give up'

Skipper of third-placed Scallywag, David Witt, said the crew was disappointed after a tough race but were happy to make it to Hobart at all.

"The crew did an amazing job, we probably don't deserve to have a 100-footer here in the condition the boat ended up in the first night so it was a credit to the team that the boat got here," he said.

"We broke the J2 tack coming out of the harbour, and then we broke it again. The two times cost us about 20 miles.

SHK Scallywag was third across the line. ( ABC News: Luke Bowden )

"Then we lost all electronics and then we sailed three quarters of the race with no instruments at all on a 100 footer so that's a pretty difficult thing to do. 

"The boat was fast enough this time but we just couldn't keep it together.

"Scallywags never give up and to win you first have to finish, so we finished, we just didn't win."

Witt said coronavirus had affected the preparations for the Hong Kong team and on a personal level he and his wife had almost died from COVID this year after catching the disease while stuck in the Philippines for 10 months.

Dozens of teams retire

The race fleet took a battering on the first day , with dozens of teams forced to retire due to sail and rigging damage, with one crew member injured on the New South Wales yacht Zen.

Day two saw further carnage , with yachts limping back to ports on the New South Wales coast.

One skipper who pulled into Eden said he was gutted after hitting "something hard" in the water and damaging the hull.

As of this morning, 36 yachts had retired, the largest number since 2015 when 25 of 84 starting yachts failed to finish.

COVID has also played havoc after forcing the cancellation of last year's race and constant testing of competitors this year.

Biosecurity Tasmania checks rapid antigen tests on board LawConnect. ( ABC News: Luke Bowden )

"COVID has been a real feature of this whole campaign for everyone and I think it's great that the CYCA [Cruising Yacht Club of Australia] could get this race away," winning skipper Mark Bradford said.

"We're probably the most COVID-tested people in yachting. We've been going hard for a month now."

The battle for line honours had become a battle between Black Jack, LawConnect and SHK Scallywag, with the three supermaxis making it through difficult conditions before entering Bass Strait.

The line honours victory is well behind the record set by Comanche in 2017 (1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes, 24 seconds).

Black Jack previously claimed line honours in the Bluewater Classic in 2009 under the name Alfa Romeo.

Race run: LawConnect (left) and Black Jack (right) at rest in Kings Pier, Hobart. ( ABC News: Luke Bowden )

It finished fifth in the last Sydney to Hobart in 2019 and was second to Wild Oats XI by just 28 minutes in the 2018 thriller.

Black Jack navigator Alex Nolan told media early on Tuesday that the crew had decided to sail outside the rhumb line, the line on the course representing the shortest distance, and were "pushing it hard".

The focus now shifts to the overall winner — the Tattersall Cup — a handicap prize determined by a number of factors including the size and weight of the competing craft.

Andoo Comanche takes out Sydney to Hobart as supermaxi makes race history

Australian supermaxi Andoo Comanche secured a fourth line honours victory in the gruelling Sydney-Hobart ocean race Wednesday, but fell short of setting a new course record.

The 100-foot yacht, skippered by John Winning Jnr, triumphed in a nail-biting finish in the early hours of Wednesday after leading the blue water classic for much of the race.

It completed a quartet of line honours wins for the boat in the prestigious event since 2015 under a third different owner.

Andoo Comanche crossed with a time of one day, 11 hours, 56 minutes and 48 seconds -- about 20 minutes in front of rival supermaxi Law Connect -- and just under three hours short of its own record.

The current race record of one day, nine hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds was set by the same Comanche boat under a different skipper in 2017.

Winning Jnr was part of the team that won the event in 2016, but said it was something special to skipper his own crew.

“To do it in a campaign that I was part of putting together is really quite exceptional,” he told national broadcaster ABC.

Last year’s defending champion Black Jack crossed third, followed by Wild Oats, which fell behind after tearing one of its sails earlier in the race.

The 109-strong racing fleet set off from a sun-splashed Sydney Harbour on Monday afternoon, charting their way through the 628-nautical mile course (1163km) to Hobart.

Favourable weather early in the race raised the prospect of toppling that mark, but the strong winds faded as the boats barrelled towards the finish line in Hobart.

The Bass Strait, which separates Tasmania from the mainland, can unleash perilous conditions.

A deep depression proved catastrophic for the fleet in 1998, when six sailors were killed and 55 more were rescued after five boats sank.

Race officials on Tuesday evening said only three of the starting fleet had been forced to retire so far.

One of them, 40-foot yacht Yeah Baby, withdrew less than four hours into the race after reportedly colliding with a massive sunfish.

Dozens of smaller yachts were still in the water Wednesday morning, competing for the handicap prize, which compensates for boat size.

READ BELOW FOR A FULL WRAP OF ALL THE ACTION FROM THE RACE!

Comanche held a consistent lead of 20 nautical miles throughout the afternoon as it moved towards the Derwent with LawConnect telling the Nine papers they expect to arrive at Constitution Dock in Hobart at around 2am AEDT.

As darkness neared, Wild Oats XI fell back into fourth having suffered sail damage overnight while reigning line honours winner Black Jack was third, some five nautical miles behind LawConnect.

FOLLOW THE LIVE RACE TRACKER HERE

Comanche led the fleet into Bass Strait in the early morning, but slipping well behind LDV Comanche’s race record from 2017. Three of the four supermaxis (100-plus-footers) ran well east of the rhumbline to take advantage of marginally stronger winds, before turning back towards the coast of Tasmania around midday.

There were two retirements on the first day, with two-hander Avalanche the first to pull back to shore with a damaged bowsprit after a collision with Llama II just outside the Sydney Heads. Llama II escaped with only superficial damage.

Yeah Baby then retired in the evening after sustaining rudder damage near Wollongong due to a collision with a sunfish, but returned safely to Sydney.

Koa then became the third retirement after breaking her rudder, and is set to be towed to Eden on the NSW south coast, leaving 106 yachts still in the race. Enterprise Next Generation put in a request for redress after helping their stricken rival.

WILD OATS COPS DAMAGE OVERNIGHT

Hamilton Island Wild Oats came within 0.3 nautical miles of Black Jack around 2am overnight in the hunt for third position, before Black Jack surged in the early morning.

The pair traded positions throughout the day, with Wild Oats taking a line significantly closer to rhumbline.

It followed a wild start where both Comanche and Wild Oats were forced to take penalty turns following a series of near-misses in Sydney Harbour (more below).

Wild Oats - hunting a record tenth line honours win - then suffered damage to one of their two largest sails overnight.

Their veteran crewman Chris Links told NewsLocal a seam across one of their large downwind sails split, requiring running repairs on deck.

“It is not an easy job,’’ Links said.

“It has a cable in it and we had to do the repair on deck.

“It took around one and a half hours to repair.’’

LIVE STREAM

Watch live on-board action from LawConnect below.

WILD START CAUSES CHAOS

“Protest, get the flag up, that was f***ing bull***t,” someone yelled on Andoo Comanche in the first two minutes after being cut off by rival supermaxis LawConnect and Black Jack.

URM and LawConnect were also “inches” away from crashing into each other, according to URM skipper Ashley-Jones.

Less than a minute later, one of the crew was heard barking: “you’re asking for a clusterf***, we’re going to be in a collision,” and labelled one rival a “f***ing idiot”.

Comanche hit a turning mark as it exited the heads and was later spotted flying a protest flag of their own, after another boat protested them.

On Wild Oats, which took two penalty turns, skipper Mark Richards could be heard yelling “furl, furl, we are going to do a 720 (penalty turn)”.

Wild Oats famously lost the win in 2017 upon arrival in Hobart, after being handed a one-hour penalty for a rule breach over an incident with Comanche.

That race saw the record time set, with 2022’s Comanche roughly eight nautical miles behind the 2017 edition’s pace late on Monday night and falling further back overnight.

EARLY RACE UPDATES AND PREVIEW (via AFP)

More than 100 yachts set sail Monday on the Sydney-Hobart race as favourable winds raised hopes for a record time in one of the world’s most punishing ocean events.

Fans gathered at coastal vantage points and on spectator boats in a sun-splashed Sydney Harbour, which hours earlier had been shrouded in a thick fog that halted all ferry traffic.

The starting cannon fired to release 109 yachts on the 628-nautical mile (1,200-kilometre) blue water classic.

Crews dashed to get out of the city’s harbour on the first leg of the race down Australia’s eastern coast and across the treacherous Bass Strait towards the finish line in the Tasmanian state capital.

A final weather briefing on race day predicted “fresh to strong” north to northeasterly winds in the next day or so, giving the fastest, 100-foot supermaxi yachts a chance to challenge Comanche’s 2017 record of one day, 9 hours, 15min and 24sec.

Mark Richards, skipper of nine-time line honours-winning supermaxi Wild Oats, said his crew was buoyant after preparing for exactly these conditions.

“We put all our eggs in one basket and we put all our money on black for a downwind forecast and we have ended up getting it,” he told public broadcaster ABC.

“I think Wild Oats is going to be very fast,” Richards added. “The world is going to find out who is the fastest boat downwind.”

Wild Oats is competing for line honours against three rival supermaxis: Andoo Comanche, last year’s line honours winner Black Jack, and LawConnect.

Weather is a critical factor in the race, which was first held in 1945. Though the supermaxis are expected to be powered by northerly winds to a quick finish as early as Tuesday, slower mid- to small-sized boats will still be in the water in the following days facing possible gales and changes in wind direction.

In 1998, when a deep depression exploded over the fleet in the Bass Strait, six men died, five boats sank and 55 sailors were rescued.

Black Jack took line honours last year after a tight tussle with LawConnect, ending years of frustrating near misses to cross the finish line on the River Derwent after two days, 12 hours, 37min and 17sec.

Ichi Ban, which is not racing this year, was the 2021 winner of the overall handicap prize, which takes into account the yachts’ sizes. The boat pipped rival Celestial in a race where dangerous waves and weather conditions saw many withdraw.

International boats are making a return after the race was cancelled in 2020 for the first time due to the pandemic, and Covid hit the fleet last year.

Entrants come from Germany (Orione), Hong Kong (Antipodes), Hungary (Cassiopeia 68), New Caledonia (Eye Candy and Poulpito), New Zealand (Caro), Britain (Sunrise) and the United States (Warrior Won).

Sunrise is a proven ocean racer, winning the 2021 Fastnet Race in Britain, while Caro has been tipped to take out overall handicap honours, although skipper Max Klink played down his prospects ahead of the race saying: “I do not think we are the favourite.”