By J.W. Oliver
The supermaxi Comanche sails off Newport, R.I. during sea trials in October. The East Boothbay product will face its first major test in the high-profile Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in Australia. (Photo courtesy George Bekais Photography/Hodgdon Yachts Inc.) |
Hodgdon Yachts Inc. will watch a new chapter of its nearly 200-year history unfold 10,000 miles away this weekend. A new yacht unlike any other from the East Boothbay shipyard will debut and face an important test in one of the world’s premier yacht races.
The Comanche will compete in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in Australia. The race begins Friday, Dec. 26.
The 100-foot yacht borrows from the aerospace industry in its futuristic design and composite construction, which employs such materials as carbon fiber, Kevlar, and titanium to create a lightweight yet strong product with one end in mind – speed.
The race’s 628-nautical-mile course starts in Sydney on Australia’s southeast coast and travels southwest to the port city of Hobart on the island state of Tasmania.
“This is the 70th annual Sydney-to-Hobart race,” Hodgdon Yachts Inc. CEO and President Tim Hodgdon said during a Dec. 4 interview in his East Boothbay office. “It’s an aggressive, high-profile, important race for maxis.”
The term maxi refers to racing yachts at least 70 feet in length. At 100 feet, Comanche belongs to the elite supermaxi class. Comanche is a monohull – it has a single hull, which distinguishes it from catamarans and other multihull racers.
The race features “extreme weather conditions in the southern ocean,” Hodgdon said. “There have been a number of lives lost and boats capsized. It’s not without risk.”
The race also ranks among the most popular sporting events in Australia. “In that part of the world, it really is a big deal,” Hodgdon said. “It’s the Superbowl kind of thing.”
Netscape billionaire James Clark and competitive sailor Ken Read approached Hodgdon Yachts Inc. about 1 1/2 years ago with a singular goal in mind – to win races and break records.
Clark and his wife, Australian model Kristy Hinze-Clark, own Comanche. Read will captain the boat.
A pair of French design firms with a history of designing record-breaking yachts – although none quite like Comanche – designed the boat, dubbed NewCubed during the secretive design and early construction phase of the project.
Hodgdon Yachts Inc.’s experience with composites, perhaps most notably in its Hodgdon Defense Composites LLC division, contributed to its ability to land the high-profile job.
Composite construction blends different materials – both natural and synthetic – to accomplish what a single material, like carbon fiber or even wood, could not accomplish alone.
For Comanche, the goal was to build a craft lighter and stronger than possible with any one material.
Hodgdon Yachts started construction in September 2013.
“Our company, along with a number of industry experts who were brought in by the owner’s team, collectively built the boat in about 13 months,” Hodgdon said, an extraordinarily fast build in the superyacht world.
The East Boothbay shipyard converted one of its bays into a 120-by-40-foot oven to “cook” the resin necessary for the composite process.
Media reports place Comanche‘s price tag at around $15 million. Hodgdon Yachts does not make price details public, according to Hodgdon.
Hodgdon Yachts launched Comanche Sept. 27. The boat has attracted significant attention in Maine, the U.S., and around the world both before and since the launch, and for good reason.
“There has not been a sailboat of this significance built in the United States since Ranger (1937 America’s Cup defender) was built at Bath Iron Works,” Hodgdon Yachts Inc. Director of Sales and Marketing Ed Roberts told Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors magazine.
Comanche is in Sydney now, where Read and a crew of 21 are preparing for the race. The crew includes two-time America’s Cup-winning skipper and 2014 World Sailor of the Year James Spithill.
“There is now a world-class sailing team on the boat ready to compete within its class for various sailing races around the world and also to hopefully set some sailing records for monohulls of this size and style,” Hodgdon said.
“I think they’re very happy with the performance of the vessel at this point in time … It’s pretty impressive to see the boat sail,” Hodgdon said. “They’re quite excited about this race, and (Sydney Hobart) will be the first test for her – the first real test for her.”
The 3-month-old boat enters the race with high expectations.
“This is possibly one of the most talked-about entries for this 70th anniversary race,” according to the Comanche profile on the race website. The boat was designed “to push the boundaries of technology with the ultimate goal of taking line honours this year.”
Press reports name the Comanche as the chief threat to seven-time champion Wild Oats XI, which hopes to cross the finish line first for a record eighth time this year. Wild Oats XI also holds the race record at one day, eight hours, 23 minutes, and 12 seconds.
Comanche finished second to Wild Oats XI in the 14-nautical-mile Big Boat Challenge, a warm-up to the main event, Dec. 9.
Clark and Read have ambitious goals for Comanche beyond the Hobart race. The pair plans an attempt to break the 24-hour record of 596 nautical miles, tackle the trans-Atlantic record, and possibly make a run at the nonstop, around-the-world record.
“You don’t build a boat like this without throwing something like that on the table,” Read told the sailboat racing magazine Sailing World.
The Sydney Hobart race will begin in Australia at 1 p.m., Friday, Dec. 26 – or 9 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 25 Eastern Standard Time.
Lincoln County residents can watch a live webcast of the race start online. The site will post a replay shortly after the webcast concludes. Locals can also follow Comanche throughout the race with the yacht tracker.
The Hodgdon Yachts Facebook page will provide information and updates throughout the race.
