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Yachting World

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How Comanche took more than a day off the transatlantic record

• Elaine Bunting
• November 15, 2016

The supermaxi Comanche broke the transatlantic record for monohulls (west to east) in July 2016, taking more than a day off the record. Here's how

No sailing record has a more storied history, or is harder to beat, than the transatlantic record. At a time when sailing records are being divided into smaller currencies and made with greater frequency, this is the big one. Ever since 1905, when Scots skipper Charlie Barr reduced it to 12 days in Wilson Marshall’s 56m/185ft three-masted schooner Atlantic , it has been a grand and famous prize.

On 28 July this year a new high water mark for this famous record was set when the 30.5m/100ft supermaxi Comanche crossed the finish line of the historic course from Ambrose Light, New York to The Lizard Point in Cornwall. She had finished a job for which she was built. The crew completed the 2,880-mile course (sailing 2,946 miles, only 66 miles farther than the Great Circle distance) in 5d 14h 21m and, in doing so, Jim Clark’s super-machine and her all-star crew bettered the previous record by well over a day.

See the full report from July on Yachting World.

The record Comanche broke is notoriously hard. That is why the last incumbent, Mari Cha IV , had hung onto it since 2003. Comanche , unlike the 42m/138ft Briand-designed schooner that preceded her, is an insanely powerful contraption with massive beam at the stern, long reverse sheer, a mast well abaft 50 per cent of the boat length, a towering, narrow mainsail and a long boom overhanging the stern. Comanche was built for raw speed with the wind abaft the beam.

But to break the record, the yacht needed mainly reaching conditions to take her all the way across, riding only one weather system. And it had to be the right kind of low pressure, not too fast and not one that would fizzle or be blocked before it reached Ireland.

“We needed a low pressure that was strong enough to make it all the way to the English Channel,” explains Stan Honey, the team’s navigator. “The question for Comanche was: could we find a system that was slow enough that she could stay in front of it?”

Honey went back to 2004, downloaded historical weather data in GRIB format and ran the boat’s polars starting every six hours from June through November for every year since. “What I found,” he says, “is that there was, on average, only two [suitable] systems per year.”

In June, Comanche returned from the Newport-Bermuda Race. Skipper Ken Read had his pick of 30 of the world’s best sailors, to be on a rolling rota over a three-month period, ready to go at a moment’s notice. Boat captain Casey Smith prepared Comanche . She had always been designed to sail in manual configuration, as world speed sailing records forbid the use of stored power, so the hydraulic pit winch and sail controls could instead be powered by rotary pumps.

One of the things Stan Honey had discovered was: “If you succeeded, it [would be on a weather pattern that] was reaching and running, so we took fewer sails and removed the daggerboards.” Taking the boards out saved 400kg. Upwind sails that would not play a part in record conditions were left ashore.

Twice the weather looked as if it was shaping up right. There were two near-misses when airline tickets were bought and crew were on their way to the airport only to find that the forecasts had changed. But in July a suitable weather window appeared, and continued to improve. This was a low that was travelling slowly by virtue of an old warm front left over and a weak leftover low on the north-west edge of the Azores High.

At the right speed for Comanche , and with a low probability of overtaking her, it could potentially carry her on south-westerlies all the way. It was Code Green.

Her crew headed out from New York late in the evening of 22 July. After all the planning – six long years from concept to this point – Ken Read was not aboard. He had a prior commitment to commentate at the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series Portsmouth. The team decided to go ahead. “It was helpful for us all to know how rare this weather was,” says Stan Honey.

The first few nights at sea were difficult and there were times when the record hung in the balance. First, Comanche had to negotiate a line of thunderstorms. Behind these the wind fell light and they slowed. A hold up of an hour or two may not seem that critical, but it was worrying for the crew because it increased the odds that they might fall off the back of the low pressure system. Typically, this is how records fail: a breakage or some other delay kicks you out the back door.

But past that the boat was, Casey Smith remembers, “ripping along”. They were doing 550-mile days; they were blasting. Though it was mainly grey and overcast, that did not dampen the mood on board. True to the forecast, the sailing was, Smith says, ideal.

There were 17 crew on board, the fewest Comanche had ever raced with. Since conditions were not expected to vary greatly, they weren’t going to be doing many sail changes. Smith remembers doing only five sail changes during the record. “Normally we might do that in a day,” he says.

The only sails used apart from the main were the A3, Comanche’s VMG-style running sail, up “90 per cent of the time” and the FRO, or fractional reaching Code 0.

Comanche’s actual track is in black. The theoretical optimum route from the GFS HO weather analysis is in blue.

Coming on home

At times there was fog, and the radar and AIS watch was intensified. “Fog is always the case with transatlantic records, as you’re doing it in the warm sector,” says Stan Honey. “It’s all grey and every bone in your body tells you you are going to get pasted, but because you are travelling along with it you don’t.”

When the record had its hairy moments, it was because the breeze faded. “Once we cleared out of the top of Newfoundland and through the ice areas that was our lightest period of the race, 15-18 knots,” says Smith. “We had to be very careful. But we were still doing 18-20 knots [of boat speed] and the breeze soon built up.”

But was it rough? Smith just laughs. “Maybe we are going to have to tell people we had 5m seas. No, it was as calm as I’ve seen the Atlantic. We wouldn’t have seen a swell over 2m. Although between the warm and cold front we had lousy visibility, the wonderful thing is that you get flat water and because you are moving with the system seas are just starting to build.” He thinks the maximum wave height was even less. “Never more than 1.5m,” he declares.

“It seemed to be that we were so well lined up on the system that we’d advance to run out of wind down to below 20 knots and then the wind would slowly build up and then run out. That’s how much on the front edge of the system we were. We’d poke out of it and come back in,” says Smith. “ But in flat water and breeze, doing 500+ mile days, we were just coming on home.”

A big, hollow drum

It never got especially cold on board. According to Casey Smith some of the crew did not wear boots at any point on the way across, only deck shoes. But the water temperature dropped to 9°C so perhaps that is merely a measure of their hardiness. Honey laughs that he knows a Kiwi sailor who wore Crocs rounding Cape Horn – and it’s not an indication of fair weather.

On the other hand, the safety routines aboard were stringent. Crew had AIS beacons, strobes, always wore harnesses and tethers, and were clipped on “the whole time. No one comes on deck without a harness or lifejacket,” says Smith.

Apart from sandwiches for the first day, food was all freeze-dried. There was “not a huge amount of joking; it was a level, calm group and super-professional. Everyone was very focused,” says Smith. But on board it was noisy: the boat is a big, hollow carbon drum. And it’s wet, although the worst of the water and wind was kept off the driver and trimmers by an offshore dodger.

Coming into the English Channel in low, grey cloud and fog, Comanche ’s crew were well ahead of the record. The ideal had been to take as much as a day off Mari Cha ’s record, but when they fizzed past Lizard Point, not stopping, but carrying on to the Solent, they had improved the benchmark time by 1d 3h 31m. They had done the whole Atlantic, just shy of 3,000 miles, at an average speed of 21.44 knots.

Transatlantic by numbers

Record course: Ambrose Light to The Lizard, leaving Nantucket Shoal and Cape Race to port

Great Circle distance: 2,880 miles

Distance sailed: 2,946 miles

Average speed on theoretical course: 21.44 knots

Average speed on actual course: 21.93 knots

Peak GPS speed over ground: 21.5 knots

Average wind: 21.5 knots (TWS)

Average true wind angel: 130.5°

Peak true wind speed (TWS): 32.2 knots (ten-second average)

Could it be bettered?

As soon as a record has been broken it’s customary to ask if it could be bettered, and for Comanche that is a valid question. This is a yacht capable of even more. “For sure,” is Casey Smith’s judgement. “We had periods of light wind, below 15 knots for 24 hours, and if we had had even five more knots of wind we would have taken another 12 hours off the record.

“There is no reason why you wouldn’t have another go.” Stan Honey agrees, but with caveats. “If we had had a somewhat faster system we could easily take another ten hours off the record. But then it is kind of like playing with fire: if you have a system you can barely keep up with, it is a low probability bet. It might take two or three attempts.

“These records are the most frustrating for us. The crew hates it because it feels as if the world is passing them by; the navigator hates it because he’s working every day, and the owner hates it because it’s costing a lot of money!”

Which is why Comanche ’s Atlantic record is so colossal: complete success at their first shot. “This was as good as it gets,” Honey says. “It’s to the credit of Ken Read and the owner, and it’s a real honour to sail with these guys. They really are an extraordinary group; some of the best sailors in the world. You look around and everyone is just really happy to be sailing with each other.”

Jim Clark and his wife, Kristy Hinze Clark, were not aboard for this record, but when they finished Clark said: “ Comanche was built to break ocean records and the guys have once again powered our fantastic fat-bottomed girl to another title. I am so proud of the entire team and everyone involved in the entire programme from top to bottom. Kristy and I are over the moon.”

Comanche transatlantic crew: a who’s who of sailing

Casey Smith (AUS), boat captain Stan Honey (USA), navigator Tony Mutter (NZL), trimmer Dirk de Ridder (NED), main trimmer Chris Maxted (AUS), boat crew Jon von Schwarz (USA), grinder Juggy Clougher (AUS), bow Julien Cressant (FRA), pit Nick Dana (USA), bow Pablo Arrarte (ESP), runners Pepe Ribes (ESP), bow Peter van Niekerk (NED), trimmer Phil Harmer (AUS), grinder Richard Clarke (CAN), runners Robert Greenhalgh (GBR), main trimmer Shannon Falcone (ATG), grinder Yann Riou (FRA), media

Comanche Story: Across the Ocean in a Work Week

Shattering the transatlantic sailing record.

Even the most daunting world records are meant to be broken … eventually. For elite navigator Stan Honey and a crew of sailing all-stars, beating the prestigious monohull transatlantic sailing record was the ultimate accomplishment. And it was no easy feat. On July 22, 2016, the Comanche — a custom-built, 100-foot racing yacht — set sail from New York to the southern tip of England.

Precisely five days, 14 hours, 21 minutes and 25 seconds later, the Comanche’s crew shattered the world record … by more than a day.

Brave the high seas as we set sail on one of the most amazing and inspiring journeys ever to take place on film.

A Great Big Film dedicated to Comanche, made in partnership with Land Rover ( http://www.landroverusa.com/vehicles/… ).

About Comanche

Comanche is a 100 ft (33 m) maxi yacht. She was designed in France by VPLP and Guillaume Verdier and built in the United States by Hodgdon Yachts for Dr. James H. Clark and christened as  Comanche . 

Comanche  holds the 24-hour sailing record for monohulls, covering 618 nm, for an average of 25.75 knots or 47.69 kmh/h. The boat won line honours in the 2015 Fastnet race and the 2015 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, under the leadership of skipper Ken Read. In 2017,  Comanche  set a new Transpac record, covering 484.1 nmi in 24 hours, for an average speed of 20.2 knots (37.4 km/h). In 2019, under navigator Stan Honey, the yacht won the 2225-mile 50th Transpacific Yacht Race, with a time of 5 days 11 hours 14 minutes 05 seconds.  Comanche  won the 2017 Sydney to Hobart yacht race, with a time of 1 day 9 hours 15 minutes 24 seconds, a record that still stands today.

At 5 days 14 hours 21 minutes 25 seconds, the sailing yacht holds the Monohull Transatlantic sailing record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, which they achieved on July 28, 2016.

In December 2017, was sold to Australian Jim Cooney, and was renamed to LDV Comanche, as part of a one-time sponsorship from SAIC Maxus Automotive Co’s  LDV  brand. The yacht later returned to its original, unsponsored title of Comanche. Under this name it won the Sydney-Hobart race again in 2019 in 1 day 18 hours and 30 minutes.

Soon after the completion of the 2019 Sydney-Hobart race, Comanche was reportedly sold to a Russian interest group. [7]  Details of the sale have not been disclosed as of yet.

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Comanche on the warpath for Transpac record

Article by Dobbs Davis, Photo by Hodgdon Yachts

Los Angeles, CA -- Jim Clark’s 100-foot Comanche has recently joined the fleet of 62 entries currently preparing for the 49 th edition of the Transpacific YC’s biennial LA-Honolulu race, with one goal: to set a new race record. This 100-foot carbon fiber ocean greyhound designed by VPLP/Verdier and built by Hodgdon Yachts in 2014 was created to be quite simply the fastest sailing yacht in the world, with a design brief s to not only capture offshore race line honors – as she did in the 2015 Sydney Hobart Race – but also set race records, as she did last year in the Newport-Bermuda Race.

And without the structured timing of a race start, Comanche has also set out and won new course records as well: such as last summer when she knocked off a full day from Mari Cha IV’s Transatlantic course record set in 2003 for the Sandy Hook to the Lizard sailing course. The new mark stands at 5 days 14 hours 21 minutes 25 seconds, and may be there for a while.

She also holds the current monohull 24 hour speed record of 618.01 miles – an amazing average of 25.75 knots of boat speed.

The 2225-mile Transpac is next in her sights, with the goal to get to Honolulu in less than 5 days 14 hours 36 minutes 20 seconds, a mark set in 2009 by Neville Crichton’s Reichel/Pugh 90-foot Alpha Romeo II . To achieve this level of success its no surprise both boats had on board one of the most successful ocean racing navigators in the history of the sport: Stan Honey.

Stan’s success as a navigator in transpacific races (Transpac, Pacific Cup, Victoria-Maui) is unparalleled: in 22 races he and his teams have won line or class honors 10 times – an impressive record in itself. And he may have made that 11 had he not sustained a head injury while on board Comanche shortly before he was due to compete on Wild Oats XI in the 2015 Transpac, and was ably replaced by Nick White who guided the mixed Pyewacket /Aussie crew to line honors - but no record due to the light weather in that year’s race.

We spoke with Stan about Comanche’s prospects for the Transpac record while he was cruising the coast of Mexico with his wife Sally on board their Cal 40 Illusion .

“I think this record time is achievable without having to have unusually windy conditions, but just stable breeze along the course,” he said. “The year we did this on Alfa the breeze was not particularly strong, it was just relatively steady throughout the trip.”

This is not just a hunch. Not only is Comanche capable of stunning speed – her 24 hour record of 618 miles dwarfs Alfa’s record on the Transpac course of 480 miles – but using weather data and routing software, Stan came to this conclusion after an exhaustive analysis of digitally sailing this race over the past 13 years.

“I’ve routed Comanche on the race course using historical GFS weather data for 143 starts. I ran routes starting every day 1 July through 11 July, from 2004 through 2016. Statistically we’ve got a reasonable shot at it starting on any given day, but obviously there could be rotten enough weather to make it pointless to start on the 6 th ”… meaning, there is a scenario where Comanche might do what the 104-foot trimaran Lending Club II did in the last race: sail the course on a different start day in order to optimize their chances of achieving a course record, thereby giving up the opportunity to win any race trophies.

“Given that Comanche is out of the hunt on handicap or for the Barn Door, if we had terrible weather for a start on July 6 th it would be fruitless to just sail the course for no reason,” he said. “If the weather forecast was much better for a nearby day, giving us a good shot at the passage record, I suspect that Ken and Jim would go for that.”

Comanche’s unusually wide hull form is different than both Oats and Alfa , since she is designed to be more stable to carry more sail area in a wider variety of windy conditions. Comanche also has an unusual multiple option sail plan that can carry a large and diverse array of headsails and even spinnakers on furling systems on the foredeck. The position of the mast very far aft in the boat allows for this powerful feature.

Her wide hull form, however, also makes her trim sensitive to weight and can be a limiting factor in her performance should the air go light. “We will be on a strict weight budget for this race, and have to make important sail and crew selection decisions in order to optimize performance for weight.”

One sail in the inventory that is particularly effective when in its range of reaching angles is her A3 sail, which is too narrow to be recognized as a spinnaker but also too wide to be a rated as a headsail in the ORR rating rule system used in Transpac. Comanche petitioned TPYC to allow them to use this sail nonetheless, and permission was granted with the application of a significant rating penalty. Not interested in corrected time honors, this was acceptable to the Comanche team since their only interest is in going as fast as possible to the finish at Diamond Head, regardless of rating.

TPYC Technical Committee Chairman Alan Andrews said “These ‘large width headsails’ are common in oceanic racing designs, but not used in general fleets like we have in Transpac. TPYC wants to keep a level playing field within the rest of the fleet and not ignite an expensive sail development war shortly before the race. However, we have been historically supportive of innovation and speed, so Transpac would rather allow the fleet to use these sails with the addition of a significant additional rating assessment than not allow them.”

This was good news for Commanche . “That A3 has proven to be an extremely versatile and fast sail for us,” says Honey, so its likely it will make the cut when deciding what to have on board when they start off Point Fermin on July 6 th .

Stan also said the array of foils and boards on Comanche will also get evaluated carefully to find trade-offs in their weight and addition to performance through the course of a “typical” Transpac, which includes a small amount of beating, a little more reaching, and a lot of running. The decisions the team makes on this and the sail selections will very much depend on Stan’s expertise in weather forecasting and route modeling to simulate what the team will encounter on the race.

Armed with the right sails and foils, a world-class crew, Stan’s experience, and the right weather, Comanche will have a very real shot at taking another scalp by putting a new time on the beautiful Transpac Honolulu Race Elapsed Time Record Trophy (aka, the “Clock Trophy”) donated by one of its winners and long term patron of the race, Roy E. Disney.

“Winning Transpac is not an easy achievement by any measure, and setting records is even more difficult,” says TPYC Race Chairman Bo Wheeler. “This is what makes this race have such enduring appeal for offshore sailors from around the world, and we’re pleased to have a superb team like Comanche come give this a try. We wish them and all our entries good luck in their preparations during these final few months remaining to the start.”

The Yacht Owner

Choose Smart for Happy Sailing!

Comanche – A Fast Racer

October 18, 2015 By Daniel Mihai Popescu 2 Comments

Comanche is a 100ft (30.5 meters) sailing yacht, which has been built with the scope to break every yachting record possible, winning prestigious yacht races, and meaning that it will probably become the fastest. The beautiful yacht, a Super Maxi class, has been commissioned by the Netscape creator, James H. Clark and his wife, the former Victoria’s Secret’s Australian model, Kristy Hinze.

The sleek black and red yacht has been built under a contract with a lot of confidentiality clauses by Hodgdon Yachts from Maine. Comanche has one of the largest single-infusion hulls constructed in America, and even globally. The oven used to cure the hull and superstructure is the largest one in the United States, and has been built by Hodgdon Yachts itself. They have been using advanced composites for several years, both for yachts and for military projects.

Super Maxi Class Yacht, Comanche

The naval architects are Van Peteghem Lauriot Prévost (VPLP) and Guillaume Verdier, acknowledged names in the racing world. The 150 foot mast has been constructed by Southern Spars and the sails are from industry leader, North Sails , including a spinnaker of more than 11,000 square feet. Launched in September 2014, Comanche is the result of studies of the IMOCA Macif and Banque Populaire, first and second in the 2012 Vendee Globe. Different from her other 100′ rivals, like Wild Oats XI or Perpetual Loyal , with her large beam, her mast far aft and a boom directly over the transom, Comanche has a much larger sail plan. The cockpit has been designed for manual maneuvers rather than hydraulic and therefore saves weight. Comanche has a powerful hull shape and a maximum draft of 6.5m in order to enter most ports. With a low freeboard and lateral ballast the center of gravity has been lowered to gain power.

Comanche and its crew, downward view

Comanche is commanded by renowned US skipper Ken Read, and raced by a world-class crew of twenty-one international sailors.

Her performances, like what Ken Read has explained that happened during the Transatlantic Race 2015, an average speed of 25 knots per total, a top speed of 38.8 knots, and large distances passed in the mid 30’s knots, are things which will make me to dedicate more space to this kind of posts. I am thrilled by what man can achieve with a good boat, and pure racing, like this, using just the power of the wind and the ability to float over the furious waves, even to brake them if necessary.

Comanche Sails!! FAST!! from Onne van der Wal on Vimeo .

Above is a very short (too short) video made by Onne van der Wal, which shows Comanche sailing. Before publishing this, I have been looking for more videos, maybe more relevant, like I wish for this website to be, a better compilation of related sources on different matters.

So, I found this on YouTube, posted by sailingshack, where Ken Read presents the magnificent boat.

It really is a great boat, a very expensive one as well, it took $15 million to be built, and many millions more for the rest (called “campaigns”), and it made second place in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, losing to Wild Oats XI , and also second in the Transatlantic race 2015 (TR 15), loosing to Rambler 88 with a difference of only seven hours, which is really incredible, because in such a competition, they arrive at days distance. More on racing, in future posts, maybe I’ll make a new category.

I hope you like it and I’ll tell you more about yacht racing in general. What do you think, are you speed racers?

If you like what you read, please subscribe to this blog by completing the form . If you want to help more, start by following us on Twitter , and like our page on Facebook . You don’t know what good things may happen. To lighten your day, check our pins on Pinterest , we can be friends there too. Oh, and if you need a really good looking blog attached to your site, or just for fun, to express your feelings more competitively, read this Own Your Website offer! Thank you very much.

Copyright © 2015 The Yacht Owner – Comanche – A Fast Racer

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About Daniel Mihai Popescu

Daniel Mihai Popescu is a ship engineer with background in sea transportation, real estate, yacht brokerage, construction, entrepreneurship. Avid reader, traveled the world, explorer of the human nature. Never stopped learning, now I create and manage Wordpress based sites . • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • Instagram • Pinterest • Goodreads • Medium •

January 7, 2016 at 14:04

Buna ziua, Mi-as dori un articol scris de dvs. despre velierele cu chila leagan, swing keel sailboat cum sunt cunoscute. Multumesc.

January 7, 2016 at 20:31

Am să caut mai multe informații despre ele, mie tipul ăsta de chilă mi se pare o complicație inutilă deși îi văd utilitatea. Mi-ar face plăcere dacă v-ați abona la newsletter, șamd…

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Published on July 27th, 2016 | by Assoc Editor

Comanche on Transatlantic Record Setting Pace

Published on July 27th, 2016 by Assoc Editor -->

(July 27, 2016) – Comanche, the record-breaking 100ft yacht owned by Jim Clark and Kristy Hinze-Clark, looks set to conclude their transatlantic record bid at Lizard Point (UK) on Thursday July 28. The latest ETA puts the Supermaxi at the finish point around 12 PM UTC (1 PM BST), which would see the experienced crew secure another major ocean record.

As of 21:20 UTC, Comanche was 458 nm ahead of the record pace.

In 2015, Comanche set the 24 hour monohull distance record of 618 miles as they raced across the Atlantic (at an average speed of 25.75 knots).

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The boat is sailing with only 17 crew and with all manual powered winches and hydraulics for this record attempt:

Casey Smith (AUS), Boat Captain Stan Honey (USA), Navigator Tony Mutter (NZL), Trimmer Dirk de Ridder (NED), Main Trim Chris Maxted (AUS), Boat Crew Jon von Schwarz (USA), Grinder Juggy Clougher (AUS), Bow Julien Cressant (FRA), Pit Nick Dana (USA), Bow Pablo Arrarte (ESP), Runners Pepe Ribes (ESP), Bow Peter van Niekerk (NED), Trimmer Phil Harmer (AUS), Grinder Richard Clarke (CAN), Runners Robert Greenhalgh (GBR), Main Trim Shannon Falcone (ATG), Grinder Yann Riou (FRA), Media

Note : With Comanche skipper Ken Read committed to TV commentating at the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series in Portsmouth, England, over the weekend, the world class crew is led by experienced sailors Casey Smith, Tony Mutter, Richard Clarke and Navigator Stan Honey. Due to other commitments, Comanche is also missing regular crewmen Kelvin Harrap, Warwick Fluery, Jimmy Spithill and Ryan Godfrey.

Tags: Comanche , records , World Sailing Speed Record Council

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COMANCHE is a 30.45 m Sail Yacht, built in the United States of America by Hodgdon and delivered in 2014.

She has a gross tonnage of 72.0 GT and a 8.0 m beam.

She was designed by VPLP Design , who has designed 14 other superyachts in the BOAT Pro database.

The naval architecture was developed by Guillaume Verdier and VPLP Design (17 other superyachts architected) - she is built with a Carbon Fibre deck, a Carbon Fibre hull, and Carbon Fibre superstructure.

COMANCHE is one of 390 sailing yachts in the 30-35m size range.

COMANCHE is currently sailing under the Cayman Islands flag, the 2nd most popular flag state for superyachts with a total of 1408 yachts registered. She is known to be an active superyacht and has most recently been spotted cruising near Australia. For more information regarding COMANCHE's movements, find out more about BOATPro AIS .

Specifications

• Name: COMANCHE
• Yacht Type: Sail Yacht
• Yacht Subtype: Racing Yacht
• Builder: Hodgdon
• Naval Architect: Guillaume Verdier , VPLP Design
• Exterior Designer: VPLP Design
• Refits: 2019,2021,2021,2021,2022,2023,2023

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Andoo Comanche

Arguably the fastest monohull on the planet, Andoo Comanche returns to defend her Line Honours title in the 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.  Skipper John “Herman” Winning Jr and his exceptional team including tactician Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton, Iain Murray and Richard Allanson have captured every major Australian offshore line honours title since they chartered the yacht in 2022.  With a new inventory of sails by North Sails, Andoo Comanche will be hard to beat in 2023, with John Winning Jr looking to cap off his impressive run with the maxi yacht.

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OFFICIAL ROLEX SYDNEY HOBART MERCHANDISE

Shop the official clothing range of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in person at the Club in New South Head Road, Darling Point or online below.  

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• Jul 27, 2016

100-FOOT COMANCHE ON ITS WAY TO BREAKING TRANSATLANTIC SAILING RECORD

Comanche, the 100-foot supermaxi owned by Jim Clark and Kristy Hinze-Clark and built at Hodgdon Yachts in East Boothbay, Maine is well on the way to breaking the current West to East transatlantic monohull sailing record. It is being estimated that the boat and crew of 17 will arrive at the finish line on Thursday, July 28 just before 1100 EST. Comanche has been sailing at an average speed of over 21 knots.

"A fantastic weather window has opened up for Comanche to take on the Atlantic," said Ken Read, prior to departure. Ken is Comanche's normal skipper who is not currently on board due to prior commitments. "We have been on standby for a few weeks now and have almost left on three separate occasions since the end of June, and each time we have had to piece together a different team based on who is available, before the weather fizzled out and shut down those attempts. But now the right conditions have presented themselves."

"Since being launched from Hodgdon Yachts in East Boothbay, Maine, USA at the end of 2014, Comanche has been such a success thanks largely to her talented sailors, passionate owners, and of course a tremendous design by Guillaume Verdier / VPLP Design and build by Hodgdon Yachts in collaboration with the owner's build team," said Timothy Hodgdon, President of Hodgdon Yachts. "In 2015 she set the 24-hour monohull speed record and won line honors at the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. This year she set the Newport Bermuda race record , breaking the previous record by almost 5 hours. Comanche is currently on track to break the transatlantic monohull record, which will be an amazing additional accomplishment."

The current monohull transatlantic West to East Record is 6 days, 17 hours, 52 minutes, and 39 seconds and was set in 2003 by Mari-Cha IV. It is being estimated that Comanche will finish in 5 days, 14 hours. The route is around 2,880 nautical miles and goes from Ambrose Lighthouse (New York) to Lizard Point (UK).

To follow the progress of Comanche, please visit the Yellow Brick tracker .

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Comanche sets new Transatlantic Race record

Related articles, superyacht directory.

The 30.48 metre sailing yacht Comanche has set a new monohull race record after taking Monohull Line Honours in the 2022 RORC Transatlantic Race.

Skippered by Mitch Booth, Comanche and its crew completed the 3,000 nautical mile race from Lanzarote to Grenada in seven days, 22 hours, 1 minute and 4 seconds (that's two days quicker than the previous record holder).

Constructed in carbon fibre by American builder Hodgdon to a design by VPLP/Verdier Maxi, the yacht was delivered in 2014 after being commissioned by software mogul Jim Clark.

This is not the first time Comanche has tasted success – since its launch the yacht has set several speed records, most notably sailing from New York’s Ambrose Lighthouse to the UK’s Lizard Point in five and a half days in 2016.

The sailing yacht also finished in second place during the 2014 Sydney Hobart race and broke a 24-hour record in the 2015 Transatlantic Race after covering 618 nautical miles in one day.

Described as a “Laser dinghy or 49er morphed with rocket ship” by BOAT’ International's own Marilyn Mower , Comanche ’s defining feature is its comparatively wide 7.6 metre beam which helps save weight, in turn increasing its speed.

Other notable features include its rig which rises 47 metres above the water and a solid stainless steel keel.

Comanche is the largest yacht entered in the 2022 RORC Transatlantic Race and the team must now wait until the remaining competitors have crossed the finish line, to see if any of the 21 teams performing can eclipse their corrected time.

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Comanche – A Fast Racer

October 18, 2015 By Daniel Mihai Popescu 2 Comments

Comanche is a 100ft (30.5 meters) sailing yacht, which has been built with the scope to break every yachting record possible, winning prestigious yacht races, and meaning that it will probably become the fastest. The beautiful yacht, a Super Maxi class, has been commissioned by the Netscape creator, James H. Clark and his wife, the former Victoria’s Secret’s Australian model, Kristy Hinze.

The sleek black and red yacht has been built under a contract with a lot of confidentiality clauses by Hodgdon Yachts from Maine. Comanche has one of the largest single-infusion hulls constructed in America, and even globally. The oven used to cure the hull and superstructure is the largest one in the United States, and has been built by Hodgdon Yachts itself. They have been using advanced composites for several years, both for yachts and for military projects.

Super Maxi Class Yacht, Comanche

The naval architects are Van Peteghem Lauriot Prévost (VPLP) and Guillaume Verdier, acknowledged names in the racing world. The 150 foot mast has been constructed by Southern Spars and the sails are from industry leader, North Sails , including a spinnaker of more than 11,000 square feet. Launched in September 2014, Comanche is the result of studies of the IMOCA Macif and Banque Populaire, first and second in the 2012 Vendee Globe. Different from her other 100′ rivals, like Wild Oats XI or Perpetual Loyal , with her large beam, her mast far aft and a boom directly over the transom, Comanche has a much larger sail plan. The cockpit has been designed for manual maneuvers rather than hydraulic and therefore saves weight. Comanche has a powerful hull shape and a maximum draft of 6.5m in order to enter most ports. With a low freeboard and lateral ballast the center of gravity has been lowered to gain power.

Comanche and its crew, downward view

Comanche is commanded by renowned US skipper Ken Read, and raced by a world-class crew of twenty-one international sailors.

Her performances, like what Ken Read has explained that happened during the Transatlantic Race 2015, an average speed of 25 knots per total, a top speed of 38.8 knots, and large distances passed in the mid 30’s knots, are things which will make me to dedicate more space to this kind of posts. I am thrilled by what man can achieve with a good boat, and pure racing, like this, using just the power of the wind and the ability to float over the furious waves, even to brake them if necessary.

Comanche Sails!! FAST!! from Onne van der Wal on Vimeo .

Above is a very short (too short) video made by Onne van der Wal, which shows Comanche sailing. Before publishing this, I have been looking for more videos, maybe more relevant, like I wish for this website to be, a better compilation of related sources on different matters.

So, I found this on YouTube, posted by sailingshack, where Ken Read presents the magnificent boat.

It really is a great boat, a very expensive one as well, it took $15 million to be built, and many millions more for the rest (called “campaigns”), and it made second place in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, losing to Wild Oats XI , and also second in the Transatlantic race 2015 (TR 15), loosing to Rambler 88 with a difference of only seven hours, which is really incredible, because in such a competition, they arrive at days distance. More on racing, in future posts, maybe I’ll make a new category.

I hope you like it and I’ll tell you more about yacht racing in general. What do you think, are you speed racers?

If you like what you read, please subscribe to this blog by completing the form . If you want to help more, start by following us on Twitter , and like our page on Facebook . You don’t know what good things may happen. To lighten your day, check our pins on Pinterest , we can be friends there too. Oh, and if you need a really good looking blog attached to your site, or just for fun, to express your feelings more competitively, read this Own Your Website offer! Thank you very much.

Copyright © 2015 The Yacht Owner – Comanche – A Fast Racer

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About Daniel Mihai Popescu

Daniel Mihai Popescu is a ship engineer with background in sea transportation, real estate, yacht brokerage, construction, entrepreneurship. Avid reader, traveled the world, explorer of the human nature. Never stopped learning, now I create and manage Wordpress based sites . • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • Instagram • Pinterest • Goodreads • Medium •

January 7, 2016 at 14:04

Buna ziua, Mi-as dori un articol scris de dvs. despre velierele cu chila leagan, swing keel sailboat cum sunt cunoscute. Multumesc.

January 7, 2016 at 20:31

Am să caut mai multe informații despre ele, mie tipul ăsta de chilă mi se pare o complicație inutilă deși îi văd utilitatea. Mi-ar face plăcere dacă v-ați abona la newsletter, șamd…

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Comanche sets a new RORC Transatlantic Race record and win the IMA Trophy

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Comanche wins 75th Sydney to Hobart race, InfoTrack in 2nd

Australia sydney hobart sailing.

HOBART, Australia (AP) — Comanche won the 75th edition of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Saturday by claiming line honors for the third time.

The Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant-skippered super maxi made the most of strong overnight winds to cross the River Derwent finish line just after 7:30 a.m. local time.

Comanche earlier broke away from a five-strong pack of super maxis down Tasmania's east coast having taken a wider route across Bass Strait on Friday.

She stalled at one stage on a windless River Derwent before crossing the line in a time of 1 day, 18 hours, 30 minutes and 24 seconds.

" That was dramatic. That was 30 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. It was really very stressful," Cooney said.

InfoTrack, which was the first yacht out of Sydney Harbour on Thursday, finished second, about 45 minutes behind Comanche. The three other super maxis filled out the top five placings — nine-time line honors champion Wild Oats XI was third, Scallywag fourth, just 38 seconds behind, and Black Jack fifth.

Comanche's celebrations were subdued at Hobart's Constitution Dock after several nights of intense racing.

The yacht fell behind on Friday morning but regained the lead in the afternoon after taking the wider Bass Strait route to pick up winds.

"It was a long night. Everybody is pretty tired," Cooney said. “We treated the race as a sprint, we didn't take too many breaks. We wanted crew on deck all the time. It was relief more than elation.”

Comanche ran into more problems near Tasman Island, where an unknown object wrapped around the yacht's rudder rendered it immobile.

"We were in a little bit of drama for a short period of time," Cooney said.

Comanche's previous wins were in 2015 and 2017, the latter coming in race-record time of 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes after Wild Oats XI was stripped of the title in a post-race protest.

Minerva became the fleet's third retirement overnight, reducing the number of yachts in the race to 154.

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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Photos from launch of 100 Super Maxi Yacht COMANCHE by Hodgdon Yachts

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Written by Zuzana Bednarova

The US builder, Hodgdon Yachts , has successfully launched the all-new fast carbon 30,5m (100’) Super Maxi yacht Comanche . The pre-preg sailing yacht Comanche is expected to attend major ocean races around the world and break records on existing ocean crossings. She will be put to the test for the first time during the 2014  Rolex Sydney to Hobart Race . Below are the photos from the launch of this impressive vessel, North Sails President Ken Read and shared by Hodgdon Yachts.

Hodgdon Yachts ready to launch the 100ft sailing superyacht Comanche - Photo credit to Ken Read

Superyacht Comanche ready to be launched by Hodgdon Yachts - Photo credit to Ken Read

Sailing yacht Comanche on the water - Photo credit to Ken Read

Please contact CharterWorld - the luxury yacht charter specialist - for more on superyacht news item "Photos from launch of 100 Super Maxi Yacht COMANCHE by Hodgdon Yachts ".

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Published on December 14th, 2017 | by Editor

Comanche finds new owner Down Under

Published on December 14th, 2017 by Editor -->

Comanche, the innovative record-breaking 100 foot maxi yacht designed by VPLP and Guillaume Verdier and launched in 2014 for Jim and Kristy Clark, has been sold to Australian Jim Cooney.

The yacht was to compete in the 628 nm Sydney Hobart Race as LDV Comanche under partnership between Clark and two-time race winner Neville Crichton, but the last-minute sale now will have Sydney skipper Cooney at the helm.

“I have stepped down as skipper, we still have sponsorship for the boat, and if for any reason he can’t do it, I will step back into this shoes,” Crichton said.

Crichton had assembled a world-class crew for the race – including America’s Cup skipper James Spithill and many of the men who raced her to victory in the 2015 Hobart race. The crew will stay aboard while Cooney, daughter Julia, son James and Waratah Jeremy Tilse join the crew.

“We are all just so excited about doing the race on her, she is one not the most remarkable yachts in the world. I’ve actually never sailed it before. We are all going sailing on Tuesday (Dec. 19) to understand what sort of beast she is.’’

The new ownership means every supermaxi on the start line of the Sydney to Hobart will be racing for an Australian victory. The other three are Black Jack (previously Alfa Romeo), Infotrack (previously Perpetual Loyal), and Wild Oats XI.

“How amazing that pretty much the four fastest boats in the world are now all Australian owned,” said Cooney, chairman and major shareholder of TCI Renewables, a wind energy development company.

“This year competition is fierce, with the strongest line up of super maxis ever seen in one race. Depending on conditions, any of the 100 footers could take line honours, it threatens be one of the best races in the history of the event.”

The race starts on Boxing Day at 1300hrs AEDT and will be broadcast live on the Seven Network throughout Australia.

Event details – Entry list – Facebook

Source: perthnow.com

Tags: Comanche , Jim Clark , Neville Crichton , Sydney Hobart

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Yacht Racing for Fun and Profit — Schooner America and Maxi Comanche

International yacht racing has traditionally been a sport for the rich. The cliche that a yacht is a hole in the water into which the owner pours money, is often repeated because it is, more often than not, highly accurate.

In rare cases, however, there are exceptions. One such example was the syndicated formed by John Cox Stevens , the founder and first commodore of the New York Yacht Club. The idea was to build a racing yacht to show off U.S. shipbuilding skill and to make money through competing in yachting regattas. 

The design of the schooner America was based on George Steers’ pilot boat designs, whose concave waterlines were influenced by the designs of American clipper ships. On August 22, 1851,  America won the Royal Yacht Squadron’s 53-mile (85 km) regatta around the Isle of Wight by 18 minutes and was awarded the squadron’s “One Hundred Sovereign Cup.” 

What does this have to do with the sale of Comanche ? Just as Comanche was sold shortly after her recent Sydney Hobart race, so too was the schooner yacht America sold within weeks of winning the One Hundred Sovereign Cup to John de Blaquiere, 2nd Baron de Blaquiere. I am not aware of any record of the transaction, but it was rumored that Stevens and his investors netted a tidy profit in the deal. Stevens and his team sailed home with the cup which would subsequently be known as the America’s Cup . 

In the first America’s Cup challenge race of 1870, the famous schooner was one of the competitors. After passing through several owners, including a short career as a Confederate blockade runner during the Civil War, schooner America was owned by the US Navy in the first America’s Cup race.  The schooner came in 6th overall.

Yacht Racing for Fun and Profit — Schooner America and Maxi Comanche — 5 Comments

Boat is a accronym. Bring On Another Thousand

I get so pissed off with “the rich man sport” bit. The sport employs tens of thousands of people worldwide in an industry which is nothing short of philanthropy.

This is a quote from my soon to be published book:

“Often associated with privilege and class, the reality could not be further from the truth. In it we participate in a dangerous sport in a confined space working with all creeds, colours, religions, ages, backgrounds and any other box that one might be put into and who you may or may not like. Regardless you must perform physically and mentally demanding choreographed manoeuvres, problem solve, work as a team and as an individual. More importantly, of an evening, you must socialise with your crew of all creeds, colours, religions, ages, backgrounds and who you may or may not like. As a sport, sailing creates young people with sound team working, man management and social skills of the highest level.”

It is the guys low down that the generosity of the guys at the top makes possible creates some of the best sport in the world.

The Comanche cost a reported $15 million to build. That doesn’t include outfitting, upkeep or crew costs. I have no doubt that the other four maxis in race cost more. To my mind, that is a rich man’s sport. This doesn’t mean that anyone with a boat is rich or that the thousands of those employed in the industry are rich either. This is also the case in all other “rich men’s sports” from horse racing to grand prix racing.

You can have a boat or you can have money. You cannot have both.P

I only wish sailboat racers knew to follow rules of the road. Or at least, not traipse back and forth across harbor entrances (pet peeve of Squalicum Harbor).

As to the rest, if some fraction of things that racers commission to design and build trickle down to reproducible technology the rest of us can employ, terrific. Fin keel with a hefty bulb? Antiquated in the elite racing world but at my level, I like . Buying one attached to a boat at an affordable price? Even better. And somebody else paid to cut all of that brush. 🙂

Yachting World

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Fastest yacht: The giant record breakers

• Toby Heppell
• October 29, 2021

Skorpios is the latest in a long list of giant monohulls designed with a view to becoming the fastest yacht on the planet. We take a look at some of her predecessors

Every so often the yacht racing world sees an ambitious owner with pockets deep enough to want to step things up a gear and produce a new record-smashing fastest yacht.

The latest of these to hit the water is the jaw-dropping ClubSwan 125 Skorpios built for its Russian owner, Dmitry Rybolovlev. Almost everything about this new monster yacht is bigger, stronger, faster and higher tech than any boat which came before it.

Pretty much any metric you care to look at on Skorpios is mind-boggling. The five-spreader Southern Spars mast stands at 175 feet tall, and she can carry 11,324 square feet of sail upwind, and 21,108 square feet downwind.

Enough sail? Skorpios off the Dorset coast. The ClubSwan 125 is named after owner Rybolovlev’s famous Greek island, where Jackie Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis. Photo: Mark Lloyd / Lloyd Images

Skorpios has been built with the express brief to break offshore records as the world’s fastest yacht. Her recent win in the 2021 Fastnet Race – only weeks after hitting the water for the first time – shows she certainly has what it takes to take line honours in big races.

And the numbers Skorpios has shown while racing initially seem to indicate that it is really only a matter of time until she starts claiming some of the biggest records on offer in the sailing world.

But Skorpios is only the latest in a long line of new yachts built with the express purpose of winning line honours and taking records, each bigger, faster and more technologically advanced than that which came before.

The current transatlantic record holder, Comanche , is probably the yacht that most readily springs to mind when we’re looking at the development path for Skorpios .

Before Skorpios , Comanche was the most recent, highly ambitious racing yacht on the planet. She was built with one thing in mind and one thing only, to break ocean records and win line honours in some of the world’s most famous races.

Comanche showing off her considerable beam. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

“The design office were told specifically by me that if this boat wasn’t the worst rated boat in history they have failed,” stated the owner Jim Clark on Maxi, Comanche ’s launch, reaffirming the aim of the boat to break records and win line honours without any consideration for handicap wins.

Comanche was something of a revelation when she was first launched. Over the years boats had been carrying more beam (width) towards the transom to create more power – at the expense of outright light weather, upwind and VMG running performance.

Comanche took this line of thought to the extreme with what seemed an impossibly wide stern, which led to the boat being nicknamed the aircraft carrier.

Although Skorpios is technically beamier than Comanche (8.75m vs 7.85m) the ClubSwan’s hull shape has a more modest beam-to-length ratio, and far greater internal volume and higher freeboard, all products of the project starting out with some focus on cruising in addition to outright performance.

But despite a slightly less powerful hull shape compared to Comanche , when you look at the rig, you see that this will likely be overcome by sheer grunt in terms of sail area. Skorpios ’ mainsail alone is 7,093 square feet, compared to Comanche ’s 4,413 square feet.

Comanche was, indeed is, a yacht that pushed technology to the absolute limit and when she was launched her extreme design caused quite a stir.

She is still considered one of the fastest yachts on the face of the earth and, in addition to her transatlantic record, Comanche also holds the monohull 24 hour sailing record at an impressive 618.01nm (averaging 25.75 knots) in a 24 hour period.

These two records will almost certainly be two of the key prize scalps Skorpios will be hoping to take.

Mari Cha IV

Although for many Comanche is the most obvious boat to which Skorpios can be compared, arguably a closer comparison could be that of Mari Cha IV , particularly when you consider length and ambition to break oceanic records.

The 140ft Mari Cha IV was launched in 2003, at this size both Mari Cha IV and (140ft) Skorpios face a similar problem, there are several top races that have an upper LOA limit of 100ft – neither could take part in the Sydney Hobart race for example.

Mari-Cha IV held the Atlantic record for 12 years. Photo: Thierry Martinez

In 2003, Mari-Cha IV set a new west-east transatlantic record with a total time of 6 days, 17 hours. During the run, she also set a new 24 hour monohull distance record of 525.5 nautical miles . This record stood until Comanche snatched the crown in 2016.

Due to her size and the sail area needed to power the giant, Mari Cha IV was built as a two-masted schooner. This meant that each mast could be smaller – within the bounds of the technology available at the time.

The twin rig on Mari Cha IV also meant each of the sails could be smaller than would be needed on a single masted yacht, reducing loads and enabling the boat to be sailed without resorting to powered winches.

That Skorpios is a single masted 140 footer demonstrates two things. The ClubSwan 125 shows the advances in technology with a single 175ft mast now being much more easily managed and understood – thanks, in no small part to advancements in load sensing technology which have filtered down from the America’s Cup and high tech offshore yachts such as the Ultime trimaran and IMOCA 60 fleets.

However, sail handling for sails of the size needed on Skorpios is still an issue and the ClubSwan 125 still needs powered winches, which will put her out of contention for a number of records that require exclusively human power.

In 2008, Speedboat was launched . The Juan Kouyoumdjian -designed 100ft Maxi was a yacht designed to produce blistering speeds and was built with the express purpose of ocean record breaking.

Speedboat , Newport Bermuda Race 2010

The yacht was built by Mick Cookson at Cookson Boats in New Zealand and her radical underwater features, including an incredibly flat run aft were all features that would later be included in the design of Comanche – features that demonstrate a yacht built for record breaking as they offer serious compromises in lighter winds.

In many respects Speedboat was the first to take the wide flat hull concept and transplant it wholesale into a 100ft Maxi.

Speedboat was also the first Maxi to have a deck-stepped rig, which was produced by Southern Spars, and she has plenty of other radical features.

To an extent Speedboat was built as a scaled up version of the Volvo 70 ’s which had been impressing in the Volvo Ocean Race . As such it is hardly a surprise the boat was the product of Kouyoumdjian’s design house, as he had created several of the fastest Volvo 70s then racing.

Unfortunately Speedboat arrived at the very start of the financial crisis and she only sailed in a number of events before she was mothballed and eventually sold.

She went through a couple of incarnations before being purchased by George David and was sailed as Rambler 100 during which time she dramatically lost her keel and capsized while competing in the Fastnet Race .

For his part David would go on to commission Kouyoumdjian to draw Rambler 88 , an impressive bit of kit in its own right and aimed at winning line honours and races outright in an 88ft package.

Wild Oats XI

No list of record breakers and record holders would be complete without a mention of Wild Oats XI , the 100 ft Maxi belonging to the Oatley family, which has won the Sydney Hobart no less than seven times.

Wild Oats XI ( WOXI for short) was actually launched back in 2005 and is a prime example of what can be done to a yacht to keep her on pace with current trends and developments.

In 2009 she was lengthened at bow and stern from 98ft to 100ft. In 2011 her forward balanced spade canard was removed and twin daggerboards were added amidships. In 2012 she received a bow centreboard as well as caudal fin winglets on her torpedo bulb.

Wild Oats XI . Photo: Kurt Arigo / Rolex

In 2013 she was equipped with a Dynamic Stability System (DSS) foil, which is a retractable horizontal foil deployed on the leeward side of the boat.

In 2015 her stern was shortened by 2m and her 12m forward sections were replaced by a 14m longer, sleeker bow, keeping her midship sections unmodified and in effect moving her entire existing sailplan aft by 2m, a trend which had been seen in many of the newer maxis to be produced since.

The various appendages which have been added and removed over the years have lent the yacht the affectionate nickname the ‘Swiss army knife’.

By today’s standards WOXI remains a very skinny boat in the Maxi world – she and almost-sistership at the time of launch, Alfa Romeo II both had a max beam of a little over 5m.

Wild Oats XI remains a potent race boat and particularly for races like the Sydney Hobart, her relatively narrow beam gives her an edge in light winds, VMG running and beating, all of which mean she is still very hard to beat over a race with mixed conditions – if ultimately working against her should she ever look to set oceanic records.

Leopard 3 ( ICAP Leopard as she was launched) hit the water in 2007 for serial Maxi owner, Mike Slade. The Farr design had a number of unique features at the time of launch, which made her one of the most impressive superyachts on the circuit.

ICAP Round Britain and Ireland Race 2010

Leopard ’s mast was a towering 154ft and she could set a total downwind sail area of 17,265 sq ft. At the time this was a vast amount of sail – though Skorpios ’ 21,108 sq ft is something of a stark comparison.

Leopard is capable of speeds of over 35 knots. But her similarities to Skorpios actually centre around the plans the British boat had from the start to enable cruising and racing in a little more comfort.

Leopard featured a luxurious removable interior, which could be removed for racing and refitted for cruising or for charter – for which she had also been specifically designed and built.

Although Skorpios does not go quite as far as a fully removable interior, there is, at least, a nod to comfort in her design when compared to the out and out racer that is Comanche .

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