Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race 2024

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2023
Winning streak – Andoo Comanche enter Noakes Sydney Coast Yacht Race

Winning streak – Andoo Comanche enter Noakes Sydney Coast Yacht Race

NEWS
24 Jul, 2023 11:45:00 AM

ANDOO COMANCHE, Bow n: AC007, Sail n: CAY007, Skipper: John Winning Jr, State-Nation: NSW, Design: VPLP 100 Protected by copyright

Winning streak – Andoo Comanche enter Noakes Sydney Coast Yacht Race

John ‘Herman’ Winning Jnr has entered Andoo Comanche in the 2023 Noakes Sydney Coast Yacht Race. Winning Jr has chartered the yacht since 2021, campaigning her in both the 2022 and 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart and Noakes Sydney Gold Coast races.

Fans of the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race will be excited to see the return of Andoo Comanche after she last year took line honours completing the course in a time of 1 day 17 hours and 55 minute 43 seconds. This year they will be looking to beat that time.

A beautiful Maxi, Andoo Comanche is said to be 'unstoppable' if sailed correctly, in the right conditions. According to John Herman Winning Jnr, this year there will be an equally award-winning crew onboard, for 2023’s Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race .

“We will have no less than eighteen and no more than twenty crew members," says John "Herman" Winning Jnr. "We have got all the same crew returning from last season. We do have a couple of crew that didn’t sail with us on the yacht in this race last year, but they have sailed with us before in other races.

"We have Mark Bradford who is joining us, as we have an all new sail inventory from North Sails. So he is coming along as a North’s representative and then we have Craig Garnett who usually sails on Wild Oats, joining us and he is going to be up in the bow.”

Due to boat maintenance, Winning Jnr says the race preparation will begin in earnest this Thursday 27 July.

"The boat hasn’t really left the dock since the Coffs Harbour race – there has been lots of preparatory work - hydraulics, boat building, the new sail inventory as I mentioned. So it's quite a limited preparatiom, but then again we are the only 100 in the race. So we are sort of racing ourselves at this point!" he laughs.

"We are certainly looking forward to lining up against Wild Oat XI, when we get up to Hamilton Island Race Week."

Winning chartered the Sydney Hobart record holder, Comanche and when he first took it, robbed Line Honours from Black Jack in the fluky 2022 Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race.

Andoo Comanche also took Line Honours in just under 20 hours and won the inaugural 260nm Tollgate Islands Race in 2022. The Tollgate Island Race is part of the Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore, racing monthly as the 100-strong fleet prepares for the Rolex Sydney Hobart in December. Last year the Peter Rysdyk Trophy went to Sean Langman’s Reichel/Pugh 69 Moneypenny, clinching victory on IRC, for the third time in the race which he now sponsors, as Managing Director of Noakes Group.

Comanche has prefixed its name with ‘Andoo’ for Andoo Products, which partners with Winning’s Appliances Online. This is the boat to beat for Line Honours in the Gold Coast race. First bought by American Jim Clark and Australian wife Kristy Hinze for her first Rolex Sydney Hobart in 2014, she finished 49 mins behind Line Honours victor, Wild Oats XI. The next year Comanche took the Line Honours victory in 2015 after scoring Line Honours in a light and fluky 2015 Rolex Fastnet Race.

She also smashed the 2225 nautical mile Transpac monohull record in 2017. Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant bought her just prior to the 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart and as LDV Comanche, she took Line Honours and the race record after a protest against Wild Oats XI.

In 2018, Comanche was pipped for second over the Rolex Sydney Hobart finish line by Black Jack after a race-long battle between the four 100-footers, won by Wild Oats XI. Cooney last took her to Hobart in 2019 and took Line Honours after doing the same in the 2019 Transpac Race.