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100-foot supermaxi Andoo Comanche returns to Australia

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100ft supermaxi Comanche looks set to confirm a new monohull 24 hour distance record

• Harriett Ferris
• July 14, 2015

Jim Clark and Kristy Hinze-Clark's 'speed-monster' Comanche sailed 620nm over a 24-hour period to scoop the record

The new world sailing speed record for the greatest distance covered by a monohull in a single 24 hour period is now 620nm (subject to ratification by the World Speed Sailing Council). The previous mark was set seven years ago in the Volvo Ocean Race.

The 100ft supermaxi, built for no other purpose than record breaking , looks set to be called the fastest monohull in the world after an incredible perfomance in the Transatlantic Race .

Conditions lent themselves to a record-attempt with a long stretch of strong wind and reasonably flat sea, following a frustrating period of light airs.

Designed by Guillaume Verdier and VPLP Architects and launched in late 2014, the yacht put in an impressive perfomance in the Sydney Hobart Race but narrowly missed out on the top spot, taking 2nd place in her first appearance on the racecourse.

Comanche finished the 2,800 mile race at 01:49 GMT on Monday 13th July, sailing from Newport to Plymouth in a startling 7d 11h 35m 11s .

(The only boat to complete the course in an even shorter time was the MOD 70 trimaran Phaedo3, with an elapsed time of  7 days, 2 hours, 4 minutes, 9 seconds. Watch their incredible video here )

Comanche’s skipper Ken Read sent in this report from onboard:

“What started off as a very frustrating light air Transatlantic Race 2015 has turned to gold for all of us aboard Hodgdon’s 100 foot super-maxi Comanche. Approximately 1300 miles out of Newport, Rhode Island in the North Atlantic we set up underneath an approaching low pressure. We’ve had a phenomenal stretch of strong wind and reasonably flat sea which has propelled us to what we believe is a new record for the greatest distance covered by a monohull in a single 24-hour period.”

COMMENT: Launched: the fastest monohull ever?

GALLERY: Super-maxi Comanche, a yacht so beamy she’s christened the Aircraft Carrier

After jibing to starboard about midnight EST on July 9th navigator Stan Honey and I had a long talk about the chance that we had a possible weather and race course window that may give us a run at the 24 hour record. The previous 24-hour monohull distance record was set by Ericsson 4, skippered by Torben Grael in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 race. They covered 596.6 nautical miles (1104.9 km) during Leg 1 between Alicante, Spain and Cape Town, South Africa with an average speed of 24.85 knots (46.02 kilometres per hour)

Comanche was built with the ability to sail the boat using only human power, allowing the boat to qualify for record attempts like this. Stan and I decided at that time to sail the boat during the entire time period surrounding any possible 24 hour record in the manual power configuration that the WSSRC requires. Turns out this was probably our best decision of the race so far!

The 20 person crew aboard couldn’t be more proud of this achievement. A special thanks to Jim Clark and Kristy Hinze-Clark, the designers, the builder – Hodgdon Yachts – that helps manage this amazing campaign. And of course thanks to Comanche for seriously having some jets.”

Follow the tracker for the Transatlantic Race and see the rest of the fleet’s progress here

Watch Comanche in action below:

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Comanche and LawConnect in two-way Sydney to Hobart battle as more wild weather looms

• Supermaxis continue to trade lead as they battle to defy changeable conditions
• Race casualty list grows to 11 after Rum Rebellion briefly thrown overboard

The supermaxis Andoo Comanche and LawConnect are in a two-way battle for Sydney to Hobart line honours as more unpredictable weather looms for a storm-weary fleet.

The reigning line honours champion Comanche held a six-nautical-mile lead over fellow 100-footer LawConnect as the pair tracked off Tasmania’s east coast late on Wednesday afternoon.

LawConnect navigator Chris Lewis said the crew had experienced “a little bit of everything” on Boxing Day night.

“The wildest (weather) was literally 180-degree wind shifts,” he said in a video posted on the yacht’s Facebook.

“It’s been pretty wild.”

The race casualty list grew to 11 on Wednesday after the Rum Rebellion skipper Shane Connelly was briefly thrown overboard off the NSW coast.

Connelly and crewmate Tony Sutton retired on Tuesday night after concerns the skipper may have suffered concussion.

Connelly said a “micro-burst” of wind hit his two-handed yacht during a ferocious storm, throwing him off the port side.

He managed to attach his tether and was lifted back on board as the yacht righted.

Comanche and LawConnect, runner-up at the past three Sydney to Hobart events, have both had turns in the lead since the duo crossed Bass Strait.

Cruising Yacht Club of Australia commodore Arthur Lane said it was a two-horse race and a likely post-sunrise finish – some time short of Comanche’s record of one day, nine hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds set in 2017.

“They are watching each other very, very carefully,” he said.

“Each is tweaking and doing all the little adjustments needed. They know each other’s boats so well.”

Lane said a lot of unease remained about the weather forecast, with a stiff breeze building off Australia’s south-east.

A strong wind warning has been issued for waters off Tasmania’s east coast on Thursday.

The in-form URM Group, a contender for overall honours which is decided on handicap, was more than 100 nautical miles behind the leading supermaxis in third place despite suffering jib damage and losing her code zero spinnaker.

The navigator Alice Parker said the wind and rain had been inconsistent.

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“I had a good few moments with a bucket between my legs but otherwise everyone is fighting fit and in good spirits,” she said.

“We’re all a bit wet and have been sliding around.”

Wild Thing 100, the race’s third remaining supermaxi, was further afield in sixth position.

Fellow supermaxi, and one of the pre-race favourites, SHK Scallywag sensationally withdrew on Boxing Day evening after suffering a broken bow sprit.

Maritimo 52, one of eight TP52s starting the race, was an early withdrawal on Wednesday after breaking a fitting on her forestay and ripping her mainsail.

Veteran Sydney to Hobart competitor and crew member Peter Jones said there had been as much lightning as he’d ever seen.

“We’re shattered,” Jones said.

“We were trying to work a million ways around it, but at best we were going to be at 50 per cent.”

The popular two-hander Currawong, the race’s equal-smallest boat, was forced to limp back to Sydney after reporting multiple issues.

The co-skippers Kathy Veel and Bridget Canham were last year the race’s first all-female two-handed entry and were greeted by thousands of New Year’s Eve revellers when they arrived at Hobart’s Constitution Dock.

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Comanche – the 31.5m sailing superyacht built to win

Sailing superyacht Comanche is a boat that belongs at the front of the racing pack. Comanche _surprised everyone watching the Sydney Hobart race in December 2014 when the brand new 30.5 metre Hodgdon Yachts-built speed machine was pictured tearing along ahead of Sydney Hobart legend Wild Oats XI. It was an advantage that _Comanche was able to maintain all the way to the Bass Strait during the 2014 Rolex Sydney Hobart. But when 30-knot winds failed to materialise, the more slender Wild Oats XI slipped past Comanche and into the lead, a position she held all the way to Hobart for victory and her eighth line honours. Second place is never going to be good enough for Comanche ’s owner, software mogul Jim Clark, but it was a minor miracle his yacht was there at all. She was only launched in September 2014, so the famously brutal race represented a kind of masochistic shakedown for a yacht designed for just one thing – to win.

Comanche : built to win

Think Laser dinghy or 49er morphed with rocket ship and you’ll get some idea of the qualities of_ Comanche_. At the yard, the racer was partially hidden behind two larger yachts with immaculate pedigrees, _Meteor_ and Artemis , but Comanche ’s square bow and carbon sprit jutted out beyond them, drawing the eye away from the varnished teak of her neighbours to a lean sailing machine intended to go as fast as possible powered only by the wind.

Sailing legend Ken Read, who also happens to be the president of North Sails, managed the project from day one for Jim Clark. Built at Hodgdon Yachts in Maine, US, Comanche had a hand-picked design and engineering team of international experts. It also had a construction schedule that raised eyebrows from the first day Jim Clark talked to Boat International about the radical project during the America’s Cup Superyacht Regatta in San Francisco, September 2013.

Comanche launched one year later and after stepping the mast in Newport, Rhode Island, and just two weeks of sailing trials, including a 600-mile qualifying sail to Charleston, South Carolina, the boat was packed aboard a cargo ship and sent to Australia to compete in the Sydney Hobart, which starts each year on Boxing Day.

Jim Clark and his Australian wife, Kristy Hinze-Clark, met the boat in Sydney for its short re-commissioning, Hinze-Clark racing aboard Comanche in a harbour tune-up event on 9 December 2014, where the yacht placed second despite poor conditions. The tabloids had a field-day, captioning photos with, “The supermodel and the supermaxi” and “She’s got legs” in reference to Kristy Hinze-Clark’s modelling career. These days she is a businesswoman, director for the Australian Nature Conservancy and the mother of two girls.

Boat International speaks exclusively with Comanche ‘s owner, Jim Clark

In our exclusive interview with Jim Clark, shortly before the race begins, we ask simply: “Why?”

“It’s a hobby,” he says, “I like the supermaxis, they are like Volvo 60s on steroids.” Jim Clark appears to be done with the J Class and is not a huge fan of what he calls the “multihull phase” of the America’s Cup with its reduced crew numbers. “The old sailing community is in monohulls and it’s nice to keep the guys engaged – there are lots of good sailors in the supermaxis and the guys are a lot of fun.”

When Jim Clark decided on a supermaxi, his plan was to go for line honours rather than wins on corrected time, and speed/distance records that could be set for yachts with human powered winches. “I don’t want any of that record stuff with an asterisk that says push-button winches,” Jim Clark scoffs. With this target, Jim Clark and Ken Read embarked on a “design experiment” for a yacht that could sail 30 knots or more on a broad reach. The experiment pushed them to some extreme stats, which Jim Clark says were run through CFD tests and simulations time and again.

“The 25-foot (7.6 metre) beam saves weight,” Ken Read says. “By going wider, we can have less weight in the keel to keep the same righting moment, thus we will go faster.” This thinking is carried over into the keel itself, which is solid stainless steel and not welded. With a 6.7 metre draught, the keel can be two tonnes lighter than a comparable keel on a boat with half the draught. The governing factor was the depth of Rhode Island’s Newport harbour where the boat will be based when not chasing records. “With the keel canted to one side we can just get to our berth,” Read says.

The downside to beam is increased surface drag when sailing flat in light air. “Being considerably wider than other boats, we need to be heeling at 11 to 13 degrees to present the same beam,” says Jim Clark. “In light air, we are at a disadvantage. When the wind cooperates, there is no question the boat is explosive.”

Hodgdon, the oldest boatbuilding business in the US, might seem like an odd choice if you don’t know that part of the yard’s annual output is high-tech military vessels and another part is carbon fibre limo tenders. In fact, Hodgdon is quite skilled at innovative construction techniques and when Tim Hodgdon agreed to build an oven to cook Comanche ’s carbon fibre hull, the deal was struck. The yard’s location also made it a good gathering stop for its far-flung team.

Is_ Comanche_ too powerful to handle?

Some critics have said Comanche is too extreme and too powerful to handle, but Jim Clark just laughs at this and suggests we “ask Kenny”.

“Yeah, it’s still an unknown but I’m not overly concerned,” he adds. “The hull is well baked and it’s been ultrasounded and X-rayed. There is a fuse in some of the loads so that nothing super bad can happen. But you can’t have a fuse in the rigging… Some of those termination points on the rig are kind of scary,” Jim Clark says.

That rig, which rises 47 metres above the waterline, is more than 50 per cent of the length aft from the bow, a surprising configuration but based on model testing for best all-around performance with the foil and appendages.

Innovation through design

Also innovative on _Comanche _are the daggerboards outboard of the mast and slightly forward of it. By canting the keel and putting the lee side daggerboard fully down, the boat generates enough lift to keep the angle of leeway to a minimum or crab up to a mark.

Comanche ‘s wide cockpit, full of grinder pedestals, hydraulic sail controls and sophisticated LED panels, gives the impression of a workhouse with modern instruments of torture. In a way, that is what they are. Grinders will work these six pedestals to turn the Harken winches. The only push-button winch on board is used to raise the mainsail. Once that sail is up the halyard is locked off and the winch isn’t used.

The winch pedestals are set slightly inboard and Read explains that when sailing on other 30 metre yachts he found that waves coming inboard at 30 knots or so would sweep the helmsman or winch grinders off their feet. “I have fetched up in the corner of the cockpit with pieces of steering wheel in my hands,” he says. Thus, by having 10 feet more beam than other 30 metre boats, there is space to put people and gear in a safer location with the added benefit of space for sails to be temporarily stored outboard of the pedestals on the high side.

Another interesting option is set right into the deck. Small black plugs cover screw holes that allow a dodger to cover both hatches. “On long distance races, we wanted the option to erect a dodger to keep the crew safe when on deck,” Read says. A slot in the cockpit sole just aft of the dodger allows the steering wheel to be moved forward, allowing the helmsman to stand behind the dodger for more protection.

Step below and you can see how much weight has been saved on Comanche . The single-skin carbon fibre hull and foam cored framing is fully exposed. It is mostly black with white non-skid patches. The forward end of the vessel is totally open, to store sails. Directly under the cockpit on either side are the crew berths, which keep the crew centre of gravity aft, close to the position they would be in when on deck; thus the trim of the yacht is not affected by off-watch crew moving around.

Directly under the cockpit sole is the navigator’s area with barely space to sit up. “The only requirement that navigator Stan Honey had was that we made the navigator’s seat 1.8 metres long so that he didn’t have to fight the crew for a berth,” Read says.

Talking to Read one gets a sense he is completely at ease with a project of this magnitude and the commitment it will take to sail Comanche to her potential. He has sailed around the world with several of his present crew and all had input into the new yacht’s design. That counts for a lot of experience, in addition to the French design team of Guillaume Verdier and VPLP (Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot-Prévost). “Without the designers we would probably have built a far more conservative boat,” Read says, “but with their help we have taken a leap forward.”

On deck, Comanche is also radically different. All halyards go to the masthead, where they are locked off in the same style that was pioneered in the 12 Metre Class. But on Comanche , tension is applied on the sail luff by hydraulic rams mounted on the foredeck and by pulling on the sail at the tack. “It reduces weight aloft,” Read explains, “and allows complete sail adjustment from the [safety of the] cockpit.”

Another advanced feature not often seen on smaller craft is that the jib tracks run transversely instead of fore and aft. “The clews for each headsail are in the same place and we might use the same sail for going hard to windward and when easing off onto a reach. With this arrangement all we need do is ease the track car to leeward when coming onto a reach. This enables us to keep power on without altering the shape of the sail when changing course relative to the wind,” Read notes.

The deck-stepped carbon fibre mast has swept spreaders to eliminate the need for adjustable running backstays. In some ways this is a disadvantage in that the masthead cannot be moved fore and aft when sailing up and downwind, but it eliminates the need for checkstays and runners. The masthead position is controlled with backstays to each corner of the transom and lines that are led into the mast from the backstays to control the rig bend.

“I started this boat thinking I could race it,” says Jim Clark wistfully. A degenerative condition in his ankles that makes standing uncomfortable has recently cropped up in his wrists as well. “They made a seat for me where I can drive it,” he says, but he opted out of the Sydney Hobart to make room for America’s Cup-winning skipper Jimmy Spithill to assist Read on the helm.

“I feel confident we’ll start getting line honours and next summer we’ll do the transatlantic race and see how that goes,” promises Jim Clark. “I’m optimistic.”

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Jim Cooney buys Comanche – the super maxi will now call Australia home

One of the favourites to take line honours in the 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, LDV Comanche, was purchased today (14 December 2017) by Sydney’s Jim Cooney from its American owner Jim Clark, making the super maxi yacht an Australian owned and skippered entry when it starts the Boxing Day classic.

“LDV Comanche is a truly awe-inspiring yacht, and the chance to race to Hobart, alongside my children Julia and James with a world class crew, is a once in a lifetime opportunity too good to pass up. I started ocean racing 30 years ago and we have raced as a family in many parts of the world for 12 years, but this is an incredible opportunity for us to challenge for the world’s toughest blue water classic,” says Jim Cooney, who finished sixth on line in last year’s race at the helm of his Volvo 70 ‘Maserati’ and campaigned his iconic maxi Brindabella for seven years before that.

“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,” Cooney stated today.

Jim Cooney is the Chairman and majority shareholder of TCI Renewables, a professional wind energy development company headquartered in Oxford, UK. Jim is a Chartered Engineer who co-founded TCI in Australia in 1996 and successfully developed the business to span the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and the United States. He is an accomplished industry leader in renewable energy, specialising in wind energy, and under his direction TCI Renewables has developed some of the largest wind farms in the UK.  In 2005 Jim was honoured with the prestigious Ernst & Young Australian Entrepreneur of the Year.  He holds degrees from the University of Sydney, University of London and Imperial College, London.

LDV Comanche will continue to carry the colours of the Chinese vehicle manufacturer LDV, which is using the yacht and the race as part of the launch of  its new LDV T60 Ute.

The crew on LDV Comanche reads like a who’s who of the sailing world and following the change in ownership, will gain some new names. As well as Jim Cooney, the crew will now include Jim’s son and daughter Julia and James Cooney alongside Waratah Jeremy Tilse.

The stellar crew includes three time America’s cup winner and 2015 Rolex Sydney Hobart Winner Jimmy Spithill (Australia); eleven time winner of the Transpac race and round the world race winner Stan Honey (USA); round the world race winner Brad Jackson (New Zealand); Olympic and round the world sailor Dirk de Ridder (Netherlands); multiple America’s Cup sailor and Rolex Sydney Hobart winner Warwick Fleury (New Zealand); America’s Cup sailor, Nick Burridge (New Zealand); Olympic, America’s Cup and round the world sailor Shannon Falcone (UK); Rolex Sydney Hobart race winner on Comanche, John Von Schwarz (USA); six time round the world racer and seven time America’s Cup competitor, Tony ‘Trae’ Rae (New Zealand); Sydney Hobart winner on board Comanche and the sport’s world renowned ‘Mr Fixit’, Casey Smith (Australia); Extreme sailing expert Stuart Pollard (Australia); round the world sailor Justin Slattery (Ireland); Rolex Sydney Hobart winner on Comanche Keats Keeley (USA); round the world sailor David Rolfe (Australia); and project manager Tim Hackett who has managed some of the leading teams around the world.

Launched as ‘Comanche’, and now called ‘LDV Comanche’ for the 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, the 100 foot maxi racing yacht holds a remarkable list of records, all of which show her to be the ideal yacht for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. The yacht holds the 24 hour sailing distance record for monohulls and the trans-Atlantic crossing record of 5 days, 14 hours, 21 minutes and 25 seconds. In addition to the 2015 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, she won the no less tough Fastnet Race. This year she smashed the monohull record in the Transpac race with an average speed of 20.2 knots.

‘LDV Comanche’s nickname, “the aircraft carrier”, gives away what sets her apart from two of her rivals, Black Jack and Wild Oats XI. Indeed, her beam at the stern is so great it could accommodate both Black Jack and Wild Oats XI. Her optimum heel angle is anything over 20 degrees and she has the same wetted surface as Wild Oats XI at 25 degrees. The 46 metre/150 feet high mast sits directly above the canting keel and she designed deliberately to be able to – just – slip under Sydney Harbour Bridge. The mast has a static load of 75 tonnes and 150 tonnes under sail, or, to put it another way, the same weight as 80 LDV T60 Utes hanging from the mast.

Suspended from the mast is a 410 square metre mainsail, which will carry a massive picture of an LDV T60 Ute for the race. In downwind configuration, this expands to a massive 1022 square metres and the largest spinnaker is 1100 square metres. Under the yacht is a canting keel that may be swung out 35 degrees in either direction in as little as 25 seconds, while there is space on either side of the hull for 6.5 tonnes of water in the ballast tanks.

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Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2023

Andoo Comanche skipper lauds LawConnect crew for victory

• 28 Dec, 2023 11:59:00 AM

Andoo Comanche skipper John Winning Jnr could not hide the pain of seeing his dream of a “swansong” victory on the boat slip away in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

This year’s race had added significance for Winning Jnr with his crew including his father John, sister Jamie, and close mates Peter and Nathan Dean, the sons of John Dean, one of six people to die in the 1998 Sydney Hobart who was also a friend of his father.

However, Winning Jnr had nothing but praise for Christian Beck and his crew for how they sailed   LawConnect   towards a sensational come-from-behind Line Honours victory today.

“I don't like coming second. I don't mind it sometimes, but certainly when you are the favourite it's pretty painful,” said Winning Jnr from the boat at dockside in Hobart.

“We were the favourite because we’ve got an amazing boat that should have won the race.

“We've got an amazing crew. I know I beat myself up around not being able to deliver a win for those guys and my sister [Jamie] is included in that. But the other guys [on   LawConnect ] sailed their butts out. They sailed out of their skin. They left nothing on the table.

Credit: CYCA/Salty Dingo

“We should have beaten them had we sailed as well as I know we can. I think our boat was definitely the better boat, as Christian sort of said in the past. I say that with a bigger compliment to them that they didn't just beat us, but they beat us with an underdog boat.”

Andoo Comanche , the defending champion, went into the 628 nautical mile race organised by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) as the major favourite to cross the line first.

The 100-footer, that Winning Jnr was skippering for the last time in the race after chartering it for two years, looked set for back-to-back wins as it entered the Derwent River.

The two maxis had fought neck and neck for much of the race. Then, in the crossing of Storm Bay,   Andoo Comanche   moved away to a 2nm lead. But on the ever-tricky Derwent River,   LawConnect   fought back to catch them in the slight and fluky breeze.

In the last 1.5nm, the lead changed five times as the two maxis executed jibes to milk what wind there was.   LawConnect   managed to finally make the last move to win by 51 seconds.

In arguably the most exciting finish in years,   LawConnect   crossed the finish line in Hobart in first place at 08.03.58am and in the time of 1 day 19 hours 03 minutes 58 seconds.

Andoo Comanche   crossed in 1 day 19 hours 04 minutes and 49 seconds for the second closest finish in race history, the closest being seven seconds between winners   Condor   and   Apollo   in 1982.

“Those guys deserve all the praise they get,” said Winning Jnr of the   LawConnect   crew. “They must have sailed so bloody well to be there with us, then to take us right to the finish.

Winning Jnr took some solace in the fact that the duel between   LawConnect   and   Andoo Comanche   was so dramatic. “It was one of the most epic finishes in probably any sailing race,” he said.

“Unfortunately, I'm on the wrong side of that Battle Royale, but it's amazing for the sport.”

Winning Jnr said he is unlikely to return to the Sydney Hobart next year, even on another boat. “I'm not looking to do another Hobart next year. I want to do some other stuff,” he said.

But he admits he will miss   Andoo Comanche , now that his charter of it is at its end. “We have put a lot of love into her. She's given us so much in return,” he said. “The memories, we will cherish forever. I'll let someone else have their own memories with it. Maybe we'll cross paths at some point. Hopefully someone else is paying the bills and I can be crew.”

Written by Rupert Guinness/RSHYR Media

Congratulations to all the divisional winners of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2023

PHOTOS | 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Official Prizegiving

PHOTOS | Day 5 Morning - Tasman Island and Storm Bay

PHOTOS | Day 5 and Day 6 finishers

PHOTOS | Official Presentation of Tattersall Cup and Rolex Timepiece to the Overall Winner

2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - A Race for the Ages

VIDEO | 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - Rolex Daily Video Summary

VIDEO | Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2023

VIDEO | 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Official Prizegiving

VIDEO | Race Update - 31 December Morning

AUDIO | 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Sked 10

AUDIO | 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Sked 9

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The Sydney Hobart Is a Dream to Win and Formidable to Navigate

It’s complicated and difficult, but they keep coming back because, said one, ‘it’s the hardest.’

By David Schmidt

In sailboat racing, the fastest route between Port A and Port B is rarely a straight line.

This is certainly true of the annual Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, which starts on Monday. This classic test of seamanship and teamwork involves many complex navigational decisions, including negotiating the course’s mix of coastal and offshore waters, its fast-moving westerly weather fronts and the generally south-flowing East Australian Current.

Navigators invest huge amounts of time and bandwidth before and during the race, leveraging navigation tools and experience to determine how weather and current will affect the course’s challenges.

Lindsay May, who has served as navigator or skipper on boats that have won the race’s top trophy, the Tattersall Cup, three times, described the race’s 628-nautical-mile track as six navigational tests. There’s the start and the sprint out of Sydney Harbor, past the Sydney headlands; the run down Australia’s coast; crossing Bass Strait, which separates Australia from Tasmania; the stretch down Tasmania’s eastern coastline; the crossing of Tasmania’s Storm Bay; and the final leg up the River Derwent.

Bungle any of these and a team’s results can go south, fast.

In addition, teams sometimes elect to sail extra miles to reach faster or safer conditions, or sacrifice mileage for tactical positioning relative to the fleet. “You invest those extra miles sailed with the expectation that you’ll get a return on them,” said Stan Honey, an America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race-winning navigator who helped LDV Comanche set the race’s elapsed-time record in 2017. “The job of the navigator today is making these risk-adjusted investment decisions.”

Getting this right — or less wrong than the competition — demands that navigators possess world-class meteorological and technical skills to select the fastest course for their yacht.

This isn’t trivial.

“The mixture of the East Australian Current, the coastlines of New South Wales and Tasmania with Bass Strait in between, then Storm Bay, and then finally the Derwent River make the racecourse a real navigational-meteorological challenge,” said Will Oxley, a navigator who has also won the Tattersall Cup three times, and who plans to navigate the 100-foot Andoo Comanche (previously LDV Comanche) in this year’s race.

Weather is notorious in the Sydney Hobart. From 1945 to 2021, the race had an average attrition rate of 15 percent . In 2021, 38 yachts out of the race’s starting fleet of 88 retired, many because of equipment or vessel damage.

“The navigator’s role now is largely about weather and strategy, and it’s very much now electronically driven,” said Adrienne Cahalan, a two-time Tattersall Cup-winning navigator who plans to start her 30th race aboard the 39-foot Sunrise this year.

Local knowledge can also be important. “Just because of having lived and breathed the weather systems in this country, that will give you an advantage,” Cahalan said.

So will modern navigation tools. These include computers, software and lots of data.

Before yachts even leave the dock, navigators leverage these tools and information from the yacht’s instruments, its designer and handicap-rating systems (think golf), to create vessel-specific models called polar diagrams.

These predict how fast the boat will sail at different wind angles and velocities. Navigators then use digitized weather and current forecasts — called gridded binary files or GRIBs — which are prepared by official meteorological services. Navigators also use the yacht’s polar diagrams and performance information about each of its sails to advise the skipper on which ones to bring.

Navigators rely on the yacht’s satellite-communications equipment to continually download GRIBs as different models are released. These are fed to computers running weather-routing software to help determine the fastest route based on a specific yacht’s polar diagrams in the forecasted conditions.

Navigators game out multiple routing options based on the latest GRIBs and their yacht’s position relative to the competition.

“In the 2019 Sydney to Hobart race, there was a split breeze in Storm Bay,” Oxley said. “The high-res GRIB files did not show this perfectly, but they did provide strong evidence that it existed.” The team chose a route on the west side of Storm Bay, rather than taking the more standard routing. “This paid off and we managed to win,” he said.

This analysis is critical for making the most important decisions. For Honey, who plans to navigate the 100-foot Hamilton Island Wild Oats this year, these include making calls on how far offshore to sail after passing the Sydney headlands, how to handle the East Australian Current, how close to Tasmania to sail and how to approach Tasman Island.

Even with the polar diagrams, up-to-date meteorological data and weather-routing tools, human expertise still matters.

“The global met models do a great job these days in managing the big picture,” Oxley said. “Where they fall down is in managing the fine detail and dealing with land shadows and breezes.”

Others agree.

“If the forecast is wrong, it won’t be entirely wrong, but it will be wrong by being too fast or too slow, or windy or too light,” Honey said. “You have to think through what kind of characteristic errors you expect to see in the different forecast models, and that’s just experience.”

And it’s also where eyeballs can supersede screens.

“It is important to get your head out of the boat and look around,” said May, who plans to start his 49th race this year aboard the 74-foot Kialoa II . “The art of navigation is to be aware of the science, but the same time use your experience and see and sense what is happening.”

This often entails studying the clouds and sky, and peering between the lines of GRIB data.

“I do believe that intuition and gut feeling is an important part of decision making,” Cahalan said. She added that while contemporary weather modeling was clever, humans still needed to assess what the data presents.

“That’s the experience that you bring to the team, that’s where you bring value,” she said.

Wind whispering aside, navigators must also foster trust with the team’s brain trust.

“For me, the best system is where I spend a lot of time before the race laying out the plan with the whole crew, and especially the key decision makers, and then working to execute the plan,” Oxley said. “I always benefit from watch leaders asking questions and probing my recommendations to improve the final decisions.”

Crew knowledge also matters. Honey said he briefed the on-deck crew every two or three hours. “The better they understand it, the better they’ll sail,” he said, adding that this helps the sailors negotiate gusts, lulls and unexpected squalls.

Communication is especially important if a strategic move that results in a short-term loss of position is made for better position later, or when decisions are not obvious. “I make it clear whether I am 90 percent strong on a recommendation, or whether it is closer to 50-50,” Oxley said.

And in the Sydney Hobart, jump-ball calls can apply until the finish line.

While most of the race’s miles involve exposed coastal or offshore sailing, the out-flowing River Derwent stands as the race’s final crux.

May described the Derwent as miles of frustration, a time when navigators need to play their lucky cards. Arrival time is crucial. Most afternoons and evenings feature a useful breeze, while most nights are calm. “Light winds will only allow you to ghost along the shore, keeping out of the adverse current,” May said of nighttime arrivals.

Cahalan added that many races had been won and lost in the river.

Add up the race’s variables, coupled with its attrition rate, and there’s little question why this race attracts world-class navigators, who keep returning.

“It’s just so complicated and so difficult for the navigator,” Honey said. “It’s my favorite race because it’s the hardest.”

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Sydney to Hobart yacht race: LawConnect wins Sydney to Hobart line honours after two-way river battle

Live Moment Sport Sydney to Hobart yacht race: LawConnect wins Sydney to Hobart line honours after two-way river battle

In a finish for the ages, LawConnect has sensationally overtaken Andoo Comanche in the final moments to snatch line honours in the 2023 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.

Andoo Comanche held the lead a lot more comfortably when rounding the Tasman Peninsula and entering the River Derwent for the final sprint, but LawConnect started to rapidly gain on them.

The speedier LawConnect closed several nautical miles between them along the river until they were neck and neck to a nail-biting finish. 

LawConnect's finish time in the end was 1 day, 19 hours, 3 minutes and 58 seconds. Andoo Comanche's was just 51 seconds behind.

If you're new to the Sydney to Hobart race, we've got a shortcut guide at the bottom of the story. Tap the link below to get the gist of the race: Explained: Common Sydney to Hobart yacht race questions 

LawConnect owner Christian Beck described their dramatic win as a dream come true.

"I can't believe that result. Honestly, it's a dream come true," he said.

"I never thought it was possible, actually."

Despite trailing by a significant margin as they passed the Iron Pot on the final approach, LawConnect had the advantage of being able to watch Andoo Comanche to see where the slow spots were.

LawConnect entered with a protest flag flying, after being on standby for about 30 minutes during the race due to concerns Andoo Comanche was in distress, but a formal protest was not lodged.

There was also some interference from a spectator boat in the final moments, with a catamaran passing close to Andoo Comanche and the crew being seen yelling and gesturing.

Tasmania Police said this afternoon action would be taken against a 57-year-old man for "allegedly breaching" marine and safety regulations.

"The man was skippering a private vessel when it reportedly encroached into the exclusion zone set by Marine and Safety Tasmania," it said in a statement. 

The offence carries a fine of up to $3,900.

Sailing master Tony Mutter said spectator boats were something the competitors had to deal with.

"It's pretty fair that everyone had troubles with the spectator boats. That's part of it when it's so busy," he said.

Andoo Comanche skipper John Winning Jr said they only had themselves to blame for the last-minute loss.

"We should have been miles ahead of them with our boat," he said.

"The conditions suited us, I think they just outsailed us."

First local boat home

URM Group has claimed third place line honours, crossing the finish line at 3:07pm to record a race time of 2 days, 2 hours, 7 minutes and 19 seconds.

The first Tasmanian yacht to finish, Alive, crossed the line almost 12 minutes later.

Alive is currently in first place to win overall handicap honours.

Four yachts have now docked at Kings Pier, with Moneypenny and Wild Thing 100 expected to be the next to arrive.

Live Moment

Look back at how ABC readers and other Australians responded to this live moment.

Possible problem?

In the final moments, a catamaran appeared to cut in front of Andoo Comanche as the boat turned into the finish.

Eyewitness accounts say crew on Comanche were yelling at the catamaran to move as they tried to turn.

Could this make for an official race protest? We'll have to see.

What an incredible finish

After leading all the way into the River Derwent, Andoo Comanche won't make it back-to-back Line Honours wins. LawConnect snatched it away from them at the last moment!

How incredible. These boats set off together three days ago and it came down to mere seconds to the finish.

LawConnect wins Line Honours!

Wondering what this is? Join us next time we're live and be part of the discussion.

It has been a testing 78th edition of the Sydney to Hobart, with a man overboard, stormy seas, damaged yachts and rapid wind changes.

Eleven boats have retired, including race favourite SHK Scallywag, which broke its bow sprit on the first day.

The skipper of two-handed Rum Rebellion, Shane Connelly, was sent overboard at 6pm on Boxing Day after encountering rapid wind changes off the coast between Cronulla and Wollongong.

Two-handed Currawong also retired, after facing various issues in rough conditions off New South Wales.

Owner Kathy Veel said they were disappointed but believed they made the right decision.

"Last night was quite difficult and there was a lot more of that ahead of us in a long race," she said.

They were the last boat to cross the finishing line at last year's event, making a well-received arrival in Hobart at midnight on New Year's Eve.

Your questions answered

Here are the answers to some of the most common questions.

Who won Sydney to Hobart 2023?

When we talk about the Sydney to Hobart race, there are two major "winners":

• Line honours: This is the order in which boats cross the finish line.
• Overall winners: The order of winners once race times have been calculated to take into account the differences between boats (handicaps). This is because the boats aren't exactly the same — adjustments have to be made for things like the weight and length of the boat.

Line honours will always go to the biggest, fastest yachts (supermaxis) but is likely one of the smaller vessels will be crowned the overall winner (which is seen as the more prestigious of the two prizes).

Here's the line honours as of Thursday morning:

• 1. LawConnect
• 2. Andoo Comanche

The difference between the two was just 51 seconds. 

But the overall winner won't be decided for days. 

Until then, we can only wait.

However, before the race, there were a few main contenders for the overall title – here they are listed in alphabetical order:

• Andoo Comanche
• SHK Scallywag

Who owns LawConnect?

Christen Beck. 

Mr Beck is the founder of a legal software company, which he created off the back of building a system for his father's legal firm in the 90s. 

In 2017, he was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year and in 2018, he was ranked 99th on the Financial Review's Rich List . 

Who owns Andoo Comanche?

John 'Herman' Winning Jnr.

He's the chief executive of Winning Appliances, a company started by his great grandfather in 1906. 

Mr Winning Jnr took over the role from his father in 2011. 

How far is the Sydney to Hobart distance?

It's a 628-nautical-mile course – that's  1,163 kilometres .

Starting at Sydney Harbour, the course runs down the south-east coast of Australia, across the Bass Strait before turning into the Derwent River to finish in Hobart. 

It usually takes about 48 hours for the first boat to cross the finish line.

What is a nautical mile?

A nautical mile is the equivalent to 1.852 kilometres .

It's an internationally used standardised term used for maritime navigation, based on the Earth's latitude and longitude coordinates.

A nautical mile is the equivalent of one minute of latitude. 

Because of this, a nautical mile is slightly longer than land mile. 

How many boats are in the Sydney to Hobart race?

There's 103 this year. 

What is the prize for Sydney to Hobart?

There's no prize money – just trophies. Here's the two main ones:

• JH Illingworth Challenge Cup: This is for the line honours winner – which is the first boat to cross the finish line.
• Tattersalls Cup: This goes to the overall winner.

What's the Sydney to Hobart record?

The line honours record is 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds .

It was set in 2017 by LDV Comanche.

If you've got even more questions, go read out Sydney to Hobart explainer  or tap the link below to jump back to the top of the story.

Take me back to the top to read the recap

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David and Victoria Beckham get cozy heading to new $20M yacht with family in Miami

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David Beckham and Victoria Beckham enjoyed a glamorous family outing Wednesday aboard a multimillion-dollar mega-yacht in Miami.

The couple — who has a reported combined net worth of $514 million — was photographed riding a dinghy with their four kids , sons Brooklyn, 25, Romeo, 21, and Cruz, 19, and daughter Harper, 12, as well as their daughter-in-law, Nicola Peltz.

They were all dressed casually, with David, 48, and Victoria, 49, strategically shielding themselves from the hot sun under stylish hats as they made their way onto the larger boat.

The massive silver vessel — which is a Riva 130 Bellissima Yacht — measures close to 40 meters and 130 feet, and was built at the company’s La Spezia shipyard in Italy.

It accommodates up to 10 guests in five suites, which is plenty of room for the entire Beckham clan.

Officina Italiana Design worked on the interior, and its features include a beach club, WiFi and air conditioning.

We’re told David and Beckham own the lavish boat which boasts a $20 million price tag and is personalized with the word “Seven” — Harper’s middle name — written across it. The pair previously had a smaller Riva Argo 90 , which cost $6.5 million.

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The Beckhams have been spending the majority of their time in Miami since February 2014 when David was offered an opportunity to take part in the Magic City’s MLS team, Inter Miami.

The retired soccer star has since brought legend Lionel Messi on board his team, which further incentivized stars like Kim Kardashian and LeBron James to make it out to games .

Aside from business, David makes sure to enjoy plenty of quality time with Victoria all over Miami.

Page Six exclusively reported last July that the former Manchester United player and the Spice Girls member dropped more than $2,000 on a date night at the luxe LPM Restaurant and Bar in Brickell.

We were told at the time that the duo and their guests were very gracious toward the waitstaff.

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When the Beckhams are not in South Florida, they spend a lot of time in their native UK.

The power couple owns a $40 million Victorian townhouse in London that is located in the ultra-luxurious Holland Park area of Kensington — also known as “Millionaire’s Row.”

The lavish property reportedly features six bedrooms, an indoor pool, a wine cellar, a fashion runway, a gym and an at-home nail salon.

However, it appears David has grown quite fond of his new home in Miami.

He said during an event in 2018, “I could have gone to another city, but this was always my city. It’s always where I wanted to have our team.”

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Four Seasons Unveils First Yacht Itineraries and Suite Interiors

By Jessica Puckett

All products featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Four Seasons loyalists have a lot to be excited about, with the launch of the brand’s first yacht nearing in 2026.

The 14-deck luxury vessel, which is partly being modeled off of Aristotle Onassis’ iconic yacht Christina O , will offer some of the most opulent amenities at sea. Initial renderings released in October 2023 show a 66-foot saltwater pool, a marina deck built for swimming and watersports, sophisticated dining concepts, and 95 guest suites. Now, the Four Seasons has released the first renderings showcasing the spacious suites on board—and we got a first look.

The ship's sleek design seeks to translate “the Four Seasons guest experience in terms of comfort level and the luxury standards" to life at sea, Fredrik Johannson, partner and executive director of Tillberg Design of Sweden and the lead designer on the Four Seasons Yacht, tells Condé Nast Traveler. Even the hotel group’s beloved mattresses will be offered in every room.

The first renderings of the Four Season Yacht's suites were released Tuesday, showcasing spacious guest rooms with ocean views.

Also just revealed: the first destinations the yacht will call upon throughout its inaugural year. Passengers can expect to visit a wide variety of exclusive and jet-setting locales, as the yacht is slated to visit more than 130 destinations across 30 countries in its first year alone. And of course, guests will have the option to book pre-and-post cruise extensions at iconic Four Seasons resorts along the way.

“We’re incredibly proud to announce the first itineraries aboard Four Seasons Yachts, and know that these experiences will exceed our guest expectations when we set sail in 2026,” says Alejandro Reynal, Four Seasons President and CEO.

Each voyage calls upon small ports that are typically considered “yacht playgrounds," Thatcher Brown, the Chief Commercial Officer at Marc-Henry Cruise Holdings LTD and co-owner of Four Seasons Yachts, tells Traveler. Passengers can expect to sail between Caribbean and Mediterranean coastal havens almost exclusively visited by private vessels .

When the yacht launches in January 2026, it will first head to the Caribbean, where it will complete seven-night, island-hopping itineraries between St. Barths, Nevis, the Grenadines, St Lucia, Barbados, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Curaçao, and Aruba.

Then in March 2026, the ship will cross the Atlantic and begin sailing its Grand Mediterranean voyages , which include visits to alluring towns in Croatia, Gibraltar, Montenegro, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey. Travelers can also expect to access “under-the-radar” Greek islands , like Ios and Milos, as well as more popular Grecian destinations like Athens and Santorini, according to a Four Seasons release.

Guests will have the option to adjoin suites to accommodate families or other groups traveling together.

Sure the destinations sound glamorous—but it might be difficult for passengers to depart the ship and leave behind the luxe accommodations on board. Specifically the guest suites—which will offer 50% more living space per guest than any other competitor currently at sea, according to the company’s release.

Each space will offer floor-to-ceiling windows framing views of the sea, bathrooms with double vanities, and large closets. “Almost every single bed on this whole yacht is facing the sea,” Johannson says. “All the rooms there have this clarity to them. They are very exclusive, but they have a beautiful simplicity.”

Every suite will also offer private outdoor terraces. What’s more: guests will have the option to adjoin suites to accommodate families or other groups traveling together. There are more than 100 different adjoining configurations, including the option to reserve the entire side of a deck—an opportunity that would afford a group of travel companions more than 13,000 square feet of living space.

The Four Seasons Yacht will be divided between Funnel and Loft Suites, each with private outdoor terraces.

But the true showstopper on board is sure to be the Funnel Suite. Located on the very top deck where the funnel or smokestack would traditionally be, the Funnel Suite is essentially the ship’s penthouse, spanning four floors and 9,975 square feet. The massive space will feature three bedrooms and a terrace with outdoor dining space, splash pool, and outdoor showers. But the suite’s best amenity will be its views. The four-story, floor-to-ceiling windows have been fitted with the largest piece of contiguous curved glass at sea, offering sweeping 280-degree views of the ocean as the yacht sails from port to port.

Voyages on board the Four Seasons yacht haven’t yet opened for general booking, but interested travelers can join the yacht’s waitlist in hopes of securing one of the elegant suites on the 2026 itineraries.

Producer who accused Sean 'Diddy' Combs adds Cuba Gooding Jr. to sexual assault, harassment lawsuit

A music producer who filed a lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs last month has now accused actor Cuba Gooding Jr. of sexually harassing and assaulting him, an amended federal complaint filed Monday night shows.

The amended civil complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan hours after federal officials searched Combs’ homes . Combs is a subject of a federal investigation, and several people have been interviewed by federal officials in Manhattan in relation to allegations involving sex trafficking, assault, illegal narcotics and firearms, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News.

Representatives for Combs, 54, did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment Monday.

The producer, Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, filed his original lawsuit against Combs and others in February, alleging that Combs forced him to procure sex workers and pressured him to engage in unwelcomed sex acts with them.

The amended suit alleges that Gooding groped Jones while on Combs’ yacht.

An attorney and representatives for Gooding did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday.

Gooding “began touching, groping, and fondling Mr. Jones’ legs, his upper inner thighs near his groin, the small of his back near his buttocks, and his shoulders,” Jones’ the suit states.

Jones “was extremely uncomfortable and proceeded to lean away from Mr. Gooding Jr.,” the lawsuit says. “He rejected his advances and Mr. Gooding Jr. did not stop until Mr. Jones forcibly pushed him away.”

Attorneys for Jones said in the lawsuit that the incident happened on a yacht rented by Combs in the U.S. Virgin Islands in January 2023. It accused Gooding of sexual assault and misconduct.

Gooding has not been charged with any crime.

In a different case, Gooding pleaded guilty in 2022 to a misdemeanor charge that he forcibly kissed a worker at a New York nightclub in 2018.

He completed alcohol and behavior modification counseling, was then allowed to withdraw that plea and then pleaded guilty to a lesser harassment violation, resolving the case with no jail time .

On Monday, federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations executed search warrants at properties belonging to Combs in Los Angeles and Miami, sources told NBC News.

There has been no information connecting Gooding to any of the searches, and it is not clear what the searches entailed.

Combs has been accused of misconduct in civil cases filed by four women. One was quickly settled and three are pending . Combs has denied the allegations in those lawsuits.

“Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth,” he said in a December statement.

Jones said in the lawsuit that he worked on Combs’ latest album, “The Love Album: Off the Grid.” The album was released in September 2023 and was nominated for a Grammy.

The suit alleges , in part, that Motown Records, and others, benefited from his work on the album, but that he was not fully compensated.

Monday’s amended complaint filed by attorneys for Jones contains a declaration by former Motown Records CEO Ethiopia Habtemariam who it appears to show her willing to testify about the contract involving “The Love Album.”

A spokesperson for Universal Music Group, which owns Motown Records, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit seeks damages, including punitive damages, but does not specify an amount, seeking amounts to be determined at trial.

Diana Dasrath is entertainment producer and senior reporter for NBC News covering all platforms.

Phil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.

Business | South Florida yacht brokers hit with lawsuits…

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Business | south florida yacht brokers hit with lawsuits that claim 10% commissions violate antitrust laws.

Two newly filed federal lawsuits claim that 10% sales commissions required by South Florida’s yacht broker industry are anticompetitive and violate antitrust laws.

The claims follow an October finding by a federal jury in Kansas City, Missouri, that the National Association of Realtors conspired with brokers to artificially inflate commissions paid to real estate brokers. The ruling, and a March 15 settlement by the Realtors, is expected to radically change how homes are sold in the United States.

Both lawsuits involving yacht brokers name as defendants the International Yacht Brokers Association, based in Fort Lauderdale, the Yacht Brokers Association of America, Boats Group LLC and YATCO LLC.

Also listed as defendants in both suits are a who’s who of South Florida-based yacht brokers, including Denison Yacht Sales, MarineMax Inc., Galati Yacht Sales Inc., Allied Marine Inc., Tournament Yacht Sales LLC and Northrop & Johnson Yacht Ships, among others.

Nearly all of the defendants are headquartered in South Florida.

The most recent suit, filed on March 22, proposes a class of plaintiffs that includes anyone who listed vessels on certain Multiple Listing Services using a listing agent or broker affiliated with one of the defendants and paid a buyer’s broker commission since March 22, 2020.

The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit is Kip Lamar Snell, identified as an Alabama resident. Snell entered into an agreement with Galati to sell a 41-foot Express Cruiser Sea Ray in July 2020 and ended up paying a $12,000 commission on the $120,000 sale price, the suit states. The lawsuit lists as defendants 15 brokers and six organizations that promote the yacht trade or operate Multiple Listing Services.

That lawsuit follows one filed on Feb. 29 that proposes a class of plaintiffs that includes anyone who paid a commission to a listing broker affiliated with the defendants since Feb. 19, 2020. It lists as defendants 11 brokers and five organizations that promote the yacht trade or operate Multiple Listing Services.

The lead plaintiff in that suit is Ya Mon Expeditions, a Wyoming company that paid a “substantial broker commission” when it sold a vessel in January 2023 while represented by Tournament Yacht Sales of Tequesta.

The most recent complaint accuses the trade associations of colluding with brokers to “enforce an anticompetitive restraint that requires (sellers of pre-owned yachts and boats) to pay a brokerage fee to the buyer’s broker and a total aggregate commission fee that is inflated as a condition for selling their yachts.”

The complaint states the typical commission is 10% and is shared between the seller’s broker and the buyer’s broker under terms spelled out in Central Listing Agreements provided by the brokers associations, including the International Yacht Brokers Association and the Yacht Brokers Association of America.

Only boat brokers are able to list boats and yachts on such Multiple Listing Services as YachtWorld.com, BoatTrader.com and Boats.com, and the Multiple Listing Services will not accept listings from owners who want to sell their vessels themselves, the lawsuit states.

Yacht owners are “severely disadvantaged” if they do not list their boats for sale on the listing services, while buyers suffer because their brokers are “financially incentivized” to show boats that will earn them standard “and inflated” commission rates of 4% to 5% through co-brokerage transactions, the complaint states.

None of the defendants contacted for this story responded to a request for comment, and no response has been filed yet in either case.

Robert Allen Jr., whose Miami-based law firm Robert Allen Law represents the International Yacht Brokers Association, did not respond to emails or return a phone call.

A woman who answered the phone at the International Yacht Brokers Association said, “We have no comment on that,” and hung up after a reporter asked for her name.

Of six brokers contacted for comment about the lawsuits, only Tournament Yacht Sales responded to emails. “No comment,” the company’s response stated.

Overall commissions have increased faster than the rate of inflation in recent years as the price of larger boats and yachts have increased, according to the lawsuit that lists Snell as lead plaintiff.

The result is that boat owners pay “hundreds of millions of dollars” in inflated commissions each year, the suit alleges.

Both lawsuits allege violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act that are upheld by “brokers who should be competing with one another but, instead, cooperate with each other to the detriment of pre-owned boat sellers.”

Some brokerages represent both buyers and sellers and retain the entire 10% commissions, the suits state.

The trade associations enforce rules requiring brokers to offer their boats through a listing service and to share commissions, the suits state, adding that they can impose significant penalties on members who do not comply with their rules.

Yacht purchasers are disadvantaged by the current system, the lawsuit alleges, because their agents would otherwise negotiate for their business by decreasing their commission rates.

But buyer brokers’ commissions have remained constant despite their diminishing role, the suits state. Many buyers today find boats they are interested in purchasing through online searches and enlist the services of a buyer’s broker only after identifying the yacht they want to buy, the suits claim.

The lawsuits seek an order declaring the commission structure to be illegal, a permanent injunction outlawing what they describe as anticompetitive conduct, plus damages and/or restitution, pre- and post-judgment interest, and attorneys’ fees.

Paul Geller, an attorney for one of two law firms representing the class that includes Snell, acknowledged “parallels between the allegations relating to commissions in the real estate and yacht markets.”

In the real estate matter, the National Association of Realtors on March 15 agreed to a $418 million proposed settlement that would free home sellers from paying commissions to brokers for both sellers and buyers.

After a jury ruled for the plaintiffs in the case against the National Association of Realtors in October, numerous lawsuits were filed across the country with similar allegations, including one in December against the Florida Association of Realtors and 16 brokerages.

“At bottom, the goals of (the suit against the yacht brokers) are similar: protecting consumers by challenging what we allege to be anti-competitive conduct,” Geller said by email. “We believe in the universal truth that consumers benefit by increased transparency and the competitive pricing that results from negotiated terms, including commissions.”

Geller is a partner at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, which specializes in securities litigation on behalf of investors. The firm has offices in 10 cities, including Boca Raton.

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at [email protected].

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