Christian Beck’s LawConnect claiming its first line honours victory in arguably the most exciting finish in years.
The Christian Beck maxi, long term partner of Zhik campaigning the newly released OFS800 offshore gear, crossed the Castray Esplanade finish line in Hobart in first place with a time of 1 day 19 hours 03 minutes 58 seconds.
LawConnect finished outside the race record of 1 day 9hrs 15min 24sec, set by the boat they beat, which won line honours in 2017.
“I can't believe that result. Honestly. It's a dream come true. I never thought it was possible, actually,” said a smiling Beck after LawConnect docked at Kings Pier in Hobart. “Because they took the lead pretty close to the finish line, we thought there's no way we could get it back,” Beck said.
“But a wind gust came. It happened. So, it was a complete surprise, to be honest.”
Asked how the nerves of his crew were in the dying minutes of the race, Beck said: “There were guys who sort of couldn't watch it and stuff like that. It was very nerve wracking.”
LawConnect’s win against the highly favoured Andoo Comanche was against the odds. Equally as amazing though, was how their duel ended in such a close match-racing battle. After stalking Comanche all night, it initially looked like LawConnect’s chances were slipping away, as the defending champions got a 2nm lead in the crossing of Storm Bay. But LawConnect’s crew did not give up and edged closer to Andoo Comanche on the Derwent River. By Sandy Bay and with 1.5nm to go, LawConnect had all but caught the leader.
Then, in a brilliant slugfest of jibes between the two boats, the lead changed five times as they both tried to make best of the varying but light breezes. LawConnect only sealed the victory with its last gybe less than 50 metres before the finish.
After finishing, and as is tradition, Beck was thrown into the water off King Pier by his crew. They then celebrated the win and receipt of the J.H. Illingworth Challenge Cup by spraying themselves with champagne.
Beck lauded his crew, especially Sailing Master, Tony Mutter and tactician, Chris Nicholson. “There’s two guys that were really instrumental, Tony Multter and Chris Nicholson,” he said. “They have a lot to contend with. Firstly, the boat, I jokingly call a ‘s… box.’ But compared to Comanche, it honestly is a ‘s…box. I know it looks good on TV, but you get up close to that boat and it’s as rough as anything.
“Comanche is a beautiful boat. It's better in every way. It's four times lighter, etc. So, the fact that they can make that boat beat Comanche is amazing. Secondly, they had a pretty lean budget. And thirdly, they had the five corporates, including me, on the boat to deal with. None of us know all that much about sailing.”
“So, to have all of that and still win the race, it's an incredible feat.”
