One of ocean racing's fastest weapons is heading back into Australian waters. Comanche, the 100-foot maxi that has rewritten records more than once, will contest the 2026 Rolex Sydney Hobart under a new name, Tribeca LOYAL, campaigned by Anthony Bell.
Bell knows exactly what it takes to win this race, though he hasn't raced it in a decade. He first claimed Line Honours on Investec LOYAL back in 2011, then again in 2016 aboard Perpetual LOYAL, a campaign that also set the race record at the time: 1 day, 13 hours, 31 minutes and 20 seconds.
Now he's chasing that feeling again, this time aboard a boat with even more pedigree. Comanche currently holds the outright Rolex Sydney Hobart record of 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds, and has taken Line Honours five times. She won again in 2025, and now switches camps to join Bell's operation for the Boxing Day start.
The crew list reads like a reunion of offshore sailing's greatest hits. Tom Slingsby, the Bonds Flying Roos SailGP CEO and Driver, America's Cup winner and Olympic gold medallist, takes on the Sailing Master role. He sailed with Bell from 2013 through to that 2016 Line Honours win on Perpetual LOYAL, so this is familiar water for him. Also returning are sailing stalwarts Anthony Nossiter and John Flannery.
Running the programme is North Sails' Mark Bradford, who skippered Black Jack to Line Honours in 2021, and he's brought several of that campaign's crew with him, including Liam Woulfe and Will McCarthy. From Comanche's own 2025 winning crew, navigator Andy Green returns, alongside Andrew Henderson, Andre Vorster, Craig Garnnett, Clinton Evans, Pablo Arrate, Sam Newton, Will Parker and Phil Jameson.
There's star power beyond the sailing ranks too. Anthony Minichiello, the former Sydney Roosters and NRL premiership-winning captain who played 11 State of Origin matches for New South Wales and 19 Tests for Australia, returns as one of the campaign's "super sailors", alongside Phil Waugh, former Wallabies captain, 79-Test veteran, and now Rugby Australia's Chief Executive Officer.
Off the water, the campaign continues its long-running support for the Humpty Dumpty Foundation, with LOYAL and the LOYAL Foundation continuing to raise funds for life-saving medical equipment for children in Australian hospitals.
On the water, speed is the focus. Slingsby says this particular boat has an appetite for wind that sets it apart.
"Every boat has a certain condition that they're going to be strong in," said the three-time Rolex World Sailor of the Year. He pointed to Wild Oats XI and Black Jack as boats that thrive in lighter air, and the yacht now racing as LawConnect as one that wants plenty of breeze. Comanche, he reckons, sits somewhere in between, only faster.
"The stronger the wind, this boat just keeps wanting to go faster and faster," Slingsby said.
He has history to back that claim. Racing Comanche in the 2021 Rolex Middle Sea Race around Sicily, his last ocean race before this campaign, the crew smashed the record by nine hours.
"They said that record would never be broken," he said. "That just shows the capability of this boat if it gets the right conditions, and that goes for the Sydney Hobart."
"This boat already owns the Sydney Hobart race record, but the conditions we could get if we get the right conditions, we can break that record by a lot."
"So, fingers crossed, you're dealing with Mother Nature, but I think this boat wants strong winds, and if we get the right conditions, we could definitely break that record by a bit."
The fleet starts on Saturday 26 December at 1300 hours AEDT, bound for Hobart over 628 nautical miles of open water. The start and finish will be broadcast live via the race website and the CYCA's YouTube channel, CYCATV.
