American yacht Comanche was pressing towards line honours in the Sydney to Hobart race on Monday, extending her lead over the equally damaged Rambler and determined to complete the race which has wiped out one quarter of competitors.

As the much diminished fleet pushed on towards Hobart, with expectations that the leaders would cross the finish line late Monday night, reports of more damage filtered through.

A savage southerly blasted the boats off the New South Wales coast on the first night at sea on Saturday, resulting in 32 of the 108 entries retiring from the gruelling 628-nautical mile race down Australia's east coast.
Among the casualties were two strong contenders for line honours -- eight-time fastest finisher Wild Oats XI, forced back to Sydney after her mainsail ripped, and supermaxi Perpetual Loyal with rudder damage.

With less than 50 nautical miles to go, Comanche was more than 30 miles ahead of 88-footer Rambler with Ragamuffin 100 and the Giovanni Soldini-skippered Maserati chasing them further back.

Australian entry Ragamuffin 100 was revealed as the latest of the supermaxis to be damaged, with the port daggerboard completely sheared off in the race organised by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

"We've had our fair share of problems but we're still on track to get to Hobart and we haven't given up," sailing master David Witt said.

"We broke our port daggerboard; it snapped off. We don't have one any more.

"We didn't hit anything, we just dropped off a wave in the fresh stuff and loaded it up and snapped it off."

Comanche hit an unidentified submerged object during fierce conditions on Saturday night which broke one of the 100-footer's twin rudders and a daggerboard.

Skipper Ken Read had initially considered retiring but "decided to punch on through" and running repairs were made to the boat.
"I don't care if we limp over the line. We are going to finish this damned race," he said.

Comanche finished runner-up for line honours to Wild Oats XI in her first Sydney to Hobart last year, and has been a hot favourite after setting a new 24-hour monohull record of 618.01 nautical miles in July.

Her biggest competition for line honours is now coming from fellow American Rambler which also hit something in the water on Saturday, sustaining similar damage.

"We have no idea what we hit, we couldn't see it," the yacht's navigator Andrew Cape said.

"It might have been marine life or flotsam, but it was a solid hit. It shook the boat."

Of the 108 boats which started the race in Sydney Harbour on Saturday, 32 have been forced out, including some with shredded sails, hull and steering damage and one with a broken mast.

Sailors returning to Sydney on Sunday spoke of the terrifying conditions with winds of up to 40 knots.
Julia Cooney, on board Brindabella, told The Australian newspaper that "nothing can prepare you for something like that".

"It was like hitting a wall of water; hitting you in the face, sea water, rain water -- you couldn't tell.

"It was pitch black and the boat was crashing through the waves at 11 knots."

The fleet is experiencing light conditions as they near Hobart, meaning the boats could be forced to slow down due to a lack of wind.
Source: AFP