The rules of sailing say competitors must conduct themselves with good manners and sportsmanship. So, with tongue almost bursting through cheek, millionaire entrepreneur and LawConnect skipper Christian Beck took a shot at the man he plans to beat to Hobart.
“I’m actually pretty pissed off [at] these two skippers from [Master Lock] Comanche because they’ve copied my strategy from last year,” Beck said at a Rolex Sydney to Hobart press conference on Tuesday. “Last year, I did nothing and let the pro crews do it, and won the race. These guys, in all these lead-up races, they’re doing nothing ... and they’re winning.”
Seated to his right, unsure whether to smile or scowl, was James Mayo, co-skipper of Comanche, the fastest yacht in the fleet that somehow lost to Beck by just 51 seconds last year. Seconds earlier, Mayo said that this year’s race was going to be “a real dog fight”.
“We’re all good friends but, you know, the gloves are off once we get across that start line, I can assure you of that,” Mayo said.
The two 100-foot yachts are the most competitive in the race, having finished first and second in 2023, 2022 and 2019. Their skippers also have the most to lose. For Comanche, last year’s was their race to win, but after a dramatic overtake by LawConnect just metres from the Derwent River finish line, they were relegated. LawConnect is fighting to retain its title and prove its colourful owner’s friendly fire is fair game.
The shot Beck took at Mayo and his co-skipper Matt Allen, while clearly intended to just scuff his opponents’ ego, is far from well-founded. Mayo is a two-time world champion, and took both line honours and overall winner in the 1987 race, and Allen has won three of the 31 Hobarts he’s raced. Neither man is dispensable.
Christian Beck and James Mayo, the skippers entering a “dogfight” for the 2024 Sydney to Hobart line honours trophy.Credit: Aresna Villanueva
“The way I see it, when you race these boats, everyone is vitally important,” Mayo told this masthead. “Getting 100 per cent out of each person is critical to getting the boat there first. So, I don’t really focus on too many comments of Christian’s.
“Our boat has got people who have won the Hobart multiple times ... there are a handful of world champions on the boat, Olympians. We’ve got crew that have raced around the world several times and won. They’ve been involved in America’s Cups. That pressure ... we’re used to that every time we go racing.”