The Sydney to Hobart was thrown into chaos on Saturday evening after line honours favourite and defending champion Wild Oats XI withdrew due to a split mainsail in a dramatic first night of racing that saw 10 boats retire by early Sunday morning.
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The Bob Oatley-owned Wild Oats XI became the seventh yacht to pull out late on Saturday night. Soon after, the race organisation announced that her main rival and early race leader Comanche had withdrawn while in the lead due to a broken rudder and dagger board - only to announce later that the Ken Read-skippered American super maxi had decided to instead try and repair the damage and continue in the race.
The dramatic exit of the recently re-built 100-foot super maxi Wild Oats XI was due to a split mainsail caused in 40-knot winds.
The Mark Richards-skippered crew were all reported safe in the aftermath but decided to return to Sydney.
The shattered crew were welcomed back by family and friends at Woolwich Dock on Sunday morning and Richards has already pledged to win back line honours in next year's race.
Richards, who led the supermaxi to an unprecedented eighth line honours title last year, was philosophical about having to pull out for the first time in 10 years.
"We had a failure and that's the way it is. Get on with life and start planning for next year," he said.
As the diminishing fleet tackled a forecast southerly, it was announced that Anthony Bell's 100-footer Perpetual Loyal, that led the race from the start out the Heads, and the 47-footer St Jude had retired.
It was announced soon after by officials that rudder damage caused the demise of Perpetual Loyal and St Jude, who also both opted to return to Sydney.
As Comanche hung on to hopes of being able to repair their damage at sea and continue, the race was reeling from a madcap first day of sailing.
After deciding to retire, Wild Oats began the return journey home to Sydney.
"Early reports indicate that the sail tore in half when the yacht was hit by a 40-knot squall that accompanied a southerly change off the NSW south coast," said the Wild Oats XI statement.
At the time of Wild Oats' demise it was 87 nautical miles south-east of Jervis Bay and placed third on line honours behind Comanche, that was still leading, and Rambler 88. Meanwhile, Ragamuffin and Perpetual Loyal were following behind Wild Oats XI.
It was soon after Wild Oats XI's retirement that the race organisation announced Comanche had also pulled out while leading the race. Within minutes, race officials announced it had instead opted to try and repair their damage and continue.
In the same announcement, race organisation said that Perpetual Loyal and St Jude had withdrawn, ensuring before midnight fell that the 71st edition of the race had experienced one of its most bizarre first days with drama unfolding before the start.
Wild Oats' exit from the race that began at 1pm on Saturday was the seventh for the first day, one that was incident-filled before it began when the official starting boat, Aussie Legends, taking in water and evacuating all of its passengers to land safely before transferring them to another boat.
Within the first hour of the race, the first four withdrawals in the race came. Ark 3232, Cougar II, Lupa of London and M3 returned to the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia dock, followed at 6.30pm with the withdrawal of Dare Devil, and then CEX Dolce, Wild Oats XI, Perpetual Loyal, St Jude and finally, just after midnight, Koa.
