Mako gets off to a flyer in race to Hobart

Mako, a Sydney 40 yacht out of Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club (NCYC), is one of four Hunter boats in this year's race. Lake Macquarie boat Hasta La Vista withdrew late last week.

Mako, racing in the Sydney to Hobart for a second time, were ahead of rivals and clubmates She's The Culprit (Inglis/Jones 39), who were 54^th overall and fourth in the PHS division.

Rogue Wave, out of the Port Stephens Yacht Club, were 16^th in the two-handed line honours division, while Wonderland (NCYC) were 68^th overall and sixth in PHS.

Meanwhile, LawConnect capitalised on a sail issue for supermaxi rival SHK Scallywag to take over the lead early.

Hong Kong boat Scallywag, skippered by David Witt, was first out of Sydney Heads following the 1pm start on Sydney Harbour, followed by big rivals Black Jack and LawConnect in conditions of close to 15 knots.

However, her time in front was brief as she had problems with her headsail after rounding the sea mark a few minutes later and put up a storm jib.

Sydney-based LawConnect, under skipper Christian Beck, seized on her rival's misfortune to surge to the lead and put some distance between herself and the other two supermaxis by the end of the first hour.

Scallywag's social media team reported that their yacht suffered a technical issue with its J2 foresail tack fitting.

"The team managed to successfully get the sail down safely and get the orange sail jib up in their air while they work to repair the problem," they wrote.

It was a spinnaker start for the fleet, who were spread across four start lines and watched by a smaller spectator fleet than usual.

After the supermaxis, the next boat out of the heads was Grant Wharington's 80-footer Stefan Racing.

Officials reported all boats made a clean start.

The fleet was cut to 88 shortly before the race when the 49-foot Vamp withdrew because a crew member had close contact with a positive COVID-19 case.

Two other boats pulled out earlier on Sunday. Two-handed boat Min River withdrew after owner Jiang Hui Lin injured a hand and the 40-foot Protagonist pulled out after reporting a positive COVID test.

With Min River out, 17 boats are left in the two-handed division, which has been included in the race for the first time.

LDV Comanche's 2017 race record of one day, nine hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds won't be threatened because predominantly south to south-easterly winds are forecast throughout the event.

In the handicap race, smaller boats are more likely to be favoured by the forecast according to Matt Allen, whose TP52 Ichi Ban is trying to become the first in 57 years to win the prize in consecutive races.

Ichi Ban skipper Matt Allen has tipped the smaller yachts to shine in the battle for Sydney to Hobart race overall honours, as his boat bids to become the first in 57 years to win the main handicap prize in consecutive races.

Allen said the forecast didn't suit higher-rated boats like his 52-footer, which took overall honours in the 2017 and 2019 races and is favourite again.

He said the race was likely to be pretty slow with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting a predominance of south to south-easterly winds, with southerlies increasing to 25 knots later on Sunday.

Allen estimated it would take Ichi Ban just over three days to complete the course, much longer than any of its three previous Hobart efforts.

"I'd probably favour the smaller boats for the overall win," Allen told AAP.

"They haven't had a good run the last few years, I think this is possibly their year.

"It's hard to pick which boat, but certainly I think a boat that's smaller size is going to be advantaged and might even bring up a nor-easter towards the back end when we've been on the racetrack for a long period of time.

"Therefore there's a lot of time that those guys have got before they need to finish.

"It will definitely favour the smallest boats in the fleet, (36-foot) White Bay 6 Azzurro, maybe even (47-foot) Love & War, boats like that."

A win for Love & War would give the 48-year-old boat an unprecedented four overall titles, breaking a record she presently shares with Freya.

Should Ichi Ban win, she will become the first boat since Freya in 1964 to claim back-to-back race overall victories.

Allen said every Hobart race presented competitors with two or three big decisions, but that might increase to six or seven this year.

He didn't expect crews to get much rest and sleep on Sunday night as he thought they were in for a bumpy ride.