Supermaxi Wild Oats XI takes charge of the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge in Sydney Harbour yesterday. Source: Getty Images

Kristy Hinze-Clark, centre, on board Comanche. Source: Getty Images

Wild Oats comprehensively trounced its more modern opposition, including $20 million American super-maxi Comanche, which was having its first official race, in the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge around Sydney Harbour.

A fleet of 15 yachts lined up for the 14 nautical mile sprint, and from the moment the starting gun went, the 10-year-old Wild Oats was almost never headed.

The 100-footer finished just over a minute ahead of Com­anche, with the Volvo 70 Black Jack in third spot and the other fancied super-maxi, Perpetual Loyal, finishing fourth.

Wild Oats has been so radically modified with various through-the-hull appendages since she was launched just before the 2005 edition of the Sydney-Hobart race that her crew affectionately refer to her as the “Swiss Army knife”. Yesterday’s race started in a very light southerly wind that did not suit Comanche or Loyal, both of which are designed to excel in brisk downwind conditions.

Wild Oats led off the line and was well ahead of Loyal and Com­anche at the first turning mark but then disaster almost struck when the yacht’s spinnaker twisted as it was being raised.

The mistake allowed Loyal to draw level and it looked like passing until Wild Oats’ skipper Mark Richards steered his boat directly at his rival and suddenly tacked alongside it with centimetres to spare. The aggressive move robbed Loyal of wind and its massive black spinnaker collapsed.

As Loyal and Wild Oats lay almost locked together, Com­anche’s skipper, Ken Read, took the opportunity to drive the black-sailed newcomer into the lead.

But with the yacht’s co-owner and former Queensland model Kristy Hinze-Clark standing beside him, Read could only look on as Wild Oats’ crew reset its spinnaker and slid back into the lead.

“We were surrounded by a million spectator craft and it was as scary as hell,” Read said later. “We couldn’t have been happier with the boat’s performance as the conditions today were the opposite of what it was designed for.”

Richards said he had a good start but “it all went pear-shaped” at the first mark. “But overall we had a lot of fun out there. It’s going to be fantastic on Boxing Day.”

Wild Oats’ 86-year-old owner Bob Oatley, whose doctors won’t let him sail to Hobart, was aboard his yacht yesterday in a specially constructed chair that tacked from side to side with the boat and which kept all the pressure off his frail legs.

Victorian boat Terra Firma was the event’s handicap winner.