Sydney to Hobart Line honours contender LawConnect has shown promising form in its first 2022 duels with the other three supermaxis heading into Tuesday's Big Boat Challenge
The annual event on Sydney Harbour will be the final race of the Australian maxi championship and the last time the four glamour boats race against each other before the Sydney to Hobart starts on Boxing day.
Andoo Comanche, Black Jack and Hamilton Island Wild Oats (formerly Wild Oats XI) have raced each other on a number of occasions before this month.
However, LawConnect, which took line Sydney to Hobart line honours in 2016 as Perpetual LOYAL and was second behind Black Jack last year, was missing as work was being conducted on the boat.
"We were pulling the kitchen out of the boat and lightening it up a fair bit. We took about 309 kilos out of the boat," LawConnect's owner and skipper Christian Beck told AAP.
LawConnect had her first 2022 hit-out against her three rivals last Friday, when she finished second across the line behind Andoo Comanche and ahead of the other two supermaxis In the Cabbage Tree Island race.
"I think it went very well. If Comanche wasn't there, it would have looked fantastic," Beck said.
"Obviously Comanche is another level and so it's hard to beat those guys, but I think we're very pleased with our result against Wild Oats and Black Jack.
"Because if you looked at in past years they were the main competitors, and for this boat to beat them is always very hard but we're now beating them on a reasonably regular basis."
In Monday's two Passage races, Andoo Comanche won both on line honours, with Oats shading LawConnect for second in both, though there was a protest lodged in the latter race.
LawConnect crew member and dual Olympian Chris Nicholson felt his boat may have more potential upside than the other three supermaxis going into the Sydney to Hobart.
"We have gains to make working out our sails combinations and that's kind of good," Nicholson told AAP.
"These other boats have done a lot more sailing and training and they know their combinations, we don't yet.
"We won't see the gains here (in the Challenge) because you know exactly the right sail for harbour racing in the short course, but we'll see gains in the longer (Sydney to Hobart) for sure."
While the much shorter Challenge is no indicator of a boat's Sydney to Hobart prospects, it traditionally tests crew work In the tighter confines of the harbour as opposed to the greater expanses at sea.
"I know every time we finish Big Boat day you just go, 'Wow, that was really intense to be pushing 100-footers around the harbour','" Nicholson said.
"Maybe everyone thinks Sydney Harbour is big but it kind of gets pretty small when you are on a 100-footer ripping around at 20 knots."
