Komatsu Azzurro

Komatsu Azzurro won the 2015 Sydney Gold Coast race, then almost snatched victory from Balance in the Hobart, but found little breeze on rounding Tasman Island. Placed third overall (just six minutes shy of second place), second in Division 4, won ORCi and Corinthian overall. Shane Kearns’s boat looked the only boat likely to beat Ichi Ban in the 2016 Sydney Gold Coaster, but the breeze dropped out, so it was 17^th overall to win Division 4. Kearns found the former Shenandoah II near sinking in 2014. He bought her cheaply on his credit card and restored her, adding a Code Zero and a new staysail. She finished the 2014 Hobart 33^rd overall. The boat was built for Ron White, a past SYC commodore who died in 2012. He won Division H of the 50^th Hobart with the renamed Commonwealth Bank Shenandoah II, with a faster finishing time than the winners of Divisions F and G.

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