( CNN ) -- It 's the super yacht with a super model and her billionaire tycoon husband as its joint owners and the 100ft supermaxi Comanche lived up to expectations with a blazing start to the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race Friday . The 'Bluewater Classic ' in its 70th staging is the first real competitive test for Comanche , which has been specially built for distance racing and speed record attempts , the brainchild of Netscape co-founder Jim Clark and his wife , Kristy Hinze-Clark , who was born in Australia . Comanche , skippered by American Ken Read and with a strong international crew , is expected to battle it out for line honors with seven-time winner Wild Oats XI in the 628-nautical miles race , one of the highlights of the international yachting calendar . The traditional Boxing Day start from Sydney Harbor saw an early glimpse of Comanche 's speed with the skipper of Wild Oats XI , Mark Richards , moved to exclaim : `` She 's smoking -- look at that thing go ! '' Out to sea and past the first mark in an unofficial record time , Comanche led from Wild Oats XI with the other supermaxis Ragamuffin and Perpetual Loyal giving chase . The race , which runs down the east coast of Australia and across the Bass Strait to the Tasmanian capital Hobart , has drawn a 117-strong entry , the biggest since 1994 . But pre-race attention has centered on Comanche -- with its wide-bodied and cutting edge design , and two years in the building in Maine in the United States . Clark watched from a supporting boat as his wife was part of the crew when Comanche took part in the Big Boat Challenge in Sydney Harbor on December 9 , won by Wild Oats XI . But the short race was just a small taster for the bigger test and Hinze-Clark opted out of competing , two days before the start , due to fears her inexperience might hamper the race favorite in predicted difficult conditions . She also has three-year-old and four-month-old children to look after so both joint owners are safely shore side to track the progress of their costly boat . `` We 're ready , '' Read told the official race website before the start , unperturbed by reports of the rougher conditions ahead . `` To me it looks like a nice sailboat racing day . A little breezy , a little lumpy , but if our boat ca n't handle 25 knots and a little bit of bump then something 's wrong . '' The weather forecast would appear to rule out the chance of a new race record , the current mark set by Wild Oats XI in 2012 , of one day 18 hours 23 minutes and 12 seconds , and there were several early withdrawals in the testing conditions . Latest positions : Official Rolex Sydney-Hobart website .
70th staging of Sydney-Hobart yacht race . 117-strong fleet starts from Sydney Harbor on Boxing Day . Supermaxi Comanche expected to battle it out with seven-time winner Wild Oats XI . Comanche owned by billionaire Jim Clark and his Australian model wife Kristy Hinze .