Maximus out of Rolex Sydney Hobart race

New Zealand’s super maxi Maximus, one of the favourites for line honours in this year’s Sydney to Hobart yacht race, has pulled out with a badly damaged keel.

Yesterday morning when the boat was sailing from Auckland the crew called a PAN PAN, after a diver had gone overboard and found the complex keel mechanism had been damaged. This morning the 30-metre maxi arrived in Sydney just after 4am escorted by a Trans Tasman freighter and a Sydney Water Police vessel.