Sydney to Hobart drama: top boat loses handicap honours

Overall honours in the Sydney to Hobart have sensationally changed hands after the French-crewed first-placed yacht was penalised for breaking rules relating to sail use.

Michel Quintin and Yann Rigal had the Tattersall Cup virtually locked up after skippering 35ft BNC - my::NET / LEON to the best handicap time.

But race committee chairman Lee Goddard confirmed on Wednesday they had lost top spot after being given a time penalty of one hour and five minutes.

The verdict means Min River, originally the second-placed yacht in the overall standings, seized overall honours in a dramatic postscript to the race.

The saga started with a post-finish protest lodged by Min River, skippered by Jiang Lin.

Min River then withdrew their protest, with BNC opting to declare to the race committee they had broken a rule relating to the configuration of a sail on the front of the yacht.

“That penalty is absolutely proportionate,” Goddard told reporters in Hobart.

“They’ve used their spinnaker in an inappropriate way.

“They did not deliberately do it.

“But it was photographed with two nautical miles to go.”

Goddard added he was “incredibly proud” of Min River and BNC’s crews.

“I’m sure for them (BNC) it’s very disappointing ... I’m not sure I’d describe it (the overall result) as disappointing. The rules are the rules,” he said.

The international jury made the ruling after an hour-long hearing at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania in Hobart.

Shortly before the protest hearing, Lin told the ABC that Min River’s complaint was lodged after people sent her video of DNC’s configuration as it finished.

It is not the first time a frontrunner has lost out on a trophy.

In 2017, Wild Oats XI lost line honours after being penalised an hour for being involved in a near collision at the start of the race.

BNC’s handicap time, which is calculated on a range of factors including yacht size, was just 54 minutes ahead of Min River.

Both are double-handed yachts, crewed by just two people, and were among the smallest in the Sydney to Hobart fleet.

Min River arrived in Sydney 2023 and was named by Lin after the river in China which flows through the province where her parents lived.

Quintin, who represented France in windsurfing at the 1988 Olympics, and Rigal had celebrated dockside on Tuesday morning after being the first double-handed yacht to cross the finish line.

They spent four nights at sea and battled without wind detection instruments after some of their electronic equipment went down while crossing Bass Strait.

Master Lock Comanche claimed line honours in 80th edition of the race on Sunday after holding off two fellow supermaxis in a dogfight off Tasmania’s east coast.

More than a quarter of the starting fleet of 128 yachts were forced to retire in brutal early upwind sailing.

Five yachts remained at sea on Wednesday at 11am AEDT, with NSW 69-footer Wind Shift bringing up the tail and not scheduled to complete the race until Saturday.