Rule breach in final stretch of Sydney to Hobart sees rival crowned winner
SOURCE:ABC Australia|BY:Susan Oong and Adam Holmes
Double-handed Min River makes history by becoming the first double-handed yacht to take out the overall win in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race and the first to do so with a female skipper.
The overall result of the 80th Sydney to Hobart yacht race has been sensationally overturned on protest due to a sail breach.
Double-handed Min River has claimed the Tattersall Cup after a successful protest from the race committee against New Caledonian-flagged BNC.
Min River has made history in the process, becoming the first double-handed yacht and the first female-skippered yacht to take out the overall handicap.
Min River, co-skippered by Jiang Lin and Alexis Loison, needed to close a 54-minute gap on handicap behind BNC in order to be crowned winner.
BNC was given a penalty of 1 hour and 5 minutes, meaning it falls behind Min River in the handicap standings.
The protest cited a breach to "sheeting sails" regulations in the Australian Racing Rules.
It is understood the breach related to the use of a pole to secure the spinnaker sail during the finish.
BNC co-skippers Yann Rigal (left) and Michel Quintin (centre) enter the protest hearing. (ABC News)
The breach by BNC occurred in the final two nautical miles of the 628-nautical-mile race.
The rule states:
"No sail sheet be sheeted over or through any device that exerts outward pressure on a sheet or clew of a sail at a point from which, with the boat upright, a vertical line would fall outside the hull or deck [except in some conditions]."
In sailing, a sheet refers to a rope or cable used to control the movable corners, or clews, of a sail.
A pole, highlighted in orange by the ABC, in use by BNC during the finish. (CYCA/ABC News)
Heading into the hearing, Ms Lin said she wanted to ensure the result was "fair".
"A rule is a rule," she said.
"People started sending over a video of the finish, so we thought, 'Oh, that's interesting'.
"[We] just wanted to do, in my personal view, the right thing."
The Min River co-skippers lodged a protest over BNC but it is understood a competitor can only protest over a breach if they personally witnessed it during the race.
It had only seen a photograph of the issue.
However, the race committee can lodge its own protest, which it did this morning after BNC declared to the committee that it had broken a rule.
That protest against BNC was upheld, while Min River withdrew its protest after learning of the international jury's decision.
Race committee chair Lee Goddard said that once the breach by BNC was confirmed, a "proportionate" penalty had to be applied.
He said the rules were clear.
"Essentially, they've actually used their spinnaker in an inappropriate way which is perceived as an advantage,"
Mr Goddard said.
"They did not deliberately do it, they probably did not understand fully that they were going to break the rule, but it was photographed."
Min River co-skippers Alexis Loison and Jiang Lin entering the protest hearing this morning. (ABC News)
Min River co-skipper pays tribute to sailing mate
Min River finished the race in just under four days.
Min River sailing towards Hobart on Tuesday. (Supplied: Rolex/Kurt Arrigo)
Owned by Ms Lin, the yacht was named for the river that flows through Fujian, China, where her parents grew up.
After finishing on Tuesday, Ms Lin paid tribute to her co-skipper.
"One decision right that I made, is that I chose the best co-skipper there is,"
she said.
Mr Loison has completed six Sydney to Hobart yacht races, including with BNC's Michel Quintin, who he described as a good friend.
After the protest decision was handed down, Ms Lin said it was an "unbelievable" feeling to have become the first female skipper to win the overall title.
"I never dreamed of winning it," she said.
"My ambition ... was that if I can win the division, that would be nice, that was my goal."
Min River was crowned the overall winner. (Supplied: Rolex/Kurt Arrigo)
BNC accepts rule break but challenged penalty
BNC crew Michel Quintin and Yann Rigal said they respected the decision of the international jury.
They had measured their estimated gain as between three and five minutes, but it ultimately resulted in a penalty of more than an hour.
Mr Rigal said they carried out the technique in order to clean the boat near the finishing line.
"Because it was just the finishing line, we wanted to prepare the boat, to clean the boat … because we knew the media was here," he said.
"We decided together, let's put the pole so I don't have to stand like that until the finishing line, so I can prepare the boat for the media and for everything after.
"The speed is nearly the same."
The double-handed crew said they were unaware at the time that they were breaking a rule.
"It's sport, it's life, we respect the decision of the international jury," Mr Quintin said.
"We thought we could manage to have a smaller penalty, but that's the choice."
Handicap winner separate to line honours
While Comanche, the first of the large 100-footer supermaxis, has been in port at Hobart since Sunday evening after taking out the line honours win, the overall winner of the Sydney to Hobart on handicap takes out the Tattersall Cup, which is seen by sailors as the "crown jewel" of prizes.
What decides the overall victor is a number of factors such as boat size, sail size, mast size, the amount of water that the boat displaces when fully loaded and its expected speed.
The boat’s final finish time takes on these factors as well as the time on the clock when it crossed the finish line.
The handicap system is seen as an equaliser for the fleet, meaning victory becomes much more about sailing ability than what sort of boat you are able to enter into the race.
Min River completed the race in just under four days. (ABC News)
Right conditions for double-handers
This year, three of the four contenders for the handicap honours were double-handers.
BNC appeared to have won the overall honours when it arrived on Tuesday morning, and when fellow double-hander Crux failed to arrive by 9:45pm in the evening, after southerlies slowed its progress near Tasman Island.
Michel Quentin and Yann Rigal appeared to have claimed handicap honours after they arrived in Hobart on Tuesday morning. (Supplied: CYCA/Salty Dog)
After crossing the line, BNC crew Yann Rigal and Michel Quentin described it as “a magic moment”.
"Just finishing line of honour double-handed is incredible for us,"
Quintin said.
Defending overall winner Celestial V70, crossed the finish line in sixth place for line honours with a time of 2 days, 16 hours, 14 minutes and 34 seconds.
The yacht was pipped to take out the overall victory again, but the cohort of double-handeds challenged expectations by the fourth day.
The weather conditions after the first boats finished also affected the handicap win, as good winds favoured the smaller boats.
Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) commodore Sam Haynes put the result of the double-handers down to the hard southerly driven by a high-pressure system that occurred during most of the race.
Sam Haynes says this year's weather favoured the smaller yachts. (AAP: Ethan James)
"The smaller boats have just been in the pressure longer and been able to keep going," he said.
"But all the boats in this race have had periods where they've been in very light wind zones."
This year's race saw 17 double-hander entrants out of a fleet of 128.
'Different type of sport'
Double-handed yachts were first given their own category in the race in 2021 and were eligible to win the overall prize from 2022, forming one of the race's six divisions.
Haynes said the category was becoming increasingly popular.
"We tend to see about 25 per cent of the fleet as double-handed,"
he said.
"It's a great way for people to be able to access the sport with potentially less expense and so forth. It's a very particular style sailing, obviously. Big overseas, double-handed sailing, it's a different type of sailing experience."
The demands on a two-person crew are greater than on larger craft, as the round-the-clock duties of navigating, steering and sail changes, as well as sleeping, have to be shared.
"It's not the same sport," BNC co-skipper Quintin said.
"You are doing everything onboard, and you are a team together a lot more than with a big crew.
"Always there's something to do. Sleeping is extra. We have to sleep and to rest but that is difficult to manage but that is part of the sport."
Sailing in the 2021 race, Tasmanian GP John Saul and co-skipper Rob Gough were the inaugural two-handed line honours champion in their yacht Sidewinder.
Dr Saul, who is competing this year on a Huon pine yacht named Tradition, said it was exciting to see an increase in the number of smaller crews competing.
"It'd be sensational to see some variety in the winners on the winners' platform, and a double-hander would be great,"
he said.
"There's some really good quality double-hander racers in the event this year, and obviously they're really trying to ring the most that they can out of their boats."
The 100-footer led for much of the race, but had to fend off a cat-and-mouse chase with fellow competitors LawConnect and Scallywag for a thrilling finish.