In a dramatic twist, the yacht Min River has been declared the overall winner of the 2023 Sydney to Hobart race after race officials upheld a protest on Wednesday morning. The decision creates sailing history, making Min River the first female-skippered yacht ever to win the prestigious Tattersall Cup on handicap.
A Celebration Cut Short
The French double-handed crew of Michel Quintin and Yann Rigal aboard BNC - my::NET / LEON initially believed they had secured the overall victory. After more than 93 gruelling hours at sea on one of the fleet's smallest boats, they arrived at Hobart's Constitution Dock at 10.40am AEDT on Tuesday. They were the 33rd yacht across the line but the first double-handed crew to finish.
Their dockside celebrations, however, were put on hold. The crew of Min River, which finished 54 minutes behind BNC on corrected handicap time, lodged a formal protest regarding a potential breach of sailing rules.
The Rule Breach and Penalty
The race committee's international jury convened at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania for an hour-long hearing. They ruled that BNC had breached a complex rule concerning how a spinnaker sail is set.
The committee found that in the final two nautical miles of the race, BNC used a spar (pole) with its asymmetric spinnaker in a way that exerted outward pressure on the sail's sheet. This configuration, which was photographed near the finish, provided a performance gain estimated at three to five minutes compared to sailing within the rules.
"They've used their spinnaker in an inappropriate way," race committee chairman Lee Goddard stated. "They did not deliberately do it. But it was photographed with two nautical miles to go."
The jury imposed a 65-minute penalty, which relegated BNC to second place overall and elevated Min River to champion status. "That penalty is absolutely proportionate," Goddard affirmed.
History Made on the High Seas
The victory is monumental for skipper Lin and her crew. Min River, named after a river in the Chinese province where her parents lived, only arrived in Sydney in 2023. The win in the iconic bluewater classic cements their place in the race's storied history.
For the crew of BNC, the outcome is a crushing disappointment. Quintin, a former French Olympic windsurfer, and Rigal had battled equipment failures, including losing wind detection instruments while crossing the Bass Strait, during their four-night voyage.
This incident is not the first time a frontrunner has lost a Sydney to Hobart title post-race. In a famous precedent, Wild Oats XI was stripped of line honours in 2017 after receiving a one-hour penalty for a start-line incident.
The 80th edition of the race saw brutal conditions, forcing more than a quarter of the 128 starters to retire. Line honours were claimed earlier by the supermaxi LawConnect after a thrilling duel off Tasmania's coast. As of Wednesday morning, five yachts remained at sea, with the NSW 69-footer Wind Shift not expected to finish until Saturday.
