‘We made a mistake’: Sydney-Hobart title stripped as damning photo evidence emerges

This year’s prestigious Sydney to Hobart yacht race title has been stripped from a French duo over an “inappropriate” mistake made just two nautical miles from the finish line.

New Caledonia-based crew Michel Quintin and Yann Rigal had claimed victory for BNC – my::NET / LEON in the overall Tattersall Cup, which is determined by a complicated handicap formula – allowing smaller boats to compete with bigger and faster rivals.

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But on Wednesday, that title was stripped after photographs emerged of an incorrectly secured sail in the dying stages of the race.

“I’m sure for them it’s very disappointing,” Race Committee Chairman Lee Goddard said.

“The rules are the rules.

“It has to be fair – yes it is disappointing the result … but in reality it’s actually fair.”

With a one-hour penalty applied to BNC, it left second-placed Min River to be elevated into overall race winner – after they finished 54 minutes behind.

“Not in my wildest dreams did I think this would come true for me,” Min River co-skipper Jiang Lin said, after learning she had become the first woman to win the race, which was in its 80th edition.

“I did not have hopes of winning. You think about all the 100-something boats, all the big boats and superb sailors out there.”

“It hasn’t sunk in yet.

“Maybe I will wake up and say: ‘Oh that was a dream’.”

Jiang was one of just 13 woman owners and skippers among the 128 vessels that left Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day.

While it was elation for Jiang and her crew mates, there was devastation for BNC for incorrectly deploying a sheeting sail in the final 2NM.

“We made a mistake in the two last nautical miles before the finishing line,” Quintin told media on Wednesday.

“We didn’t know we were breaking a rule as we didn’t know this rule.”

A protest was initially lodged by Min River after the race’s end – but later withdrawn.

Goddard then explained how the international jury then applied the penalty to BNC.

“This morning, in hindsight and reflecting and seeing the photograph, BNC Leon then made the decision to declare to the race committee that they had broken a rule. Therefore, I am absolutely obligated as the race committee chairman to then protest,” he shared.

“That (one hour) penalty is absolutely proportionate.

“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.”

The rule currently 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 … a vertical line would fall outside the hull”.

Rigal later claimed he and Quintin were cleaning the vessel, knowing there would be media waiting at the finish line when the incorrect sail was used.

“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.”

It’s not the first time the overall winner has had the title stripped – with Celestial copping a 40-minute penalty for failing to maintain continuous radio watch after its distress beacon went off, costing them the overall handicap win to Ichi Ban.

In other Sydney to Hobart results, Master Lock Comanche took the honours Sunday as the first boat to cross the finish line in Hobart, ending LawConnect’s bid for a third straight win in the annual bluewater classic.