76th Rolex Sydney Hobart Race decided at the green table: Historic third Sydney Hobart victory for "Ichi Ban"

Australian Matt Allen and his crew on "Ichi Ban" have won the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race for the third time on calculated time. Following victories in 2017 and 2019, this was the third triumph in the 76th edition of the long-distance classic, in which six sailors died in a storm of the century in 1998. Before "Ichi Ban", only two boats had won three times in the history of the race since its premiere in 1945: "Freya" (1963, 1964, 1965) and "Love & War" (1974, 1978, 2006).

After the traditional start on Boxing Day in Sydney, the current edition got off to a stormy start with gusts of up to 40 knots of wind. High swells had severely challenged the fleet of the 88 yachts originally entered. Only 50 boats reached the finish line or will do so in the coming hours. Peter Harburg's 100-foot maxi "Black Jack" was the fastest yacht to complete the 628 nautical mile course after just 2 days, 12 hours, 37 minutes and 17 seconds. The half-size boat 52 "Ichi Ban" took 3 days, 3 hours, 42 minutes and 29 seconds. This time was worth the overall victory in the IRC handicap classification.

The "Celestial" crew's dream of victory was dashed at the green table

Sam Hayne's team on the calculated even faster TP 52 "Celestial", a design by the Bremerhaven yacht designers Judel/Vrolijk, lost the overall victory, which was already within their grasp, after two protests by the winners and the race organisers at the green table. The protests were essentially directed against the inaccessibility of the "Celestial" crew after they inadvertently triggered a PLB distress signal. Both the race committee and - on their behalf - the "Ichi Ban" crew and later the crew of the "Quest" had tried in vain for more than an hour and a half to reach the "Celestial" crew at sea and in a supposed emergency situation.

The Australian rescue centre AMSA had informed the race committee at 23:53 local time about the reception of the PLB distress signal from the "Celestial". The "Celestial" crew had not responded to radio calls or to a white flare shown by the "Ichi Ban" in consultation with the race committee. The red signal rocket subsequently fired by the "Ichi Ban" crew also initially failed to elicit any response from the "Celestial" crew, who only made contact with "Ichi Ban" at 1.30 a.m. and only then contacted the race committee to explain the accidental triggering of the PLB signal and to reassure them that the entire crew was unharmed. Later ashore, the "Celestial" crew explained that they had not heard the radio calls in the noise of the running engine and with the watermaker switched on in an overtired state.

In the protest decision against the "Celestial" it was stated, among other things, that twelve other PLB signals had been accidentally triggered on other boats during the race and that all the crews concerned had reported back within 25 minutes. The protest of the "Ichi Ban" crew was upheld and three minutes were deducted from their sailed time. Above all, however, in the judgement of the highly experienced jury of six, 40 minutes were added to Celestial's actual time as a penalty. As a result, Sam Hayne's crew dropped back to second place in the overall standings in the battle for the Tattersall Cup. Click here for the results in all ten scoring divisions (please click!).

"Of course it's always nice to win without having to go into the protest room, but rules are an important part of our sport," said winner Matt Allen at the finish harbour in Hobart, where he and his crew happily hoisted the coveted Tattersall Cup into the sky. Allen's recipe for success: "I have a mixture of young, old and wise crew members. It's a victory we'll all never forget."

The Akilaria RC 2 "Sidewinder" secured the "Line Honours" in the two-handed classification this year. Jules Hall's "Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth" won the two-handed IRC classification. There was much discussion in Sydney and Hobart about the separate classification of teams and double-handed teams. The organisers want to create new possibilities here for next year.

The organisers justified the fact that the double-handed sailors were unable to compete for the Tattersall Cup by citing problems with including the autopilot factor in the handicap. The "Scallywag" skipper David Witt, who came third in the battle for the crew "Line Honours", said: "That's ridiculous! You can't have a two-hander without an autopilot. So if you let them take part in the race, that shouldn't be a point of discussion either. It's ridiculous that you can take part in a race but not win it." "Black Jack" skipper Mark Bradford also took up the cudgels in favour of the two-handed sailors: "As a crew, we also use all kinds of control systems on board. In my opinion, it's no different whether you have a canting keel or an autopilot. We should embrace this future of sailing more."