Top three battle in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race decided: "Black Jack": played well and won the race

It took skipper Mark Bradford and the winning crew on the Reichel/Pugh 100 two days, 12 hours, 37 minutes and 17 seconds to secure the "Line Honours" of the 76th edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. For owner Peter Harburg, it was the longed-for first victory after many good placings in recent years. After second place in 2018, third place in 2017 and fifth place two years ago, when his boat led for a long time but was ultimately overtaken by four competitors, Harburg was finally able to celebrate this year. The proud owner touchingly said that he and his skipper "will burst into tears at any time". He continued modestly: "This is the Grand Prix of yachting in Australia. And I'm part of a winning team for the first time." Although Harburg did not sail in the race himself, he followed it closely on land via a live tracker. "We started with a 66-foot Black Jack and worked our way up to this one. Now we've won every race on the east coast of Australia. And we've beaten every other yacht off Australia's coast at different times and in different races."

When asked what tipped the scales in favour of "Black Jack's" victory in the three-way battle with the other two 100-foot yachts "LawConnect" and "Scallywag", Harburg's skipper Mark Bradford answered in two words: "the team." And they exploded with joy as the finishing cannon thundered out to greet the winners in front of Hobart's Constitution Dock. For the yacht "Black Jack" itself, it was not the first "Line Honours" - the boat had already won the long-distance classic once before in 2009 under its former name "Alfa Romeo". In the lighter winds towards the end of the race, it was now able to assert itself again as "Black Jack". After a rather stormy start, the boat still managed to reach a speed of six knots in two knots of wind on the final eleven nautical miles up the Derwant River.

A good two and a half hours after "Black Jack", Christian Beck's "LawConnect" was the second yacht to cross the finish line. Beck candidly recounted how tough the first night had been in 25 to 30 knots of wind. "It didn't put me off regatta sailing or this race now that I'm back on land," said Beck with a smile, "but I seriously don't want to relive that first day and that first night." Seasickness was not only an unwelcome companion for Beck on board during this edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. Beck congratulated his conqueror Peter Harburg very fairly. "If we had to be beaten, then I'm happy for Peter Harburg. He had some bad luck in this race. I'm happy for him and his crew."

David Witt and his "Scallywag" crew finished the 628 nautical mile long-distance race in third place after 2 days, 15 hours, 30 minutes and 52 seconds. Technical problems had robbed the crew of their initial lead early on. "It's thanks to the team that we made it here. But on the other hand, it's really disappointing. We've been trying to win this race for so long." Witt also blamed the Covid pandemic for the missed opportunity to win because his team had to leave the boat in Australia instead of being able to prepare it more intensively in its home waters off Hong Kong. However, the crew did a great job. The boat was fast enough. "We just couldn't keep it together," said Witt, who, like Christian Beck, was already talking about a comeback at the next race when he crossed the finish line in Hobart.

The next boats were expected to cross the finish line off Hobart in Tasmania on Wednesday night. 52 boats were still in the race late on Tuesday evening. In the battle for the coveted main prize, the Tattersall Cup for the IRC winners based on calculated time, Bruce Taylor's Caprice 40 "Chuzpah" was in the lead with a good 150 nautical miles to the finish. Click here for the intermediate results in all categories (please click!).