Image: Photo credit: Kurt Arrigo via ROLEX
The two-handed boat Min River has taken first place in the 80th annual Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race after a stunning penalisation of the initial frontrunners for breaking rules regarding sail use.
After a protest about the initial frontrunners, the boat BNC Leon which sported a flag from New Caledonia, a time penalty of one hour and five minutes on the craft being skippered by two Frenchmen, meaning that the Min River vessel was crowned the overall winner of the race.
The yacht was helmed by Jiang Lin and Alexis Loison, who initially needed to close a 54-minute gap with Min River to catch up on the BNC craft. However, when they saw a photo of one of BNC Leon’s sheet poles hanging well past the hull, they decided to launch the protest.
After convening this morning (31st December) to discuss the protest, the Race Committee for Sydney to Hobart declared that they had imposed the penalty on the BNC Leon in response. In their decision, they said: “In assessing the penalty, the Jury has ensured that any possible performance gains are accounted for and a proportionate penalty for a rule breach is also applied.”
Although the jury had decided that the BNC Leon did not break the rule deliberately, they imposed a penalty on the craft for breaking the rules. As a result, their previously guaranteed handicap honours soon went to Min River as the overall winners of the race.
This makes 2025 the first year that a double-handed yacht and a female-skippered yacht have taken the overall handicap prize in the annual event.
Rough conditions for the 2025 Sydney to Hobart
It was a particularly tough race, too – participants in the race found themselves sailing downwind immediately, and Lin’s co-skipper Alexis Loison said the first 48 hours were particularly tough.
These conditions led to a good percentage of boats bowing out in this timeframe due to seasickness, broken masts and other issues. Loison commented: “We had to hand steer the boat as the sea state was very bad. But yes, it was okay. This boat is nice for it, it likes downwind.”
Despite the rough weather, the conditions which led to two people tragically losing their lives in separate incidents due to unsecured sail booms have thankfully been avoided this year.
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