The International Jury of the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race has declared Min River, a JPK 1030, to be the winner of the International Rating Certificate (IRC) handicap category overall & thus, the winner of the George Adams Tattersall Cup in 2025. It follows Comanche, a VPLP Verdier 100, taking its 4th line honours victory & John H Illingworth Challenge Cup a couple of days earlier.
Min River is the 1st double-handed yacht to win the main handicap category of the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race.
One of her co-skippers, Jiang Lin, became the 1st woman to win the main handicap category as a skipper, though as she was sharing duties, she won’t be the 1st woman to win that title as the sole skipper.
It is special for me definitely, so I am very happy. It hasn’t sunk in yet. Maybe I wake up & say ‘Oh, that was a dream’.
Jiang Lin, ‘Min River’ co-skipper
Photograph: ‘Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race’
Their win follows a discretionary elapsed time penalty of 1 hour & 5 minutes being imposed by the International Jury on the initial IRC winner, BNC, an international double-handed entry from France.
BNC, a JPK 1080, initially ‘finished’ at 10:40:05am yesterday, 33rd on line honours, at a speed of 6.7 knots (12.4km/h). With a handicap of 1.036 giving an initial corrected finishing date, time & speed of 2:02:24pm the same day at 6.5 knots (12km/h), BNC was IRC clubhouse leader before later being declared the initial IRC winner while Min River‘s corrected finish date, time & speed was the 30st of December at 2:56:09pm at 6.4 knots (11.9km/h), having a handicap of 1.024 & finishing 41st on line honours at 12:38:26pm on the 30th of December at 6.6 knots (12.2km/h).
In assessing the penalty, the Jury has ensured that any possible performance gains are accounted for & a proportionate rule breach penalty is also applied.
This assessment was done after deciding to apply a discretionary elapsed time penalty instead of a disqualification or discretionary scoring to the yacht as they were satisfied that BNC did not deliberately break Australian Sailing Racing Rule Of Sailing 55.3 (see below) based on the report made and the evidence presented & re-enforced by the fact that the crew did this in full knowledge that spectators would be watching. They were satisfied of this after having heard & upheld a protest from the Race Committee.
55.3 Sheeting Sails
No sail shall be sheeted over or through any device that exerts
Australian Sailing Racing Rule Of Sailing 55.3(a)
outward pressure on a sheet or clew of a sail at a point from
which, with the boat upright, a vertical line would fall outside the hull or deck, except:
(a) a headsail clew may be connected (as defined in The
Equipment Rules of Sailing) to a whisker pole, provided
that a spinnaker is not set;
(b) any sail may be sheeted to or led above a boom that is
regularly used for a sail and is permanently attached to the
mast from which the head of the sail is set;
(c) a headsail may be sheeted to its own boom that requires
no adjustment when tacking; &
(d) the boom of a sail may be sheeted to a bumkin.
The International Jury found that in the last 4 kilometres (2 nautical miles) of the race, BNC set & used its A1.5 asymmetric spinnaker, with a spar connected to the sheet at one end and the mast at the other end. The spar exerted outward pressure on the sheet at a point from which, with the boat upright, a vertical line would fall outside the hull or deck. You can see the way the sail was set here:
The journey to this protest has been an interesting one over the past 24 hours. After BNC and Min River crossed the finish line & the latter watching the official broadcast of the former’s finish, an initial protest was brought to the International Jury’s attention by Min River, claiming BNC had breached Australian Sailing Racing Rule Of Sailing 55.3(a).
BNC this morning declared they had, in fact, breached that rule on the last 4 kilometres (2 nautical miles) downwind towards the finishing line, which initialised a 2nd protest, this time by the Race Committee, who promptly informed BNC of their intention. This latter protest has been resolved, as you can read above, while the former protest was withdrawn when the latter was resolved.
The International Jury noted in the previous 4 kilometres (2 nautical miles) before the rule breach that BNC gained a maximum of 5 minutes. Therefore, an extra 5 minutes was imposed in addition to the 1-hour penalty.
Min River was also co-skippered by Alexis Loison while BNC was sailed by Frenchmen, Yann Rigal & 1987 and 1990 Windsurfing World Champion, Michel Quintin.
It’s crazy to win. We are proud of ourselves.
Alexis Loison, ‘Min River’ co-skipper
The International Jury consists of Jamie Sutherland of New Zealand, Philippe Mazard of France, Russell Green of New Zealand & Richard Slater and David Tillett of Australia, the latter who is the Jury’s chair.
An informal trophy giving ceremony was held at the Hobart Race Village after the result of the protest was announced, where the crew of Min River were given the George Adams Tattersall Cup & a Rolex timepiece.
Line Honours
The IRC penalty comes after Comanche, a VPLP Verdier 100, took its 4th line honours victory & John H Illingworth Challenge Cup a couple of days earlier at 06:03:36pm AEDT on December the 28th, beating LawConnect, a custom Juan K 100, by 47 minutes and 4 seconds & 9 nautical miles (17 kilometres).
It was the 31-metre yacht’s 4th ever victory. She didn’t break the race record this year, which they currently hold & is a finishing date/time of December 27th at 10:15:24pm AEDT.
All but 4 of the 19-person crew of Comanche in 2024 were the same this year plus they had 2 additional crew members.
This was about redemption. You can’t achieve something like this without an incredible team & that’s what we have.
The run up the Derwent was the best I’ve had in 33 races. The sailing was superb & the welcome in Hobart was unbelievable.
Tasmania embraced us. That’s something I’ll never forget.
James Mayo, ‘Comanche’ co-skipper
For his co-skipper, Matt Allen, the triumph was defined by composure under pressure.
An informal trophy giving ceremony was held at the Hobart Race Village when Comanche docked, where they were given the John H Illingworth Challenge Cup & a Rolex timepiece.
Meanwhile, the formal Prizegiving will be held at 3pm at the Hotel Grand Chancellor.
There are still 5 yachts racing.
Virtual Race
Also, in the e-race on Virtual Regatta, French user, EdY-PVe/SERVTEC/D-ICE finished on the 29th of December at 7:47:29pm AEDT to win out of a field of 12,234 skippers, winning in front of 2nd place user, MC kele / INC-BUREAU VALLEE of Italy, by 6 seconds.
Sydney Spectaculars 
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