All times below are in Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT)
They didn’t make “the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs” this year…
The last competing boat in the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race 2025, Millennium Falcon, a Sparkman & Stephens 39, finished at 10:22:42am on January the 1st (New Year’s Day) in 93rd position on line honours bringing the 80th edition of The Great Race South to a close.
Prime Example Penalised 1 Hour
Photograph: Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race
Meanwhile, Prime Example has been penalised 1 hour by the International Jury.
A boat shall not receive help from any outside source, except
Racing Rule Of Sailing (RRS) 41
(a) help for a crew member who is ill, injured or in danger;
(b) after a collision, help from the crew of the other vessel to get
clear;
(c) help in the form of information freely available to all boats;
(d) unsolicited information from a disinterested source, which may be another boat in the same race.
Crew intending to continue to race may go ashore solely for the purpose of making fast & thereafter shall immediately reembark. No outside assistance shall be accepted by the boat or the crew other than as permitted in RRS 41.
Sailing Instruction (SI) 16.3
At 11am on New Year’s Eve, the Race Committee brought forward a protest against Prime Example, who finished 66th on line honours, to the International Jury, who heard it 15 minutes later. The skipper of the yacht, Rob Fisher, attended the hearing via phone while the Race Committee didn’t attend at all.
At 12:10pm, the International Jury announced they had decided to add a discretionary elapsed time penalty of 1 hour to Prime Example‘s elapsed time. In assessing the penalty, the Jury accepted that there were no performance gains but that a proportionate rule breach penalty will also be 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 Prime Example did not deliberately break the rules.
During the race, Prime Example temporarily suspended racing to make electrical repairs. While making the electrical repairs, they misunderstood that breaking RRS 41 or SI 16.3 as only occurring if someone from off Prime Example came onboard & helped them rectify their problem. As a result, they received & used a replacement multi-meter from off the yacht as a 2nd confirmation that their issue was rectified. Prime Example self-declared the circumstances in its declaration post-race, which prompted the Race Committee’s protest that the International Jury heard & upheld.
Prime Example, a Davidson 52, was therefore penalised 1 hour, swapping places with Flying Fish Arctos, a McIntyre 55 & one of the yachts that befell tragedy last edition, on line honours to be the 67th yacht officially across the finish line.
Photograph: ‘Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race’
Prime Example initially ‘finished’ at 4:22:26pm on the 30th of December while Flying Fish Arctos finished the same day at 4:57:14 pm. Prime Example has now ‘finished’ at 5:22:26pm. Both yachts raced at a speed of about 11.7 kilometres per hour (km/h) (6.3 knots).
Flying Fish Arctos doesn’t focus on results & was skippered by Drew Hulton-Smith and navigated by Timo Kairi. Their 10-person crew included Mathew Ackroyd, Jenny O’Donoghue, Sarah Jane Pell, Paul Harvell, Heidi King, Tristan Kusel, Ben Lam, Kam Foo Loke, James O’Neill & Iain Wilcock.
Prime Example was skippered by Rob Fisher & navigated by Bruce Perry. Their 10-person crew included John Davis, Ian Campbell, Ramandeep Kaur, Danny Johnson, Jenna Cook, Brandon Fisher, Morgan Prince, William Davison, Grant Skingle & Charlie Webb.
Sydney Spectaculars 
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