Sydney Hobart: Overall title undecided

Hobart, Australia (December 29, 2021) – No sooner had the fight for line honors in the 2021 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race been won and lost by the three 100-footers in the race early this morning, attention turned towards the main event – that being, the race for overall victory and the prestigious Tattersall Cup.

While the owners, crews and staff of the front-running big boats were well into celebrating or commiserating their fate in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s 628 nautical mile event, in their wake was a fleet scrapping for their place on Division and ultimately their overall place.

The Tattersall Cup, awarded to the boat that finishes first on corrected time, is the most prestigious award for the race, notwithstanding the broad appeal of the line honors race.

First to finish and take line honours for the J. H. Illingworth Cup was Peter Harburg’s Black Jack that crossed the line at 1:37am in a time of 2 days 12 hours 37 minutes 17 seconds.

Second was Christian Beck’s LawConnect in 2 days 15 hours 11 minutes 44 seconds. Third was Seng Huang Lee’s SHK Scallywag 100 in 2 days 15 hours 30 minutes 52 seconds.

The next boat to finish at 3:22pm and take fourth place on line honors after challenging the 100-footers early was the Botin 80 Stefan Racing, skippered by co-owner Grant Wharington.

The JV62 Whisper was the next boat to finish on line honours in fifth place, riding a strong south-westerly blowing at 20 knots on the Derwent River, crossing the finish just over half an hour behind in second overall on IRC in Division 0, with Matt Allen’s Botin 52 Ichi Ban – the two-time Tattersall Cup winner – taking the divisional win after finishing at 04:45:29pm.

Sam Haynes’ TP52 Celestial was seventh over the line, moving to the top of the Division 1 IRC standings and taking the overall lead on IRC.

The race fleet dropped by one at 1pm with confirmation that the Beneteau 473 Wonderland, owned and skippered by Rebecca Connor, had withdrawn due to equipment issues. Wonderland, in her second Rolex Sydney Hobart, was this afternoon heading to Bermagui on NSW south coast.

Wonderland’s retirement meant that the race now had 37 retirements, three finishers and 48 boats still sailing, of which 10 are racing in the Two-Handed division.

The overall standings were shifting a lot this afternoon, and will probably continue to do so.

But at 3pm, leading overall was Shane Kearns’ S&S 34 White Bay 6 Azzurro that was 27 nautical miles east of Flinders Island. It has been in the fray since the race began on Boxing day.

In second place was Simon Kurts’ S&S 47 Love & War, followed by Mark Dribitko’s Beneteau First 40 Fruit Salid 3.

Other overall contenders in the fray included Ichi Ban and Celestial, two TP52 entrants that were separated by only 400m as they charged up the Derwent River in a mighty tussle.

Race details – Results – Tracking – Facebook

The 628 nm Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race will be the 76th edition in 2021 with a fleet of 88 boats that include three international entries. One hundred fifty seven teams set off in 2019 for the 75th edition, but since then the 2020 race was cancelled due to the pandemic and uncertainty has hovered this year.

From the start in Sydney Harbour, the fleet sails out into the Tasman Sea, down the south-east coast of mainland Australia, across Bass Strait (which divides the mainland from the island State of Tasmania), then down the east coast of Tasmania. At Tasman Island the fleet turns right into Storm Bay for the final sail up the Derwent River to the historic port city of Hobart.

Source: RSHYR