Two French sailors lose handicap honors in the Sydney to Hobart race for illegal sail use

HOBART, Australia (AP) — Handicap honors in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race have changed hands after the French-crewed original first-place yacht was penalized for breaking rules relating to sail use.

Michel Quintin and Yann Rigal, based in New Caledonia, had the Tattersall Cup won after skippering the 35-foot BNC to the best time corrected on handicap.

But race committee chairman Lee Goddard confirmed on Wednesday they had lost top spot after being given a time penalty of 1 hour, 5 minutes.

The verdict means Min River, originally the second-place yacht in the overall standings, took handicap honors. Min River, skippered by Jiang Lin, had lodged a post-race protest.

Min River then withdrew its protest, with BNC opting to declare to the race committee they had broken a rule relating to the configuration of a sail on the front of the yacht.

“That penalty is absolutely proportionate,” Goddard said. “They’ve used their spinnaker in an inappropriate way. They did not deliberately do it. But it was photographed with two nautical miles to go.”

The international jury made the ruling after an hourlong hearing at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania in Hobart.

BNC’s handicap time, which is calculated on a range of factors including yacht size, was just 54 minutes ahead of Min River. Both are double-handed yachts, crewed by just two people, and were among the smallest in the Sydney to Hobart fleet.

Min River arrived in Sydney 2023 and was named by Lin after the river in China which flows through the province where her parents lived.

Quintin, who represented France in windsurfing at the 1988 Olympics, and Rigal had celebrated dockside on Tuesday morning after being the first double-handed yacht to cross the finish line. They spent four nights at sea and battled without wind detection instruments after some of their electronic equipment went down while crossing Bass Strait.

Master Lock Comanche claimed line honors in 80th edition of the race on Sunday after holding off two fellow supermaxis in a dogfight off Tasmania’s east coast. The race had started in Sydney harbor last Friday.

More than a quarter of the starting fleet of 128 yachts were forced to retire in brutal early upwind sailing.