New South Wales boat Balance is the overall winner of the 2015 Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
Owner and skipper Paul Clitheroe has spent more than a day waiting to see if any other contender could beat his handicap time and on Thursday morning officials declared the result.
“Congratulations to Paul Clitheroe and his Balance crew, officially announced as 2015 overall winners,” race organisers tweeted.
Clitheroe, 60, better known for giving financial advice in the media, sailed Balance to a class win in 2014 and has gone one better in 2015.
With his crew of 12, Clitheroe crossed the line on Tuesday night, finishing seventh in line honours with a time of three days, three hours, 50 minutes and 45 seconds.
It was some 21 hours behind race winner, US supermaxi Comanche, but Clitheroe was just grateful to finish the 628-nautical mile voyage, which he said produced mixed conditions.
“I got smashed off the NSW coast and [then] I’m sitting in Bass Strait in a millpond, I could have gone fishing,” he said after reaching Constitution Dock.
The boat finished with a broken mainsail and was one of many competitors damaged, including top-three Comanche, Ragamuffin and Rambler, who were forced to make at-sea repairs to continue their campaigns.
Late on Wednesday the smallest boat in the race fleet - 33-foot Quikpoint Azzurro - had a big chance of knocking Balance off its honours perch.
Clitheroe denied he was anxious waiting to see if the challenger could meet Thursday’s 4.43am (AEDT) deadline. “There’s nothing I can do about it,” the veteran sailor said.
Ultimately, Quikpoint Azzurro couldn’t meet the challenge with owner-skipper Shane Kearns frustrated to lose a large margin overnight at the mouth of Hobart’s Derwent River.
“It was really frustrating, we knew we had a time limit,” Kearns told AAP after crossing the line.
“We really wanted to come first but there was just no wind and what wind there was, was the wrong direction. Sailing can be a fun and cruel sport all in one go.”
After reaching top speeds under spinnaker coming down Tasmania’s east coast on Wednesday, Quikpoint Azzurro had more than eight hours to cover the final 40 nautical miles.
But it wasn’t to be. “If the breeze had stayed in we would have whooped his arse and won,” Kearns said.
Clitheroe will be presented with the Tattersall’s Cup later in the morning.
There are only a handful of yachts still to cross the finish line, with latecomer Myuna III due to arrive on Friday.
