Balance Wins Sydney Hobart Race

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.

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Hobart Enters Comanche Territory

American supermaxi Comanche performed the ultimate comeback to take line honours in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, some two days after she turned back to the start line, damaged and ready to withdraw.

The 100-footer crossed the finish line at Hobart’s Constitution Dock on Monday in an unofficial time of two days, eight hours and 58 minutes, outside her 2014 debut race time of two days, two hours and 52 minutes when she came second to defending champion, Wild Oats XI.

Clark’s Australian wife Kristy Hinze-Clark steered the boat across the finish line after making her maiden Sydney to Hobart race voyage and Comanche pulled into the dock to many cheers before the crew was showered in champagne and presented with a trophy.

After Wild Oats XI retired with sail damage on Saturday, nothing could hold back Comanche, not even her own damage.

During the first night at sea the super yacht hit something in the water and lost a dagger board which damaged the rudder after it broke off.

The crisis cost Comanche her 12-mile lead over Rambler as the crew at first considered retiring and even turned the boat around, before scrambling to make repairs.

The crew adapted, skipper Ken Read said. “We’ve learned how to sail the boat a little differently, without a dagger board [and] with only part of a rudder,” he told the Seven Network on Monday.

“Fortunately we’ve got an incredible crew on board this boat that figured out a couple of little tricks and kind of fixed the steering system and we figured out how to sail the boat a little better on starboard tack without a board, and off we go.”

It took 13 hours to hunt down Rambler which Comanche overtook on Sunday, before maintaining the lead all the way to Hobart.

In a race plagued by damage and withdrawals which saw the starting fleet of 108 reduced to 31, all three of the lead boats suffered.

Along with Comanche’s woes, Rambler and third-placed Australian Ragamuffin have both reported dagger board damage.

The latter boat performed dangerous on-the-run repairs enabling her to continue, skipper David Witt said.

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Sydney-Hobart Winner Upheld

Investec Loyal's victory in the Rolex Sydney-Hobart 2011 race has been upheld after a protest claiming its crew asked a media helicopter pilot to spy on a rival was dismissed.

An international yacht racing committee hearing cleared skipper Anthony Bell's Australian boat of any wrongdoing.

Investec Loyal's win was the closest in 28 years, the boat crossing the line minutes ahead of Wild Oats XI.

"It's an against-the-odds victory for us," Bell said.

"But I'd prefer if there was a question mark on anything in the race that it was dealt with properly, rather than it being overlooked. You won't want to hear about it in years to come."

He added: "We felt when we left the dock on Boxing Day that we were going to do well this year."

The protest claimed that an Investec Loyal crew member asked the helicopter pilot whether Wild Oats XI was using a tri-sail as the two boats sailed down the Australian east coast on Tuesday morning.

Under yacht racing rules, such a request could be viewed as outside assistance.

The committee ruled that the crewman's question was not aimed at gaining a racing advantage, but was linked to his business as he had sold the sail to Wild Oats XI.

Investec Loyal took two days, six hours, 14 minutes and 18 seconds to finish the 680 nautical mile race - well outside the record of one day, 18 hours and 40 minutes.

TOP 10 FINAL STANDINGS

1) Investec Loyal

2) Wild Oats XI

3) Lahana

4) Loki

5) Hugo Boss

6) Living Doll

7) Ichi ban

8) Calm

9) Jazz

10) Ragamuffin