China boat honouring Min River takes Sydney to Hobart handicap title after French penalty
Jiang Lin and Alexis Loison had initially finished second, but French entry BNC was penalised for ‘inappropriate use of spinnaker’
Handicap honours in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race have changed hands after the French-crewed original first-place yacht was penalised 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 one hour and five minutes.
The verdict means Min River, originally second in the overall standings, took handicap honours. Min River, skippered by Jiang Lin and Alexis Loison, 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.”