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Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race Ultimate Guide: Why pensioners Kathy Veel and Bridget Canham are aiming to go one better this year

In last year's Sydney to Hobart , Kathy Veel and Bridget Canham lit up Constitution Dock right on the brink of the New Year.

Onboard their Yacht 'Currawong', the two sailed over the finish line 18 minutes before the clock ticked over 2023.

While they may have finished 83rd, they were winners in the eyes of everyone watching on, having become the first-ever two-handed female crew to conquer Australia's greatest sailing event.

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Now they're back, ready to compete again on Boxing Day.

And while they're used to bunking in close quarters, 71-year-old Veel and 63-year-old Canham haven't always been overly familiar with each other.

"We are (close) now. We weren't close friends particularly when we started this but now we've spent so much time together ... we pretty much know what each other is going to say next," Veel told 9News Sydney.

For both women, while there is a definite love of sailing, another motivator for competing in the prestigious race is overcoming a stigma around their age.

"Just because you get to a certain age, it doesn't mean your future is in the bridge club or the bowls club," Veel said.

"You can inspire people to reach their own goals, they don't have to do a Sydney to Hobart, their own goal might be to own their own boat or learn how to sail," Canham added.

Last year, the satisfaction for both women came from crossing the finish line at Constitution Dock last year.

No doubt, there was pandemonium with the sound of cheers from spectators, coupled by the sight of fireworks only minutes after finishing.

But the two sailors aren't satisfied with just completing the race this year.

"I want to be there to welcome the last boat in," Veel said.

Ahead of the 2023 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, here is everything you need to know.

What time does the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race start?

The famed bluewater yacht race kicks off on Sydney Harbour at 1pm AEDT on Tuesday, December 26.

Who has entered into the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race?

113 boats have entered for the 78th running of the event including four 100-foot maxis and several past winners.

There are 10 international entrants including three from New Zealand, two from Hong Kong, and competitors from New Caledonia, USA, France, Germany and Ireland.

Australia is represented across all six states with New South Wales boasting 60 entries while Queensland fields 18, Victoria 15, Tasmania seven, Western Australia two, and South Australia one.

How long is the race?

The race is 628 nautical miles long and takes an the winner around 48 hours or just under to complete.

How can you watch the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race?

You can watch the race via the 7 Network, with live coverage beginning on 7Mate from 12.30pm (AEDT) on Boxing Day.

Where is the best place to see the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race?

Accor Sydney recommends watching from the northern shore of Sydney, or even from around the Harbour Bridge. You'll likely be able to see the yachts pass you by at Cremorne Point, Bradley's Head and Clifton Gardens.

As for Hobart, finding a spot at Battery Point, where the races finishes, is your best bet.

Who is the favourite to win the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race?

There are a few favourites for the 2023 race.

TAB has Andoo Comanche at $1.50, followed by Law Connect at $3.60 and SHK Scallywag at $8.00.

What is the prize for winning the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race?

The winners will take home the Tattersall Cup. It was first presented in 1946 by the Executors of the Estate of the late George Adams, who was the founder of Tattersall Lotteries in Hobart.

Who are the previous winners of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

2000: SAP Ausmaid

2001: Bumblebee 5

2002: Quest

2003: First National

2005: Wild Oats XI

2006: Love & War

2007: Rosebud

2008: Quest

2009: Two True

2010: Secret Men's Business 3.5

2012: Wild Oats XI

2013: Victoire

2014: Wild Rose

2015: Balance

2016: Giacomo

2017: Ichi Ban

2018: Alive

2019: Ichi Ban

2020: Not conducted

2021: Ichi Ban

2022: Celestial

What is the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race record?

The race record of 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes, and 24 seconds was set by LDV Comanche for Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant in 2017.

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Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race ultimate guide: Everything you need to know

The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race returns in 2021 after last year’s cancelation due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In new eligibility precautions, all sailors had to be double vaccinated and had a negative Covid test before the start of the race, while any that test positive must retire.

After days at sea and at the conclusion of the race, crews will be confined to their boats until they produce a negative test.

LATEST UPDATE: Early drama strikes Sydney to Hobart fancy amid ‘turn around immediately’ fears

While Kayo Sports won‘t be streaming this year’s Sydney to Hobart, it does offer sailing as one of more than 50 sports it has on offer including the exciting SailGP, which is shown live on Kayo and with replays.

Here are the key things you need to know ahead of the 76th running of the great race.

WHAT TIME DOES IT START?

The 2021 race kicked off on Sunday, January 26 at 1pm AEDT from Sydney Harbour.

HOW MANY BOATS ARE COMPETING?

The fleet stands at 91 following the withdrawals of Volvo Open 70, Willow , and the Infiniti 46R, Maverick 49 , with boats ranging from 100 feet to 30 feet set to compete.

WHY ARE THERE TWO PRIZES?

There are two key prizes given out in the Sydney to Hobart race. The first boat to cross the line at the Constitution Dock in Hobart receives line honours (J.H Illingworth Trophy), usually given to the biggest, fastest boats in the race.

However, handicap honours, or the overall winner, is considered the more prestigious award (Tattersall‘s Cup), where boats are rated on their expected speed of the vessel’s size and other statistics.

It’s possible to win both awards, although the latter is usually won by smaller physically slower boats to create an equaliser to the fleet.

WHO ARE THE LINE-HONOUR FAVOURITES?

Three maximum-sized 100-foot boats currently have the shortest odds in LawConnect , SHAK Scallywag 100 and Black Jack .

WHO ARE THE HANDICAP FAVOURITES?

Previous winners Alive from Tasmania and Ichi Ban , who triumphed in the 2019 race, as well as White Bay 6 Azzuro and Gweillo are the frontrunners.

HOW CAN I WATCH IT?

Coverage will begin on 7

A live telecast will also be available via the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race website .

HOW CAN I FOLLOW THE BOATS ONLINE?

Race sponsor Rolex has a tracker on their website using GPS devices for each vessel activated once it begins.

WHAT IS THE FLEET, COURSE AND DISTANCE?

The fleet ranges from 100 to 30 feet and heads through Sydney Heads then moves south down the coast.

Boats race down the Bass Straight and east coast of Tasmania and through Storm Bay, then finish at Hobart’s Derwent River.

The rhumb line — the shortest distance between Sydney and Hobart is 628 nautical miles (1163 kilometres), however yachts inevitably cover more distance as they follow the fastest route available.

WHO WON LAST YEAR?

The race was cancelled at the last minute last year due to a Covid-19 cluster in Sydney’s northern beaches where many sailors reside.

WHO ARE THE PREVIOUS LINE-HONOUR WINNERS?

2019 - Comanche

2018 - Wild Oats XI

2017 - LDV Comanche

2016 - Perpetual LOYAL

2015 - Comanche

2014 - Wild Oats XI

2013 - Wild Oats XI

2012 - Wild Oats XI

2011 - Investec Loyal

2010 - Wild Oats XI

WHO ARE THE PREVIOUS HANDICAP WINNERS?

2019 - Ichi Ban

2018 - Alive

2017 - Ichi ban

2016 - Giacomo

2015 - Balance V

2014 - Wild Rose

2013 - Victoire

2012 - Wild oats XI

2011 - Loki

2010 - Secret Men’s Business

Yachting World

• Digital Edition

How to follow the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race

• Toby Heppell
• December 19, 2022

The Rolex Sydney Hobart Race is due to set off on boxing day once again in 2022, with an impressive 111 boats due to take to the startline

Sydney sailors are counting down the days – not until December 25, but the 26, for the much-anticipated Rolex Sydney Hobart Race .

The blue riband offshore classic was cancelled for the first time in its 76 years in 2020, but bounced back in 2021 and will go ahead one more this year with an impressive fleet of 111 boats entered for the 2022 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, which begins on Sydney Harbour at 1pm Monday 26 December.

As is often the case in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, the bulk of the fleet is made up of Australian boats and teams, but there are 8 international boats participating this year, including entrants from Germany ( Orione ), Hong Kong ( Antipodes ), Hungary ( Cassiopeia 68 ), New Caledonia ( Eye Candy and Poulpito ), New Zealand ( Caro ), the United Kingdom ( Sunrise ) and the United States of America ( Warrior Won ).

At the sharp end of the fleet, four 100-foot maxis will lead the charge for Line Honours – Andoo Comanche , Black Jack , Hamilton Island Wild Oats and LawConnect . On current form, Andoo Comanche is likely to be favourite to cross the finish line first.

The start of the Sydney Hobart Race means a congested Sydney Harbour. Photo: Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi

Black Jack won Line Honours in the 2021 Rolex Sydney Hobart, while Andoo Comanche holds the race record (1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds) and Hamilton Island Wild Oats (formerly Wild Oats XI ) has the most Line Honours wins in race history, with nine.

Two-handed entrants will for the first time be eligible to win the Tattersall Cup (the prize given to the winner of the race on handicap). A total of 21 two-handed boats are preparing to race, including those that finished second and third respectively in the race’s inaugural Two-Handed Division last year – Crux (Carlos Aydos/Peter Grayson) and Speedwell (Campbell Geeves/Wendy Tuck).

How to follow the 2022 Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race

• In Australia Sydney is expected to send off the fleet in style when the race starts at 1300hrs (local time) on Saturday, 26 December.

Spectator boats can watch the start from the eastern channel and follow the fleet down the Harbour to the Heads. Spectator boats wanting to remain in the Harbour may remain in the western side. Exclusion zones will be in place from 1200-1400.

• On television The race start will be broadcast live via the Seven Network, through 7Mate around Australia.

Live coverage will also be webcast on the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race website, with replays available shortly after. See  https://rolexsydneyhobart.com/

• On social Follow the event on twitter for race updates and via  Facebook

• On race tracker The live race tracker will be viewable at  https://rolexsydneyhobart.com/tracker

• Play along on Virtual Regatta

There is also a Virtual Regatta edition for the race, allowing you to virtually pit yourself against thousands over the same course, see  https://www.virtualregatta.com/en/offshore-game/

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The Yacht Race You Need to See to Believe

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Considered one of the most difficult yacht races in the world, this is one of Australia’s most beloved and anticipated events.

What Is It?

The yacht race starts in Sydney, Australia and takes racers all the way to the Tassie capital of Hobart , taking place over several days. The winner often reaches the finish line in less than two. With over 100 contestants, this is an extremely challenging and competitive race.

What Can You Expect

Interested in catching the end of the race? Go to Hobart’s Constitution Dock where the fleet will arrive after finishing the race and witness local new year festivities.

The race is held by both the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (Sydney). The winner receives a Rolex watch--hence the festival’s name. It is extremely difficult to win and the crews of the yachts compete at the most professional level.

When and Where?

Not sure where to go? If you want to celebrate with the yacht’s captain’s and enjoy champagne, then you will want to go to Hobart.To get there, fly into Hobart’s international airport .

Go to the Royal Botanical Gardens for the best view of the competing yachts. For a fun time, bring food and snacks for a picnic. If you want to see the boats cross the finish line, then you will need to stay in Hobart beforehand. Most boats start to arrive 2 or 3 days after the race begins.

The race started in 1945. Since that time, its taken place every single year without missing a beat. Yacht racing can find its origins in England.

Luckily for spectators, the event only costs money for those yachts that register to compete.

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In a Long Race Like the Sydney Hobart, How Does the Crew Sleep?

Not well. No one gets a full night’s sleep, and there is no guarantee of a dry bunk. One sailor said, “Do I want to sleep, or do I want to win?”

By Kimball Livingston

A natural question from anyone who does not race under sail on the ocean might be, do they sleep on those boats? The simple answer is yes. And no.

They don’t sleep well.

On the fastest boats in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, the crews count on covering the entire 628 nautical miles in a day and a half. Sacrificing a good night’s sleep is nothing compared with the bragging rights of competing. However, “Sleep is a weapon,” said Christopher Lewis, navigator on LawConnect, a 100-footer that recently won the Australian Maxi Championship, and is expected to race starting on Monday.

While the rest of the boat’s crew divides into scheduled watch groups to alternate between sailing and sleeping, pressing ahead day and night, Lewis, as navigator, will plan catnaps around weather forecast updates, radio schedules and transition points on the course.

Any time he has done his work and might reasonably hope conditions will stabilize for a bit, that’s an invitation to sleep. Perhaps it’s never enough, but he said, “Whenever I have to force myself back up, I ask, ‘do I want to sleep, or do I want to win?’”

Chances are, Lewis will have a warm hotel bed his second night after leaving Sydney. Life is different on smaller, slower boats. Most sailors on those boats will be out three days and nights or more. There are well-established strategies for structuring work and rest. Three hours on watch and three hours off is a popular system, applied aboard Shane Kearns’ 34-foot White Bay 6 Azzurro . But as a veteran of 18 races to Hobart, Kearns, the skipper and owner, has his own version of the three on, three off.

“The boat’s interior is small,” he said. “It doesn’t work to have three people pulling on their gear at the same time.” So, on his boat, he changes out one person each hour for a three-hour watch. He added, “There are advantages as well, because we never have three groggy people taking over from three tired people. When the new guy comes on deck, he has time to get dialed in.”

Kearns knows that it takes time to orient — especially if it’s day two or night three — crawling out of a bunk after three hours off watch, with less than three hours of sleep, perhaps wedged into a bunk with a spare sail.

And there is a lot behind that word, orient. The breeze could be up or down from the way it was before. The forward sail might have been changed. The seas could be driving in from a new and awkward direction, slapping the hull, nudging the boat off course and making hard work for the person at the helm.

Steering at night, the goal is to note the compass direction, then pick a star and aim for that. The rudder must be worked with alert finesse, no more than necessary; too much input slows the boat. And stars move across the sky, so your lodestar from three hours ago will no longer do. Only when all of this is taken in is the new watch stander prepared to join the fight.

Kearns said he was a 25-year veteran of the Australian Army, where he learned plenty about sleep deficit.

“They’d make us work all night, then test what we could do,” he said. “You can’t ask that of civilians.” As skipper, Kearns has responsibilities that cut into his three hours of time off. That’s his normal. Twenty-five years in the army, remember.

And Kearns can tell you what happens when it all goes wrong. He raced in 1998, the year a storm claimed five boats and six lives.

“When the storm hit, the watch system fell apart,” he said. “With six people aboard, we kept two in the cockpit and four below, so at least we knew where those four were. But they weren’t sleeping. Dog-sick and thrown around too much for sleep is more like it. Thirty-six hours later we were becalmed off the Tasman coast, not a breath of wind.”

And that, he might have added, is how the breaks go in yacht racing. At least it’s a good chance for someone to catch up on sleep.

Then, different again, there is the two-handed division , introduced last year, in which Martin Cross will be racing with his son John. But there are ironies.

“It’s called double-handing, but you’re really sailing single-handed and then turning the deck over to your other single-hander,” Martin Cross said. “The only time we’ll be on deck, two together, will be at the start and finish.

“We’re planning three-hour watches, but if I’m feeling good, I might give John a little extra time in the bunk and vice versa. We know for sure we’ll both be tired.”

This will be the first two-handed Sydney Hobart for the father and the first one for the son. Martin Cross once thought he might sail with all three of his sons, “but babies got in the way,” he said.

Martin and his son scheduled training around John’s work, but both have ample ocean experience, and they’ve done enough as a twosome to have stories.

There was that race aboard their 33-foot Transcendence Crento where Martin Cross said that his sleeping son had to “swim up from the very deep.”

“I was literally screaming at him, and it wasn’t until I shook him hard that he came to,” he said.

In racing two-handed, Martin Cross said: “The one advantage we have is that we are allowed to use an autohelm device. We don’t have to steer nonstop.”

The autohelm, or autopilot, can often perform as well or almost as well as a human, and better than a fatigued human. That allows the person on watch to adjust the sails as the wind changes, make inspections and repairs, prepare meals, wash dishes, navigate, consider strategies and check the time to see how much longer till he’s finally off watch.

While father and son don’t expect to spend time together during the race, the time spent visualizing the race, planning the race, prepping the boat and sailing short races is a collaborative adventure. “It’s a great bonding experience for both of us,” Martin Cross said. “John and I are closer now than we’ve ever been.”

Last Sydney to Hobart yacht arrives with 18 minutes left of 2022

A ny other day, they would have slipped quietly into Constitution Dock. But when 70-year-old Kathy Veel and 62-year-old Bridget Canham crossed the Sydney to Hobart finish line - the last of the fleet to do so - at 11.42pm on New Year’s Eve, it was as if they’d heralded the early arrival of 2023.

A crowd in the thousands who had packed out the Hobart shoreline to ring in the new year chanted “Currawong, Currawong!” as the two-hander made its way past the packed-out Taste of Summer festival and around Constitution Dock.

Cheers came from the water, too, where boats had lined up to greet the nine-metre yacht as it pushed up the River Derwent.

After a lap of honour around the thrilled spectators, interviews on the boat, and the well-deserved popping of a giant bottle of champagne: the fireworks. Veel and Canham watched from the 1973 vessel that had carried them south.

You couldn’t have written a better ending to a story that stretched five days at sea, 630 nautical miles, and a day of waiting in Eden as they waited for bad weather in Bass Strait to pass.

“You wouldn’t believe the stops we pulled to get this happening,” said Canham. “The biggest challenge we had was getting here before New Year’s Eve,” she said. “We’ve been working our butts off to get here. And it’s paid off.”

Veel said the experience was “unbelievable”. “[It was like] nothing I’ve ever had ... in my whole life, she said. “When you heard people going, ‘Curr-a-wong!’, I thought, ‘What?!’

“I’m really proud of what we’ve done.”

The sailors described the weather conditions down the coast as “brilliant”.

“The boat behaved so well, it was just magic,” said Canham, a retired nurse.

The sailors are among the oldest to compete in the Sydney to Hobart race, and certainly the oldest in the race’s new two-handed fleet section. But Veel, a retired teacher now living in Bullabarra, near Katoomba, said they didn’t want to be defined by their age - nor their sex.

“It’s not, to be honest, how we think of ourselves,” said Veel in the lead-up to the race. “We’re sailors who happen to be women rather than women who sail.

Veel purchased the boat last year, and ran a GoFundMe page to raise financial support so the pair could purchase the necessary supplies to enter the race.

In 2021, Veel was named Blue Mountains Volunteer of the Year for her work with the not-for-profit sailing-based Making Waves Foundation.

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LCE Old School is sailed consistently well - Andrea Francolini, RPAYC pic

Whisper is among the line and overall contenders - Andrea Francolini, RPAYC pic

Post start last year - Andrea Francolini, RPAYC pic

Race is on to win 2024 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race

Over 30 boats will be on the start line for the 2024 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race this Friday when monohulls, a multihull and two-handed entries will share the start line off Barrenjoey Headland for the 1pm start.  

Respected sailor, Theresa Michell, has joined forces with Paul Beath and his J/99, Verite, for their first major two-handed race together. Newcomers to the Pittwater Coffs, Beath did the 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart in two-handed mode with another co-skipper. He and Michell’s first two-handed training session was a four-day return trip from Hobart.

“It was all upwind. Not particularly pleasant,” Beath remembered. “One of the reasons she is doing this race with me is because she sailed with me fully crewed in the Sydney Gold Coast race and the rest of the Blue Water Pointscore last year and we get on well.

“And this race is at a nice time of year,” the Novocastrian said of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club’s (RPAYC) 226 nautical mile race.

Although she halted racing at the end of the 1990s to raise a family, Michell’s credentials are outstanding in both two-handed and fully-crewed sailing, as a skipper, navigator and crew.

She contested the 5500 nautical mile two-handed Melbourne to Osaka race in 1999 on an Adams 10 that she also skippered in the 1998 Double-Handed Trans-Tasman Challenge from Sydney to New Plymouth in New Zealand. She has sailed on the international scene, done Sydney Hobarts and sailed an Olympic class dinghy.

“This is a new team in a new race and we think it’s a good distance. We’ll get our systems together and get organised,” Beath commented.

“It will be a demanding race because of the currents and fluctuating conditions.”

The pair are expected to be competitive against all-comers, including other two-handed entries such as Chris O’Neill, who returns with Blue Planet after finishing the race seventh overall last year.

“We also won PHS and were second in ORC – and these results were exactly the same in the two-handed division,” he said.

This time he will be co-skippered by Tom Johnston, who helped him to sixth in the two-handed division of the 2023 Sydney Hobart.

“It’s a fun race and a good location in Coffs, it’s not too strenuous and importantly, there’s been sufficient time between this race and the Sydney Hobart – I’ve forgotten all the pain,” O’Neill said wryly.

Among the latest fully crewed entries for the 38 th  ‘Pittwater to Coffs’ is David Griffith’s record breaking JV62 Whisper, which will likely battle Geoff Hill’s Santa Cruz 72, Antipodes, for line honours. Whisper is also a favourite for the overall win, but due to the many weather vagaries at this time of year, the race really is wide open in all classifications.

On his quarry, Whisper’s owner says: “With her long waterline length, if Antipodes gets reaching conditions, she is quick, she will take off. We’re in pretty good shape though and the boat’s in perfect order.”

Griffith says his crew will also hold them in good stead. Among them are Rear Admiral Lee Goddard, Michael Coxon, Dougie McGain, Michael Fountain and Brett Van Munster. 

“Either way, it’s a wonderful race and the Alfreds do a great job,” Griffith said. “Everyone loves a destination race and Coffs Harbour is a great destination with lots to do.”

Others chasing overall glory are regular DK46 rivals Khaleesi (Sandy Farquharson/Rob Aldis) and LCE Old School Racing (Mark Griffith). At the Nautilus Marine Insurance Sydney Harbour Regatta in early March, the latter placed second in the Open division on home turf, while Griffith’s boat, from RPAYC, was second. Another DK46, Nine Dragons, was declared the winner. 

Pierre Gal has entered the Asia catamaran Stealth 12.60 named Fez. The French expat, who lives on the NSW north coast, is a name locally and internationally, competing in the America’s Cup for France and has Australian victories too.

Incidentally, Gal won Division 4 of the 2019 Sydney Gold Coast race with Mistral, the same Lombard 34 that won the 2023 Pittwater Coffs race for two-handed sailors, Rupert Henry and Greg O’Shea last year.

Follow the fleet on the race tracker at:  https://yb.tl/pittwater2024

For all information go to:  www.pittwatertocoffs.com.au

Di Pearson/RPAYC media

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Sydney to Hobart yacht race: How two days of sailing came down to just 51 seconds

The skipper of the line honours-winning yacht in this year's Sydney to Hobart race says the victory is all the more remarkable because his boat, LawConnect, is a "shitbox" compared to second-place getter and race favourite Andoo Comanche.

"I know it looks good on TV but if you go up close to that boat, it's rough as anything and Comanche is a beautiful boat, it's better in every way, four tonnes lighter etc.," Christian Beck said.

"Shitbox" or not, LawConnect overtook Andoo Comanche in the River Derwent in the final moments of the 2023 race to take out its first line honours in a sensational daylight finish, just 51 seconds ahead of its rival.

"The lead changed several times, they took the lead pretty close to the line, we thought there's no way we can get it back," Beck said.

"There were guys [on board] that couldn't watch, it was very nerve-racking."

In a race that took the two leaders almost two days to finish, the turning point began just a couple of nautical miles from the finish line.

As Andoo Comanche tried to build speed off the Hobart suburb of Sandy Bay and seemed to stall in very little wind, Law Connect made its move.

'"They seem to be accelerating out of the jibes a lot quicker than Andoo Comanche, so I don't think Andoo have a lot of options here, I think they're going to get rolled … really aggressive moves by LawConnect," said Lisa Darmanin, a commentator for the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. 

But, not long after Andoo Comanche snatched it back again.

Then, in the second-closest finish in race history, LawConnect came back about 100 metres from the finish line. 

After being runner-up three times in a row, the sweetest moment arrived for Christian Beck as LawConnect crossed the finish line in a time of 1 day, 19 hours, 3 minutes and 58 seconds.

"I can't believe that result. Honestly it's a dream come true," he said.

How did they pull it off?

So just how did the "underdog" manage to snatch the win away from Andoo Comanche after it held the lead comfortably while rounding the Tasman Peninsula and entering the River Derwent?

As we've heard, a lack of wind was a big factor.

"Our boat is big and wide and heavy and it's fast offshore but it is terribly slow when it is bumpy and no wind," the disappointed skipper of Andoo Comanche, John Winning said. 

"[As the finish line neared] we sent a guy up the rig and he said 'There's no wind at the finish, zero wind at the finish.'" 

But sailors are used to dealing with changes in wind so strategy was obviously a major factor at play too.

As well as the "aggressive jibing" from LawConnect, the winners were focused on learning from Andoo's "mistakes".

"Broadly, the strategy is to watch them and if they get into a bad spot, we avoid that bad spot," Beck said.

Spectator craft another factor

Then there were all the spectator boats to contend with.

In the final moments, a catamaran passed closely to Andoo Comanche and the crew was seen yelling and gesturing.

"We had all the spectator boats and we're trying to clear them out and they were like 'You've won', and we were like 'No! We have not won yet. Stop making waves everything is going to make a difference,'" Winning said.

Tasmania Police said action would be taken against a 57-year-old man for "allegedly breaching" marine and safety regulations.

"The man was skippering a private vessel when it reportedly encroached into the exclusion zone set by Marine and Safety Tasmania," it said in a statement.

The offence carries a fine of up to $3,900.

Winning said he didn't blame spectators for the result.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, I wish there were 500 of them," he said.

"It's even, everyone gets the same thing if they were ahead of us they would have had the wash but unfortunately we got the wash.

"Makes a little difference but that didn't cost us the race, we cost us the race."

And as the bubbly flows for the LawConnect crew, Beck is joking about now being able to offload the "shitbox".

"It's probably a good afternoon to sell it, the afternoon it beats Comanche, probably its highlight of its career, I'm sure."

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