The Boxing Day start to the Sydney to Hobart yacht race in Sydney Harbour Photo: Roger OZ
Victoire has emerged as the overall winner of the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht race for 2013. The 15 metre yacht was followed by Velcoe in second overall and Celestial in third.
The famous annual event saw Wild Oats take out line honours (first past the finish line) on Saturday night, followed by Perpetual Loyal in second place and Ragamuffin in third.
The length, weight and size of a boat are taken into account with handicap honours as well as the time it takes to finish the race.
Victoire’s race time was two days, 19 hours and 32 seconds.
“It’s an amazing achievement,” said Victoire’s owner Darryl Hodgkinson. “It’s also having the right equipment. It can be a dangerous race but the boat is so solid and my crew are so good.”
Wild Rose was the main challenger and needed to cross the finish line by 4am to win on handicap, but didn’t cross until midday on Monday.
Veloce crossed the finish line in 16th place with a time of three days, 2 hours, 36 minutes and 11 seconds. Celestial just scraped in ahead of Veloce in 15th place with a time of three days, 1 hour, 8 minutes and 22 seconds.
By Monday mid-afternoon the race had seen 57 boats finish while 27 were still out at sea and 10 had retired.
