Perpetual Loyal wins Sydney to Hobart race in record time Published duration 27 December 2016

image copyright AP image caption Perpetual Loyal won the Sydney to Hobart yacht race in record time

The gruelling Sydney to Hobart yacht race has been won in record time.

Perpetual Loyal finished the 628 nautical miles (1,163km) in one day, 13 hours, 31 minutes and 20 seconds - almost five hours faster than the previous course record.

The Australian yacht took first place after eight-time winner Wild Oats XI retired with keel damage

Eighty-eight yachts began the race, which has been going since 1945, on Monday.

The occasion has since become one of the greatest spectacles in Australian sport.

Perpetual Loyal's closest rivals were all more than an hour slower than the 100ft yacht, which had failed to finish the last two races.

After they crossed the finish line, the team's official Twitter account said: "Mission accomplished!"

"This is one for the true believers," owner and skipper Anthony Bell told reporters at Hobart's Constitution Dock.

New Zealand's Volvo 70 Giacomo - which hopes to be crowned overall winner, the handicap honours for the vessel that performs best according to size - finished second with a time of one day, 15 hours, 27 minutes and five seconds.

"It was a bit of a downwind race, so it suited us," said owner and skipper Jim Delegat.

"Still, we're pretty surprised, it's not often that a 70-footer can do this, get second over the line."

image copyright Getty Images image caption Perpetual Loyal sails up Hobart's Derwent River

Hong Kong businessman Seng Huang Lee's supermaxi Scallywag crossed the finish line about two minutes later, also easily beating the old record.

Five yachts have so far withdrawn from this year's race, including Wild Oats XI, which set the former record of one day, 18 hours, 23 minutes, 12 seconds in 2012.

Perpetual Loyal had benefited from favourable winds that saw the race leaders tear down Australia's east coast after departing Sydney Harbour on Monday.

The yacht was first into the open ocean followed by Scallywag and Wild Oats.

Wild Oats edged into the lead amid freshening northerly winds and looked well set to break its own record for the race, but in a bitter blow, its hydraulic keel control mechanism failed when it was in the middle of the Bass Strait.

Citing crew safety, skipper Mark Richards made the call to retire from the race on Tuesday morning, with the yacht arriving at the town of Eden some 480km south of Sydney early on Wednesday.

image copyright Getty Images image caption Perpetual Loyal's crew celebrates in Hobart

Cruising Yacht Club of Australia commodore John Markos said this year's favourable conditions "will make it a pretty hard record to break".

Storms are usually a regular hazard in the Sydney to Hobart, one of the world's most challenging races. Six men died, five boats sank and 55 sailors were rescued in 1998 when a deep depression hit the Tasman Sea.