This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Tasmanian yacht Alive has taken out overall honours in the 2018 Sydney to Hobart – the first boat from the island state to do so in nearly 40 years.

The Duncan Hine-skippered 66-footer was declared the race’s handicap winner on Sunday morning, two days after crossing the finish line in Hobart.

Sydney to Hobart yacht race: Wild Oats XI claims victory for ninth time in dramatic finale Read more

Alive had sailed neck-and-neck with the all-female-crewed Wild Oats X, which finished second overall.

It was fifth past the post behind the leading pack of four supermaxis, headed by Wild Oats XI, who survived a post-race protest to win its ninth line honours.

The last Tasmanian boat to claim handicap honours was Screw Loose in 1979.

Last year’s handicap winner, Ichi Ban, aiming for rare back-to-back trophies, finished fifth.

Voodoo was in third, with New South Wales yacht Winning Appliances fourth.

Meanwhile, Wild Oats XI secured its ninth Sydney to Hobart line honours victory after a protest against it was thrown out.

A year after Wild Oats XI was stripped of Sydney to Hobart line honours, skipper Mark Richards would have been worried history was about to repeat.

For the second year running the supermaxi passed the finish line first only to be hit by a post-race protest.

In 2017, the yacht lost line honours to Comanche after copping a time penalty for an illegal manoeuvre at the beginning of the race.

This year, Wild Oats XI faced an probe into whether the yacht’s automatic identification system (AIS) was operational while racing. The skipper of runner-up Black Jack, Peter Harburg, raised concerns it wasn’t, placing his yacht at a disadvantage.

Fortunately for the Wild Oats XI crew, the outcome was different this year.

After an hour-and-a-half deliberation on Saturday, the international jury ruled the protest invalid as it had not been lodged by a competitor.

Sydney to Hobart winner Wild Oats XI to face race committee protest Read more

“This year, very happy for the outcome. It’s a very different situation to last year,” Richards said, calling it a common sense decision.

Wild Oats XI had finished just 28 minutes ahead of Black Jack on Friday in a contest rated one of the best in the race’s history.

Shortly afterwards, Harburg told media he couldn’t pick Wild Oats XI up on the AIS, but didn’t lodge an official protest.

The AIS, which transmits the location of a boat, was this year made a mandatory requirement to help improve race safety.

Richards maintains his AIS was on for the race’s duration.

Despite initial concern about not being able to see Wild Oats XI on his AIS, Harburg said he was content with the jury’s decision.