One-hour penalty for near collision early in race costs eight-time champion the win and the record finish time

An international race jury has hit Wild Oats XI with a one-hour penalty for her role in a near collision at the start of Sydney to Hobart yacht race – dethroning the eight-time line honours winner and promoting LDV Comanche as this year’s champion.

“It is not very often you smash a Sydney to Hobart record and you get it taken away from you,” said Mark Richards, the man on the helm of Wild Oats XI when the incident took place. “We are very disappointed, we are also good sports so we are going to have to take it on the chin and just get on with it.”

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The five-member jury took three hours to uphold the protest – ruling that Wild Oats XI was at fault – stripping her of a ninth line honours crown.

The Hamilton Island-registered super maxi carried a 26 minute and 34 second buffer over LDV Comanche into the hearing – but after the protest was upheld the history books will show Wild Oats XI as second – although it crossed the line first.

It was the right decision, says the man who launched the protest: “I think it is only fair and reasonable the jury acted the way they did,” said Comanche’s owner and now race winner and race record holder Jim Cooney. “I feel quite strongly that the rules are there to protect people’s lives and if we can’t rely on that, it is a difficulty in the sport.”

Following the race conclusion, Wild Oats XI’s skipper said he wouldn’t have launched a protest had the super maxi’s fortunes been reversed although he wasn’t concerned.

Despite that, the Oatley family, which owns Wild Oats, took every precaution on Thursday – locking the team away hours before the hearing and flying in a “rule expert” from Sydney to help defend their position. They were ultimately unsuccessful.

“Everyone is a genius in hindsight. We made our decisions and have to live with them today. We will get back up on the horse,” said Richards.

After two retirements in as many years, the Oats crew were expecting to toast their first win since the death of the boat’s patriarch Bob Oatley. Instead they learned of a shock demotion at the hands of LDV Comanche, whose skipper, Cooney, launched the protest during the race, and followed up with it upon docking at the finish.

In a record tumbling edition of the blue water classic, five yachts whittled time off last year’s benchmark posted by Perpetual Loyal. Black Jack crossed in third – the Queensland super maxi joining fellow 100-footer InfoTrack and Hong Kong import Beau Geste inside the top five and under the old marker.

For fourth-placed InfoTrack it was a stunning result and an unforgettable outing in her skipper Christian Beck’s first offshore race, a journey he is already contemplating repeating in 2018.

“It wasn’t fun during the race, it was scary at times. A lot of stuff breaking,” said Beck from the shelter of dry land, “It’s one of those things that are more fun thinking about it later than during the race.”

For the handicap winner of the race, Ichi Ban, it was the fastest bolt south in the memory of her skipper Matt Allen, a veteran of 28 Sydney to Hobart campaigns.

“An amazingly quick race – incredible that you could do it this fast on a 52-footer. I mean, it was some of the most exhilarating sailing I have ever done,” said Allen, whose yacht was the eighth over the line and officially named the race’s handicap winner on Friday morning.

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Ichi Ban took out out overall honours more than a day after docking in Hobart and despite ripping a sail in her blistering run down Tasmania’s east coast.

“The boys pushed the boat so hard. We had water coming over the boat, we had water above our heads, we were buried in water,” said the former Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club. “I think we have got a good chance, we have beaten the boats immediately around us.”

The Japanese named, Australian-registered boathad plenty of support – even from her challengers – in the blue water classic’s top prize, the Tattersall’s Cup, for the race’s handicap winner.

“Matt deserves to win,” said Bob Steel of TP52 Quest who finished nearly an hour behind Ichi Ban. “I am jubilantly disappointed for us but happy for Matt.”