Nicorette wins Sydney-Hobart race

By Paul Tait

Sydney - Australian maxi Nicorette won line honours in a punishing Sydney-Hobart yacht race on Wednesday after rough weather forced out almost half the fleet, including heavily fancied super maxis Konica Minolta and Skandia.

Ludde Ingvall claimed his second Sydney-Hobart title when his boat coasted across the finish line under a white spinnaker just before dawn in gentle winds of eight knots, starkly different to the gale-force winds of the previous 36 hours.

Nicorette won in a time of two days 16 hours 00 minutes and 44 seconds for the annual 630-nautical mile bluewater classic.

"It was really hard. I'm very sorry for all the boats who didn't make it, it's not supposed to be this hard," Ingvall told reporters. "I feel more tired than I've ever felt in my life."

Australian downwind flyer AAPT was second across the line more than six hours later. George Snow's seasoned Australian maxi Brindabella was third in a tick over three days.

Smaller British entrant Aera was in fifth place with experienced round-the-world sailor Jez Fanstone at the helm and well-placed to seal overall handicap honours on corrected time.

Finland-born Ingvall, a former winner of the Fastnet Race and former world maxi yacht champion, won the Sydney-Hobart in 2000 in his former boat of the same name.

His new A$5-million (about R22-million), 27m vessel was launched just two weeks ago and survived a rough passage across Bass Strait between the Australian mainland and the southern island state of Tasmania.

Ingvall said his decision to hug the Tasmanian coastline had helped him avoid some of the bad weather and nurse his boat home after the withdrawal of Konica Minolta and Skandia.

Gale-force winds, high seas and unseasonably cold weather had buffeted the fleet since Monday, forcing out 53 boats from a starting fleet of 116.

Konica Minolta of New Zealand and 2003 race winner Skandia pulled out on Tuesday with serious structural damage after the pair had opened up a healthy lead.

Skandia's crew of 16 took to life rafts when its sophisticated new moving keel became jammed, leaving the boat wallowing in heavy seas and unable to hold course. Australia's Skandia had reported hitting a giant sunfish on Monday.

Owner Grant Wharington and his crew were safely picked up by a police launch. Skandia's keel snapped off later on Tuesday and the boat, which was uninsured, capsized. It was being towed back to port later on Wednesday.

Konica Minolta owner Stewart Thwaites said his boat bent like a banana after it bounced down the back of a "gi-normous" wave before suffering keel and cabin damage.

His boat had slowly built a handy lead over Skandia and appeared set to reverse the result of the gripping 2003 race, which Skandia won by just 14 minutes.

While conditions were difficult, they were not as bad as those during the 1998 race when six sailors died and five boats sank after 80-knot winds and mountainous seas hammered the fleet.