Both really , the hundred ft maxi yachts are built to a “guideline “ rule and in a short distance race when geographic features are in play you can go inshore or further out but you have to make sure you can get back on the course line without sailing too many miles extra . They all have pretty sophisticated data plans for decision making now . Races like Hobart are a lot about not breaking stuff, to finish first , you first need to finish .
They should be celebrating a historic win — instead, the crew of BNC is coming to terms with how a "silly mistake" cost them the "crown jewel" prize of Sydney to Hobart overall handicap.
Sailing has a lot of obscure rules , that is not one of them . DSQd boat was running an asymmetric spinnaker which tacks to the centerline of the boat and used a pole , new winner was using a conventional spinakker so pole is allowed. Bit unusual for the race committee to file protest but in distance racing your competitors are too far away to see “cheating” .
The argument ‘ we were just cleaning up the boat for media photos at the finish’ yeah , baloney . Do don’t rig a spin pole to clean it off the deck , you do that to gain projection on a downwind sail and go faster . They got caught .
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