The winners
- Overall winner: Quest, Bob Steel, NSW
- Line honors: Wild Oats XI, Bob Oatley / Mark Richards, NSW — 1:20:34:14
Wild Oats XI, line honors winner of the last three Sydney Hobart Yacht Races, made it four in a row at the 2008 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
The 30m (98ft) supermaxi yacht Wild Oats XI, owned by Bob Oatley and skippered by Mark Richards, won the 2008 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honors, crossing the Derwent River finish line at 9.34.14am, December 28, Australian eastern daylight saving time.
Coming in second was Skandia, skippered by Grant Wharington, which sailed across the finish line at 10.41.17am.
Wild Oats XI’s race time of 1:20:34:14 was outisde the race record it had itself set in 2005 at 1:18:40:10.
On December 29, Quest, a TP52 owned by Sydney's Bob Steel, was declared overall handicap winner on corrected time. It is the second time Steel has won overall handicap honors, the first time in 2002 with another boat also named Quest.
Boxing Day start
Just after 1pm, Boxing Day, December 26, Australian eastern daylight saving time, 100 yachts had lined up for the start of the 2008 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
As expected Wild Oats XI, skippered by Mark Richards, was quick off the starting block.
Early leaders
By 1.30pm, December 26, Wild Oats XI had left Sydney Harbour and was heading south past Bondi Beach in eastern Sydney, closely followed by the other super maxi in the race, Skandia, skippered by Grant Wharington.
According to skipper Richards, Wild Oats XI was aiming for an unprecedeented fourth consecutive line honors win. The supermaxi also hoped to break the 2005 race record of one day, 18 hours, 40 minutes and 10 seconds, which Wild Oats itself had set.
By early evening, December 26, Wild Oats XI was still holding its lead with Skandia close behind, second. But that had not been the case all the way as Skandia had wrested the lead for a time on the way south to Jervis Bay.
In the early evening, Wild Oats XI and Skandia were followed by Ichi Ban (third across the line in the 2007 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and second to Wild Oats XI in 2006), Black Jack, Loki, ASM Shockwave 5, Limit and Yendys.
Change of leader
But by 11pm, December 26, official race figures showed Wild Oats XI had again lost the lead to Skandia and it began to look like the supermaxis would duel all the way to Hobart.
Following the supermaxis were Black Jack, Ichi Ban and Loki.
Mayday, mayday
Before midnight on the night of December 26, the yacht Georgia, a Farr 53, sent out a mayday call. The boat was reported to have lost its rudder and sinking.
Fourteen Georia crew members had to be rescued and transferred to another yacht, Telcoinabox Merit, which was nearest the stricken vessel.
At the time of the rescue the Georgia was on the verge of sinking and was likely to be lost at sea.
Telcoinabox Merit headed towards Batemans Bay on the New South Wales South Coast where the rescued crew members were to be transferred to a police launch, whereupon Telcoinabox Merit would continue on in the race.
Computer glitch
In the evening of December 27, the official site of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race was proclaiming a new race leader,relegating supermaxi yachts Wild Oats XI and Skandia to second and third place.
Recorded on the official Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race website was the amazing news that the Murray 42 yacht Secret Men’s Business #1, skippered by Ross Trembath and Rob Curtis, was leading the pack down the southeast coast of Tasmania.
At 10.30pm, the official Sydney Hobart race tracker had Secret Men’s Business #1 ahead by some 49 nautical miles to Wild Oats XI, with Skandia an extimated 10 nautical miles further back.
The erroneous information on the official site of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race was apparently caused by a computer glitch in the global positioning system or some other computer fault.
Wild Oats XI and Skandia had in fact remained in the lead as they raced down the eastern coast of Tasmania and at 5am, December 28, Wild Oats was within some 53 nautical miles of the finish line in Hobart's Derwent River.
Coming up to second place was ASM Schockwave 5 with Skandia, third.
The finish
At 9.34.14am, December 28, Australian eastern daylight saving time, Wild Oats XI crossed Hobart's Derwent River finish line, making it the fourth time in four years the supermaxi had won Sydney Hob art Yacht Race line honors.
Coming in second was Skandia which sailed across the finish line at 10.41.17am.
The supermaxis were followed across the line by first-10 finishers Ichi Ban, ASM Shockwave 5, Limit, Black Jack, Loki, Yendys, Quest and Quantum Racing.
At 6am, December 29, 25 racing yachts had finished while the rest — except for Georgia, which had sunk, and Inner Circle and Sanyo Maris, which had withdrawn due to mechanical or other problems — were still at sea racing to Hobart.
On December 29, Quest, which crossed the finish line in ninth position, was declared overall handicap winner on corrected time.
International entries
International entries were repoted to be particularly strong this year with 12 yachts representing nine countries, including Switzerland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, USA, New Caledonia, France, Russia and New Zealand.
Every Australian state was represented with the majority of boats hailing from NSW yacht clubs and ports.
- Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race: Danger and Death at Sea
- 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race: Tragedy at Sea
- 1999 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race: Nokia Breaks Record
- 2000 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race: Nicorette Takes Line Honors
- 2001 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race: Assa Abloy's Win
- 2002 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race: Alfa Romeo's Turn
- 2003 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race: Duel of the Super Maxis
- 2004 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race: Nicorette Wins Line Honors
- 2005 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race: Wild Oats XI Wins the Treble
- 2006 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race: Back-to-Back Win for Wild Oats XI
- 2007 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race: Wild Oats Makes It Three in a Row
- 2008 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race: Wild Oats Makes It Four in a Row
