The winners
- Overall winner: Two True, Andrew Saies, South Australia
- Line honors: Alfa Romeo, Neville Crichton, New Zealand - 2:09:02:10
Alfa Romeo has won line honors in the 2009 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
The New Zealand 100-footer crossed the finish line in Hobart's Derwent River at 9.02pm, December 28, Australian eastern daylight saving time, to beat a fast-finishing Wild Oats XI which overtook ICAP Leopard in the early afternoon of December 28.
Alfa Romeo completed the course in 2 days, 9 hours, 2 minutes and 10 seconds.
By midnight, December 28, Investec Loyal and ICAP Leopard were battling it out for third position.
Wild Oats XI crossed the finish line at 12.05am, December 29, to take second place with an elapsed time of 2:11:05:34.
At 5.45am in the early morning of December 29, the UK maxi ICAP Leopard crossed the finish line ahead of Investec Loyal to take third place in the 2009 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honors with an elapsed time of 2:16:45:46.
Handicap winner
Two True (South Australia) was the oversall handicap winner after a protest lodged against it was dismissed.
Shortly after the start of the race on December 26, Two True was involved in a collision with She's the Culprit (Tasmania) which was damaged and had to retire from the race.
Two True crossed the finish line at 12.49pm on December 30. After consideration of the race handicaps, the South Australian yacht was officially declared the 2009 overall handicap winner/
Race start
The 2009 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race started in Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day, December 26, with a fleet of some 100 boats.
Four-time line honors winner Wild Oats XI was set to take to the water anew in an attempt to achieve another winning sail. But it faced tough competition from other maxi yachts including the New Zealand Alfa Romeo, line honors winner in 2002 and runner-up in 2005, and the United Kingdom's ICAP Leopard, runner-up in 2007.
After the starting gun went off in the afternoon of December 26, Wild Oats XI (NSW) immediately took the lead but was quickly hauled back by Alfa Romero when Wild Oats XI encountered spinnaker problems.
Early leaders
Alfa Romeo led the leaders out of the harbour as they headed south towards Hobart, with another 100-footer, ICAP Leopard (UK), in third place.
Shortly before 5pm, December 26, the standings were Alfa Romero first, Wild Oats XI second and ICAP Leopard third. They were followed by Ran (UK), Lahana (NSW), Ichi Ban (NSW), Investec Loyal (Tasmania), Yuuzoo (NSW), Loki (NSW) and Rapture (USA).
The 100ft New Zealand yacht Alfa Romeo is skippered by 2002 Sydney Hobart winner Neville Crichton with a previous 98-footer of the same name.
By the morning of December 27, the official race tracker reported that ICAP Leopard had overtaken Wild Oats XI and was nearly 3 nautical miles behind Alfa Romeo. Wild Oats XI had slipped into third position some 4.5 nautical miles behind the leader.
By 7pm, Alfa Romeo had increased its distance from ICAP Leopard by 15 nautical miles with the leaders having already entered Bass Strait.
Overnight the relative positions of the three race leaders had not changed with Alfa Romeo, now off the northeastern coast of Tasmania, increasing its lead further to some 30 nautical miles ahead of ICAP Leopard by 6am, December 28.
Race record
The earlier weather forecast of favorable wind conditions did not eventuate and in the morning of December 28, there was no hope that the race record set by Wild Oats XI in 2005 would be broken. To do that, the lead boat would have to cross Hobart's Derwent River finish line by 7.40am on December 28.
Wild Oats XI's record time of 1:18:40:10 in the 2005 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race resulted in the Sydney maxi taking the treble of line honors, fastest course time and the overall handicap win.
Retirements
By midnight of December 27, five boats had retired from the race due to damages of varying severity or engine problems, leaving 95 yachts in the 2009 race.
The retired yachts were Etihad Stadium (Victoria) due to rigging damage, Limit (Western Australia) due to rigging issues, Mondo (Queensland) due to damaged rigging, Pippin (Queensland) due to engine problems, and She's The Culprit (Tasmania) with minor damage.
Handicap race
The Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is a handicap race but line honors — who crosses the finish line first — are fiercely contested.
The race finishes in Hobart's Derwent River.
- 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
