Two French sailors in a 35-foot boat are set to win handicap honors in the Sydney to Hobart race

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HOBART, Australia (AP) — Two French sailors based on the Pacific island of New Caledonia — one of them a former windsurfing Olympian — have overcome tough Sydney to Hobart seas on one of the fleet’s smallest boats to all but clinch handicap honors in the annual race.

Michel Quintin and Yann Rigal arrived at Constitution Dock in Hobart on their 35-foot yacht BNC on Tuesday morning after spending more than 93 hours at sea. They were the 33rd crew across the line but the first doubled-handed yacht, a craft sailed by just two people, to make it to Hobart from the start last Friday morning in Sydney harbor.

By late afternoon, their handicap time was the best, with only double-hander Crux a mathematical but highly improbable chance of overtaking them. Crux had earlier on Tuesday led the overall standings but ran into a southerly breeze that pushed back her expected arrival time until early Wednesday morning.

Overall handicap honors has in recent years been won by larger yachts, but BNC is about a third of the length of line honors winner Master Lock Comanche.

Quintin and Rigal have been sailing together for five years and spent the past two preparing for the Sydney to Hobart.

“We came here to test (ourselves) … and we didn’t really know what results we’ll have,” Quintin said, before knowing if they had reached top spot. “Even during the race we said, ‘no it’s not possible’.”

The duo, along with the rest of the fleet, battled sea sickness in rugged early upwind sailing which forced 34 of the starting 128-yacht fleet to retire.

The French pair had spaghetti, lasagne and chicken curry on board with them but most of it went uneaten.

“I’m never seasick but the first six hours I couldn’t eat,” Rigal told Australian Associated Press. “We didn’t sleep much, it was very busy. The waves and the seas were crazy."

Quintin, who represented France in windsurfing at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, said some electronic equipment had failed in Bass Strait meaning they had no indication of the true wind direction.

“When you have to steer nearly all day and all night long, you’re tired,” he said.

Comanche claimed the yacht's fifth line honors on Sunday after outpacing fellow supermaxis LawConnect and Hong Kong’s SHK Scallywag 100 in a tight race off the state of Tasmania.

The supermaxi arrived at the finish line near Constitution Dock in Hobart shortly after 6 p.m. local time Sunday in a time of 2 days, 5 hours, 3 minutes and 36 seconds, well behind the record set in 2017.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports