In what is shaping to be the closest finish in living memory, four 100ft supermaxis were duelling on the Derwent as sun rose on the third day of the 2018 Rolex Sydney Hobart.
At 6.15am EADT, Wild Oats XI held the advantage, 3.5nm ahead of Black Jack. Comanche was 1.3nm further astern, while Infotrack was another 2nm away. The fifth supermaxi in the race, Scallywag, had retired on the first day with a broken bow sprit.
Based on her current speed of 15.5 knots, Wild Oats was predicted to cross the finish line at 7.45am. However, the winds are light and variable, and there could still be another twist in the tail.
Mysailing is dockside and will bring an up-to-the-minute report on the finish later in the morning.
The battle for handicap honours has also swung wildly again over night. Yesterday evening, the Division 3 yachts held all the cards and filled the top 10 positions overall. But as dawn broke, the big boats were favoured again.
Last year's champion, Ichi Ban, was on top of the leaderboard with a two hour corrected time lead over Alive, the Tasmanian boat that was previously called BLack Jack. Voodoo, owned by Victorian Hugh Ellis, made up the top three, meaning three different states were represented.
The Division leaderboards looked like this:
IRC 0: Alive, Wild Oats X, Privateer.
IRC 1: Ichi Ban, Voodoo, Winning Appliances
IRC 2: St Jude, Kialoa II, Oroton Drumfire
IRC 3: Grace O'Malley, 2 Unlimited, Enterprise
IRC 4: Gun Runner, Sticky, Mark Twain
ORCi: Alive, Voodoo, Ichi Ban
PHS: Wax Lyrical, Reve, Flying Fish Arctos
Corinthian: Gun Runner, Sticky, Pelagic Magic
For updated positions, go to the Standings
