{"id":484225,"date":"2026-01-01T07:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T07:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/484225\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T07:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T07:24:12","slug":"millennium-falcon-the-last-boat-to-finish-the-80th-sydney-to-hobart-yacht-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/484225\/","title":{"rendered":"Millennium Falcon the last boat to finish the 80th Sydney to Hobart yacht race"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Millennium Falcon of Star Wars fame was a worn-out spacecraft that still managed to pull off some of the more impressive feats in the universe.<\/p>\n

A Sydney to Hobart yacht of the same name, fittingly, has many similarities.<\/p>\n

The NSW 39-footer (11.9 metres), skippered by 71-year-old part-time ophthalmologist Robert Griffits, was the final boat to finish the 80th edition of the ocean race at 10:22am on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Griffits and his crew of five spent more than 141 hours at sea and relied on mobile phones for navigation at the tail-end of the journey after their on-board equipment failed.<\/p>\n

Comanche takes out line honours in Sydney to Hobart race<\/a><\/p>\n

Master Lock Comanche claims line honours in the 80th edition of the gruelling Sydney to Hobart yacht race, with a stunning daylight hours finish.<\/p>\n

Hand pumps and buckets were used to scoop out water after their electronic pump gave up, while a table used for “hanging on to” broke its legs.<\/p>\n

Griffits bought the yacht in 2020, unaware its name was referencing a famous science fiction craft.<\/p>\n

“I’ve only ever seen one [Star Wars] episode \u2026 and everyone said, ‘What a great name for a boat,'” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s grown on me. The original Millennium Falcon was a bit of a rusted-out freighter that was held together by chewing gum.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Millennium Falcon arrived in Hobart after 141 hours at sea. (AAP: Ethan James)<\/p>\n

It is the first time Griffits, who was given a wooden spoon after arriving at Constitution Dock, has completed the Sydney to Hobart after several attempts.<\/p>\n

He almost didn’t get on the water for the Boxing Day start, after being forced into motor repairs leading up to the race.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had a lot of trouble with our hyper drive, and we’re hoping a new one will work,” Griffits said, referencing the Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon’s propulsion system.<\/p>\n

Their roughest period was when a southerly change hit on Tuesday night, after the majority of the fleet had already finished.<\/p>\n

“We were getting tossed around a lot. You get thrown from side to side,” Griffits said.<\/p>\n

“The boat had a few issues \u2026 you find the weak points on the interior with all the bashing around out there.<\/p>\n

“The deck spent a fair bit of time underwater, so you find places that aren’t quite as watertight as you once imagined.”<\/p>\n

How a ‘silly mistake’ cost these men Sydney to Hobart glory<\/a><\/p>\n

They should be celebrating a historic win \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Sea sickness meant the stove was only used for boiling water for tea, coffee and instant noodles.<\/p>\n

The 1975-built Millennium Falcon’s time of five days, 21 hours, 22 minutes and 42 seconds was more than three days slower than line-honours winner Master Lock Comanche.<\/p>\n

Of the starting 128 yachts, 34 were forced to retire.<\/p>\n

Overall honours were on Wednesday claimed by a female skipper for the first time, after yacht Min River rose to top spot when frontrunner BNC was penalised for breaching race rules.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Millennium Falcon of Star Wars fame was a worn-out spacecraft that still managed to pull off some…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":484226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,219004,1626,219005,50,46750,219006,38573,1926,219003],"class_list":{"0":"post-484225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-final-boat","10":"tag-finish","11":"tag-millennium-falcon","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-owner","14":"tag-robert-griffits","15":"tag-sailing","16":"tag-sport","17":"tag-sydney-to-hobart"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115818651670840488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}