An encounter with a shark and broken spinnaker pole couldn't stop NSW yacht Chancellor crossing the Sydney to Hobart finish line, capping a dramatic race.
For the second year running the event's supermaxis were embroiled in controversy, with Wild Oats XI surviving a protest hearing before being confirmed as line honours winner.
With less fanfare, Ted Tooher's Chancellor crept across the line in Hobart in the early hours of New Years Eve as the last boat to finish.
The 15-metre vessel made a time of four days and 12 hours.
Stephen Lipman, the boat's watch captain, said the crew had to fashion a makeshift spinnaker pole after the original broke around Wollongong.
There was also a confrontation with a shark.
"We were going along and 'thump'. Fortunately it just hit the keel. We looked out the back and there was this fin going wobble, wobble. He didn't look well," Lipman told AAP on Monday.
Chancellor's time of four days and 12 hours was almost three days more than first-placed Wild Oats XI.
The supermaxi was hit with a post-race protest after the skipper of runner-up Black Jack, Mark Harburg, said Wild Oats XI's Automatic Identification System (AIS) wasn't transmitting, making the yacht undetectable and disadvantaging his boat.
It prompted the race committee to lodge a protest that was ruled invalid by an international jury because it hadn't been lodged by a competitor.
Wild Oats XI finished just 28 minutes ahead of Black Jack, followed closely by Comanche and InfoTrack in fourth.
Tasmania's Alive took out handicap honours - the first yacht from the Apple Isle to do so in 39 years.
Skipper Duncan Hine said it was a dream result for him and Phillip Turner, who bought the boat in 2014 with the goal of winning the race.
Six boats retired from the original fleet of 85, including Hong Kong supermaxi Scallywag.
