Alien dominates the 2025 Melbourne to Hobart Yacht Race
by Jane Austin / ORCV Media 31 Dec 2025 06:30 UTC
From 29 December 2025
Alien, overall winner of the 2025 Melbourne to Hobart Yacht Race, awarded the Heemskerk Perpetual Trophy, with ORCV Race Director Ravid Schuller (L) and ORCV Commodore Cyrus Allen (R) - 2025 Melbourne to Hobart Yacht Race © Jane Austin
Justin Brenan and his team of diehard sailors from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria, have sailed their Lidgard 36 yacht, Alien, to take a clean sweep of all handicap divisions in the 2025 Melbourne to Hobart 'Westcoaster' Yacht Race.
The most prestigious of these victories is for first place on corrected time on AMS handicap which determines the overall winner of the race and is awarded the Heemskerk Perpetual Trophy.
Joining Brenan onboard Alien and sharing the spoils of victory were his son Calum Brenan, Glen Cowan, Ben Tyrrell, Michael Noy, Andrew Vincent, Allison Wetzels and navigator Katrina Hartman.
Ocean Racing Club of Victoria's Commodore Cyrus Allen led the presentations at the Derwent Sailing Squadron where sailors, families and friends gathered to share a long lunch prior to the awarding of the silverware.
No stranger to winning, Brenan has sailed in 16 Westcoasters, and has six wins under his belt including a win when the race was sailed down the East Coast of Tasmania as part of the centenary Rudder Cup celebration.
Brenan won on ORC handicap and was presented with the City of Melbourne Perpetual Trophy for his win on PHS.
In a wonderful acknowledgment of her sailing expertise, Katrina Hartman was awarded the Zeehan Perpetual Trophy as navigator onboard the overall winning yacht.
Brenan was chuffed to win another Westcoaster on a corrected time of 2 days, 21 hours, 33 minutes and six seconds, and expressed much praise for his team, including the valuable advice he received from Calum at a pivotal moment in the race.
"I've got my number two son Calum onboard, he's done a few of these races, maybe 12 or 13.
"We did have a light argument on the way down about what to do at Macquarie Harbour with that transition in the weather, I wanted to be two miles further out and he wanted to go up the middle.
"He picked it perfectly and so we sailed straight through.
"Everyone one else went way offshore and of course having gone all the way out west had to come back to the east, so that gave us a few miles, but other than that, it was just about having the right sails and the right crew.
"It was really nice weather, maybe a little bit light, but we got a couple of hours of reasonable sailing down the bottom and sailed straight past Matt Fahey [skipper of Faster Forward], who didn't have the right spinnaker up and wasn't in the right position, so that was good.
"It was a good, interesting race, quite tactical, you really had to sail the right angles, it's quite critical when you are going through the gap between Tassie and King Island, if you are in the wrong position, you've just lost 10 miles.
"People don't believe me, but all you have to do is look at the currents, the tide really doesn't matter, as long as you are on the eastern side, and you stay out of the middle.
"I've passed this information on to other people, but no one follows it, so that's a bonus for us every year.
"But really it was just delightful weather, we didn't have too many calm spots, it didn't rain, it was warm, what more could you ask for," said Brenan.
Matt Fahey's Sydney 38, Faster Forward, was second on AMS Handicap, winning the Edward Henty Trophy, and second on PHS.
Matt Setton, skipper of the Ker 11.3, The Jackal, from the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron, was the line honours winner in this year's Westcoaster, sailing the race for the second time and his first as skipper, in an elapsed time of 3 days, 5 hours, 22 minutes and 23 seconds, 20 minutes ahead of Alien.
In what was a fabulous ocean race for Setton, who was awarded the Wrest Point Abel Tasman Trophy for line honours, the Port Phillip Sea Pilot's Trophy for the first boat through Port Phillip Heads, and the Alan Collins 'Rookie Skipper' prize awarded to the best performing first time skipper as assessed by the Race Director.
In a closely fought race, The Jackal led all the way from Melbourne to Hobart, clinching the line honours victory despite the determined efforts of Matt Fahey's Sydney 38, Faster Forward, and a last-ditch effort from Justin Brenan's Lidgard 36, Alien, in the final few miles of the race.
"It was close racing, The Jackal at one stage was 20 nautical miles in front of us and it ended up four nautical miles in the end, maybe less," said Brenan.
Setton reflected upon his victory as a first-time skipper and what gave them the edge.
"I'm pretty happy to be here, very relieved, it's been a big year getting the boat ready, I'm glad we made it.
"I think our downwind speed on the second day gave us a little bit of a break from Faster Forward.
"We knew that they would be pretty good upwind and so for the first 12 hours or so, it wasn't quite downwind, and there were only a few miles between us, but we thought, once the breeze got behind us, we'd be able to skip away a little bit, and we were able to do that which was good.
"It was a great race, very tactical, probably equally as tactical in some respects as a Sydney to Hobart.
Onboard The Jackal with Setton were Jeff Whiteside, Nigel Fellowes-Freeman, Peter Grant, Stuart Addison, Robert Buchanan, Thor Cembala and Ronald Piang Ng.
In true Westcoaster tradition, Simon Dryden, a race veteran onboard Faster Forward received acknowledgement for completing 30 Melbourne to Hobart Yacht Races.
Faster Forward skipper Matt Fahey acknowledged his crew in this year's race and made mention of the impression that Dryden has had on this race.
"I'm delighted, we've had the boat seven years, this is our fifth Melbourne to Hobart on our boat, and we just love it.
"We've put a new team together this year with a few new people, and they've done an incredible job, not only the novices in our team but also the ones with experience that have come to us from other parts of Australia.
"I'm really happy with what we have achieved as a team, I've never had a bond like we have already in this group, and I couldn't do it without Simon.
"I'm thrilled that I've had him back with me again this year, and I'm thrilled that I've had the opportunity to share his 30th [race] with him, it's a real privilege to have done four together.
"Hour on hour, there was something new that all of us learnt... that's the privilege I have in being able to sail with Simon," said Fahey.
Dryden took a moment to reflect upon his Melbourne to Hobart racing achievements after docking in Hobart for the 30th time.
"It's a race that I love and that I have done so many times, it's just part of my nature.
"It's good fun sailing with a bunch of guys, some of them are new, some are less experienced, so teaching them all the way about ways to do things...it's always something you look forward to, it's [Hobart] a great destination.
"It's about taking people on the journey; I think that all eight people that Matt and I had on this journey will be back.
"The interesting thing about the Melbourne to Hobart Race is that we see such lovely countryside and we see such lovely places, it's just really nice how this race comes via various stages of Tasmania," said Dryden.
The Kevin Behrens Shield for Outstanding Crew Member, awarded to the crew member judged most outstanding in the race, was presented to Robert Brown, affectionately known as Spiderman, by the crew of Joan Lorraine for being so willing and helpful and at aged 70 was the first up the mast twice during this year's Westcoaster.
The Westcoaster is one of the world's great ocean races, covering 435 nautical miles from the start in Port Phillip to the finish line in the River Derwent in Hobart.
The race starts with a 125 nautical mile passage across Bass Strait before the fleet sails 200 nautical miles south down the West Coast of Tasmania, past Maatsuyker Island, east to South East Cape then turning northeast through the challenging waters of Storm Bay and then the fickle conditions of the River Derwent.
The monohull race record of 1 day 17 hours 28 minutes 59 seconds was set by Shortwave in 2008.
Read the full race results here.