Ichi Ban

After winning the 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart with this Botin 52, Ichi Ban, Matt Allen was over the moon to win again in 2019, especially as it was his 30^th Hobart in the 75^th race – and because it earned him Blue Water Pointscore (BWPS) victory.  Allen went on to win Division A of Australian Sailing Championships for a third year running in January 2020 and finished second in the shortened 2020 BWPS with a pair of third places in the Bird and Cabbage Tree Island races.  Won his third consecutive Adelaide Port Lincoln races and Lincoln Race Weeks in February 2021.  She remains the benchmark in the fleet, but others have beat her in recent times.  Finished second on line and second overall in November’s Flinders Islet Race and then won the subsequent Bird Island Race and placed second in the Cabbage Tree Island Race, showing they in good form.  

Ichi Ban has been a standout boat since launching in late 2017, taking the line and overall double in the 2017 Newcastle Bass Island Race, her maiden race.  In 2018, she finished the Hobart in fifth place after being caught by the infamous ‘Derwent shutdown’, but still won the BWPS by 14 points.  That year, she also won the Brisbane Gladstone and Brisbane Hamilton Island races and placed second in the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, which she repeated in 2019.  Ichi Ban was a finalist in World Sailing’s 2019 Goslings Boat of the Year Award for her performances.  Allen is hoping to join the club of only two other boats to win the race three times.

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