After the water ballast blew up just hours into the race, the boat lost power.

As a result, LawConnect was sailing towards Hobart the old-fashioned way.

Read more: Scallywag's against the odds Hobart finish

The high-tech trackers and weather models were out, the crew largely unable to keep an eye on their rivals.

That also meant LawConnect's rivals, and those following the race, had little idea of the boat's location for large portions of the race.

LawConnect ultimately made it to Constitution Dock in Hobart around 4am Wednesday morning, the second boat to cross the finish line behind winners Black Jack.

The result was tough to take for Oxley and the crew, the Wollongong sailor dedicating so much time in his attempt to win this year's edition of the great race.

"It's always tough," Oxley told the Mercury before jumping on the boat and sailing back to Sydney. "We wanted to be out there and win it. We were leading the race by quite a long way but our tracker was down.

"We had a few issues with water in our computer. We didn't have any communication, we knew we were in front but no one else knew.

"We knew where we were, but didn't know where our competitors were for 80 per cent of the time. Unfortunately we sailed into no wind. Our boat needs quite a bit of wind to keep moving and the other boat caught up."

The damage to LawConnect's water ballast came as the sailors were greeted by brutal conditions on the opening night of the race.

A fierce southerly and rough seas forced 36 boats to retire, more than a third of the original fleet of 88.

There were harrowing tales of destruction - damage to both boats and bodies.

Denali was forced to withdraw late on Sunday night, ultimately limping to Port Kembla harbour.

The conditions contributed to Black Jack finishing in the slowest winning time since 2004 and Oxley said the sheer length of the race only added to the challenge.

"It's one of the toughest races I've done in the last five or six years. It was a tough first night, then really tough with not much breeze the last couple of days.

"It was a long race, one of the longest races I've done on a 100ft super maxi. We hung in there and got through what we had to get through, it was unfortunate we didn't come out with the win."

Despite the damage, LawConnect thrived in the rough seas and was able to pull away from their rivals.

That was until conditions calmed and the wind eased.

Suddenly the weather no longer played in LawConnect's favour.

Instead it was Black Jack, a boat known to thrive in calm conditions, that was able to build speed and surge past Oxley and his crew.

For the sailor, there was nothing he could do except sit and watch as his Sydney to Hobart dream sailed by.

"Black Jack was in their element," Oxley said. "The wind under 10 knots is their element. Unfortunately the second part of the race we had a breeze under 10 knots.

"That's where they're dominant at, the forecast was to their strength and it wouldn't have mattered what we did.

"That's part of yacht racing. We go out and there are certain elements of what we do that's not in our control.

"We're not in a controlled environment for 90 per cent of what we do. That's part of the challenge, we deal with what's going on around us."