Thirroul's Paul Kimber on the Sydney-Hobart race (and finish) of a lifetime

After race leaders Andoo Comanche and LawConnect entered the Derwent River to Hobart they would soon come across glassy waters and no breeze in sight.

The brilliant sailing that followed was described by one excited commentator as "one of the greatest moments in Australian sport" as the rivals tacked and gybed in what Kimber, 47, described as a "slow-motion game of cat and mouse".

Earlier, when LawConnect entered the Derwent well behind, few could predict the tense finish to come.

"I was actually having a kip on the front of the boat thinking this is a jolly outing," Kimber, who grew up in the UK, told the Mercury.

"It was absolutely stunning morning and I thought we were just cruising in for a nice comfortable second place finish with Comanche just just a bit out of reach.

"Then all of a sudden they went further across and just got into area where they just had nothing."

Sneaking along the edge of the shore Sandy Bay, Lawconnect managed to keep its sails filled with a series of manouevres to make the most of what breeze they could find.

'We had good speed and we just were catching them really quickly; after we caught up, it was just a game of tactics and I think our crew is very well set up for that," Kimber said.

"We had some really experienced sailors on board and they were just able to pull it off. It was absolutely stunning."

It was not until the very last minutes that LawConnect pulled ahead.

"It was neck and neck right up till the very last," Kimber said.

"We weren't convinced, you know, it wasn't obvious we were going to win until we were basically going over the line.

"It was an amazing feeling, especially for some of the experienced guys on board. They could hardly watch - one guy ... he had in his hands for about the last minute and a half. He couldn't quite watch what was going on around him.

"He was calling in all of his 'just this one time' for the rest of his life."

LawConnect, owned by tech entrepreneur Christian Beck, had four "amateur sailors" on board, employees at Beck's legal software firm LEAP, including development operations manager Kimber.

It had held the lead briefly on Wednesday after a night of storms but had fallen well behind as Van Diemen's Land approached.

Kimber said he was on watch when the storm hit and found himself clinging on for dear life at the back of the boat until skipper Ty Oxley - also from Wollongong - gave him some "firm encouragement" to get on his hands and knees and scramble below deck.

"Just the power, the power of the storm, with the guys just trying to sail the boat through it without literally breaking it," Kimber said.

"The power of the waves and the power of the wind. Each time we sort of slammed into a wave, that amount of force going through the boat ... it was just staggering."

Stagger he did, along with the other crews gathered to celebrate at Hobart's Customs House Hotel after being reunited with family and friends.

Kimber said if he was asked mid-storm whether he'd do it again, it was a "hard no". But after what he'd seen the sailors do at sea, and the feeling of the finish, he's not so sure.

"For me, the most amazing thing was just watching them fix issues," he said. "Our boat, we had plenty of issues. We broke lots of things in the boat over the course of the two days ... and the way the guys recover and deal with problems, it's really quite an amazing skill set.

"It's an amazing experience and to be given the opportunity as an absolute amateur, I'm really grateful."