2 sailor deaths result in muted celebrations on winning yacht in Sydney to Hobart race

Champagne corks often pop and loud, boisterous cheers are usually heard around Constitution Dock when the Sydney to Hobart line honors winner finishes in the Tasmanian state capital.

There were no such celebrations this year when defending champion LawConnect won the race in the early hours of Saturday morning, and with good reason: It came about 24 hours after two sailors died on separate boats in sail boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the race.

LawConnect, a 100-foot super maxi skippered by Australian tech millionaire Christian Beck, sailed up the River Derwent just after 2:30 a.m. Saturday. It had an elapsed time of 1 day, 13 hours, 35 minutes and 13 seconds, for the 628-nautical mile (722 miles, 1,160 kilometers) race that began Thursday in Sydney harbor.

Celestial V70 finished second, about 2 1/2 hours behind LawConnect, and Wild Thing 100 was third, about 25 minutes behind Celestial. Of the 104 starters, 29 had retired at sea or in port.

LawConnect crew member Tony Mutter said celebrations would be held privately out of respect of the two sailors who died. He said crew members were informed of the deaths on the morning of day two after a busy night battling the same stormy seas that caused the fatal accidents.

"I didn't actually hear it on the first night. I heard it in the early hours of the next morning," Mutter told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "We were pretty busy. We were 100% focused on the race. Our navigator knew, and he had to just pick the right moment to let us know."

Mutter said the crew became "more somber" after being told about the deaths - "we were absolutely surprised and just felt for the other competitors."

On Friday, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in Sydney, which administers the yacht race, said that one sailor each on entrants Flying Fish Arctos and Bowline were killed after being struck by the boom, a large horizontal pole at the bottom of the sail.

Later the dead sailors were identified as Roy Quaden 55, from Western Australia state, a crew member on Flying Fish Arctos, and 65-year-old Nick Smith of South Australia, who was on Bowline.

New South Wales police said both yachts had been seized for evidence for a likely coroner’s inquest. The Cruising Yacht Club said it would hold its own investigation.

Officials also said a sailor was washed overboard on another boat, but was rescued. That crew member was from Hobart yacht Porco Rosso, and he drifted a kilometer from the yacht before being rescued.

The incident triggered the crew member's emergency position-indicating radio beacon, a safety device that must be worn by all sailors in the race.

"That is one of the most terrifying experiences that you can have," said David Jacobs, vice-commodore of the CYCA. “(And) it was at night, which makes it tenfold more scary.”

The deaths came 26 years after six sailors were killed in storms during the 1998 race, which initiated a state coronial inquest and mass reforms to the safety protocols - including the radio beacon on all sailors - that govern the race. There have been 13 fatalities in the 79-year history of the race, with four of those deaths resulting from sailor heart attacks.

The first all-Filipino crew of 15 sailors was entered in this year’s race, but was among the retirements because of the weather. With veteran sailor Ernesto Echauz at the helm, Centennial 7 was one of six international entrants and includes sailors from the Philippines' national team and the country’s navy.

Grant Wharington, the Australian skipper of third-place Wild Thing 100 and a veteran around-the-world sailor, described the Hobart race as "testing and boat breaking.”

"There's some tragic things that have happened in the race this year,” he said. “It makes you second-guess whether you should be doing it for yourself, for your own health, for your well-being, and for your family.

"At the end of the day, we challenge our own personalities and our bodies. We go and do these crazy things in life, and this is one of them, and we love it. I've done it 31 times. It holds great memories for me.”