Tragically, history has repeated itself in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, with two deaths on day one of this year’s competition adding to the deadly past of the iconic national sporting event.
Nick Smith, 65, was killed while racing on Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron’s boat, Bowline, around 2am on Friday.
He was struck by the boom, a large horizontal pole at the bottom of the sail, approximately 30 nautical miles east/north-east of Batemans Bay and fell unconscious.
Smith was the second sailor to die in this year’s race after 55-year-old Western Australian man Roy Quaden was killed after also being struck by the boom onboard Flying Fish Arctos around two hours earlier.
Aussies are likely to recall the infamous 1998 race, during which six people lost their lives as wild conditions – including 20-metre-high waves – caused utter carnage among the field.
Only 44 of the competing 115 yachts finished in the Apple Isle, with most forced to turn back rather than risk their lives.
Nick Smith, 65, was tragically killed while racing on Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron’s boat, Bowline, around 2am on Friday when competing in the Sydney to Hobart
Smith was struck approximately 30 nautical miles east/north-east of Batemans Bay and couldn’t be revived with CPR (pictured, Bowline at the start of this year’s race)
Sailor Roy Quaden’s death aboard Flying Fish Arctos occurred around 30 nautical miles east-south east of Ulladulla on the NSW south coast shortly before midnight on Thursday (the yacht’s sail boom is circled)
With a second man also dying this year, the tragedies evoked memories of the 1998 race, where waves as high as 20 metres hammered the field (pictured)
One of the boats completely wiped out was the Winston Churchill, whose nine-man crew was forced to literally abandon ship.
John Dean lost contact with his life raft, and his body was never recovered, with James Lawler and Michael Bannister suffering the same fate.
In the same grim year, Bruce Guy (Business Post Naiad) suffered a heart attack, Phil Skeggs (Business Post Naiad) drowned and Glyn Charles (Sword of Orion) was swept overboard after his safety harness failed.
His body was never recovered.
Veteran sailor John ‘Steamer’ Stanley was aboard the doomed Winston Churchill in 1998, and recalled the deafening waves in an interview.
Strong winds and 20 metre swells lashed their boat, forcing the crew onto life rafts.
‘We went up … we travelled, obviously, up a big wave, enormous wave, and it broke and then just, I hung on, held my breath and that seemed to go for a long, long time,’ he told Channel Nine’s A Current Affair in 2018.
A pair of inflatable rafts Stanley and his crew fled on to proved to be priceless, as three of Stanley’s mates perished.
John Stanley’s ship, the Winston Churchill (pictured) was completely engulfed by the ocean during the deadly 1998 race
‘I yelled out ‘are you all there’ and I only heard only one person answer,’ Stanley said.
Fast forward to 2024, and despite better racing protocols being in place, there is another sense of sporting déjà vu.
Following the tragedy, Flying Fish Arctos was escorted to Jervis Bay by NSW Police vessel Nemesis, while Bowline was escorted to Batemans Bay.
Cruising Yacht Club Australia Commodore David Jacobs spoke for many when he said ‘everyone is devastated’.
‘It is a terrible tragedy,’ he added.
Sixteen boats have now retired out of a total fleet of 104.
Ominously, a west south-westerly change is expected to hit the Bass Strait overnight, bringing winds of up to 40 knots and possible showers – conditions that will be particularly challenging for the smaller boats in the fleet.
