Hugs and tears: Inside LawConnect’s ‘sombre’ Sydney to Hobart victory
LawConnect snared a third Sydney to Hobart line honours win under the cover of darkness but her crew were sombre and sad remembering the sailors who would not be docking.
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There were handshakes, hugs and a tear or two but no champagne popping, cheering or fist pumps as LawConnect led the first survivors of a torrid Sydney to Hobart yacht race home while the majority of the fleet faced another day or two at sea.
Christian Beck’s 100-footer LawConnect raced across the finish line on the Derwent River under the cover of darkness to snare a third line honours win but her crew were sombre and sad remembering the sailors who would not be docking in Hobart.
Bowline’s Nick Smith and Flying Fish Arctos’s Roy Quaden were killed in separate accidents on their yachts in the opening 15 hours of the race south.
Two of the Australian in the crew know better than anyone what it is like to lose a mate at sea with Alex Gough aboard Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag when crewmate John “‘Fish” Fisher was washed and lost overboard in the Southern Ocean
“It is a little sombre to be honest. We are happy to win but we’d rather not win if those two
people were still with us,’’ said Gough. who has also been washed overboard himself in another race before being successfully recovered.
Nicholson, a close friend of Fisher, has also lost crewmates during his round the world racing.
“Sadly I have experienced this before and you never know what to say or think,’’ Nicholson said.
“You just think about the family and crews and boats and even the rescuers and every that has anything to do with it.’
LawConnect finished the race in one day, 13 hours, 35 minutes and 13 seconds, well outside the record of just over one day nine hours she had been hunting for much of the race.
The 100-footer, which beat Andoo Comanche by 51 seconds to win last year, came home in good wind, her sails lit up by camera lights and her crew decked out in full wet weather gear after a torrid Sydney to Hobart.
“I can’t believe it. I don’t think anyone can believe it,’’ said Beck.
“I think if someone said you would win this again next year, even I would not have believed them.
“I don’t think the press would have believed it, the club would have believed it or the betting agencies certainly wouldn’t have believed it. They didn’t even have us on good odds to be first out the heads ven with our history in being strong in that.’’
In the wake of the deaths of two sailors early in the race, sailing master Tony Mutter was asked how dangerous the Sydney to Hobart can be.
“That’s a hard one, it’s like asking an F1 driver if he thinks it’s dangerous,’’ he said.
“For me, I have raced six times around the world and I’ve seen way worse conditions than that for weeks on end
“For us it was part of our management of the boat — to finish first you must look after the asset so we were certainly mindful of that
“We pushed when we could and we certainly had to take the foot off the throttle when it was too much.’
“We had no sail damage, zero, total surprise on that. We have a few bent stanchions and a few issues with crew screwups, myself included, and a few bumps and bruises.’’
LawConnect’s finish time was four hours, 19 minutes and 49 seconds outside the race record of one day nine hours 15 minutes and 24 seconds set by LDV Comanche in 2016.
Celestial, the 70-footer chartered for the race by Sam Haynes, finished at 5.10am after Law Connect at 2.05am.
The yacht is a major contender to claim overall honours in the Sydney to Hobart despite some damage to a vital sail during the race.
Grant Wharington and his team on Wild Thing 100 arrived just 17 minutes later.
“It was so windy, we limited the number of people on deck so we could keep the yacht lit up while giving people time downstairs,’’ Haynes said.
“This is my 13th Hobart and it was pretty relentless the whole way.’’
Wharington, competing in his 33rd race, said he was shocked to hear of the race tragedy.
“Everyone was just stunned actually. This is a big community and everyone knows everyone. It’s just terrible.
“News like this makes you hang on tighter.’’
Around 75 yachts are expected to arrive in Hobart on Sunday and Monday with two stragglers giving an ETA for their arrival of January 8 although this is expected to speed up significantly the next day or so.
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