Sydney to Hobart 2021: list of retired boats, supermaxi’s drama and latest Covid news

The Sydney to Hobart fleet minnow was the last yacht to withdraw from the 2021 race - but it wasn’t damaged. FULL LIST OF RETIREMENTS.

Gun Runner was the smallest boat in the 2021 fleet at just 30 foot

The little 30-footer Gun Runner became the 38th yacht to retire from the Sydney to Hobart on December 31 but was still at sea when the fleet celebrated the New Year on dry land.

Gun Runner pulled the pin with almost 300 nautical miles to sail after the boat ran out of drinking water.

The crew on New Year’s Day left St Helen’s after restocking to sail to Hobart to pick up a delivery crew and then head back out to sea for the return trip to Sydney.

Gun Runner was the last retirement of a testing 2021 race.

Of the starting fleet of 88 only 50 made it to Hobart, including 10 two-handed boats.

Skipper Murray Stewart said the fleet minnow survived a torrid test at sea before running out of breeze in Bass Stait.

“We had planned to get there by the 31st with a day of contingency (water),’’ he said.

“But we just didn’t get breeze.’’

HISTORY MADE IN SYDNEY TO HOBART

Uncle Terry performs a smoking ceremony for the crew of Gun Runner before the 2021 Sydney to Hobart race.

LIST OF SYDNEY TO HOBART RETIRED YACHTS

Dec 31 at 3.30pm

Alive - hull damage

Ariel - Mainsail damage

Blink - torn main sail

Chancellor - sail damage

Crystal Cutter - mainsail damage

Denali - damage to hull

Enchantress - broken forestay

Extasea - engine issues

Gweilo - Forestay damage

Gun Runner - time constraints

Huntress - mainsail damage

Kialoa II - rig damage

King Billy - rigging damage

Mako - damaged mainsail

Mille Sabords - torn mainsail

Minerva - mainsail damage

Moneypenny - broken headstay

Nautical Circle - rigging issues

No Limit - heading to Sydney

Oskana - broken forestay

Oz Design Patrice Six - engine issues

Philosopher - heading to Sydney

TSA Management - mainsail damage

URM - damaged mainsail

Wax Lyrical - equipment damage

White Noise - window damage

Wonderland - equipment damage

Zara - unknown.

Zen - injured crew

TWO-HANDED

Eora - broken backstay

Hip-Nautic - damaged mainsail

Inukshuk - autopilot issues

Kayimai - engine issues

Hells Bells - engine issues

Maverick - rudder damage

Rogue Wave - boat damage

Gold Coast entrant Maritimo 11 in the Sydney to Hobart Pic: Andrea Francolini

Gweilo was first night retirement.

DECEMBER 29: The weather is lightening and the skies are brightening for the Sydney to Hobart fleet but the 2021 retirees club had another boat join up on Wednesday.

The Tasmanian yacht Wonderland became the 37th to retire from the race which has seen a particularly high attrition rate due to around 30 hours of upwind slog at the start.

Add in steep seas and wind against the current and it was a recipe for disaster for the 88-yachts who started the race at 1pm on Boxing Day.

Wonderland hails from Hobart but was heading to Bermagui on the NSW south coast after advising race officials she was retiring hurt with gear damage.

Her withdrawal on Wednesday afternoon was the first in 24 hours with winds lightening and changing direction and seas across the racecourse abating.

By Thursday morning is anticipated there will still be around 40 yachts still at sea - including 10 of the 18 two-handed boats that started in a Sydney to Hobart for the first time.

DECEMBER 28: Light winds the second night at sea have finally stopped the flow of yachts heading to safe haven with gear damage or breakage in the 2021 Sydney to Hobart.

At 9am on Tuesday, just one boat had pulled out of the 2021 race in the two-hander Rogue Wave.

The yacht has reportedly retired with damage but all crew aboard are fine.

This has left 52 yachts still racing to Tasmania, including 10 of the 18 two-handed boats that started the race.

As the big boats headed to a Hobart finish later today, the smaller yachts were racing through Bass Strait in light winds and relatively pleasant conditions.

The crew of Oskana back at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

DEC 27: Wild winds and big seas turned the opening stanza of the Sydney to Hobart into a race for survival with widespread damage across the fleet, crew injury and multiple yachts heading back to Sydney or to their closest port with their campaigns in tatters.

By 9.30am the first morning of the race, 25 yachts had been forced out for various reasons, including engine and hull issues and sail damage.

At 1pm - just 24 hours after the race start on Sydney Harbour - the list had extended to a staggering 28 boats.

Soon after the aptly named two-handed boat Hells Bell’s made it 29 and then the two-handed boat Inukshuk from Adelaide was the 30th to withdraw from the starting fleet of 88.

At 7.30pm there were 35 retirements with King Bill (chain plate), Zara (unspecified) and Maverick (rudders) all out damaged.

This left 53 yachts still racing to Hobart.

Boats limping home in the Sydney to Hobart. Pic: John Grainger

The majority of boats - 18 - were sent to the sidelines by 11pm on Boxing Day after hours of upwind pounding.

The best known casualty was the former overall winner of the Sydney to Hobart Alive from Tasmania which was late on Monday heading to Sydney with hull damage.

The yacht had issued a Pan Pan call indicating she had issues but was not in need of rescuing.

The first night another overall handicap contender, URM from Sydney, was one of the first yachts to retire.

The 72-footer was being skippered by Marcus Ashley-Jones and a boatload of skiff sailors with dreams of winning big in the race before their first night exit.

URM on the startline on Sunday.

“It’s just heartbreaking,’’ Ashley-Jones said off the boat.

“We had a 30 knot squall come through. We were putting the reef in and the mainsail failed.

“After all the hard work and anxiety over Covid this just breaks out hearts.

“But we will regroup and go again. The boat was electric before it happened.''

Scallywag before her gear dramas.

It is anticipated more yachts will be limping back to Sydney or into a port with damage over the next 12-24 or so hours due to the torrid conditions.

Upwind sailing is harsh on both boats and bodies with sail and gear damage prevalent in these conditions.

EARLY DRAMA IN THE SYDNEY TO HOBART

Sydney to Hobart sailors on Sunday night weren’t sure if they were feeling sick from the rugged upwind conditions, the thought of receiving a positive Covid result at sea or, in Scallywag skipper David Witt’s case, an ill-timed and potentially race-finishing bit of gear damage in the first hour of the race.

“This race is trying to kill me,’’ Witt said from his supermaxi.

Scallywag’s brilliant start at 1pm was spoiled by a drama at sea when a fitting connecting a sail came off the deck of the 100-footer.

“But we are not going to give up. We are sailing on,” Witt said.

“We are going to keep giving this a go.’’

It was this same can-do attitude from race officials which saw the 76th race start on Sydney Harbour with a burst of colour and huge sighs of relief across the fleet.

After the race was cancelled a year ago for the first time in history, race officials forged ahead with their planning despite having to vault numerous hurdles regarding Covid.

One emerged late on Christmas night when it was discovered around half the fleet had not had their results back from mandatory Covid tests within 72 hours of the start.

Officials then rushed to secure permission for those still waiting for their results to actually start the race at 1pm.

By then two yachts - Protagonist and Vamp - were race day retirees due to Covid, reducing the fleet to 88 starters, with 17 two-handed boats making their debut in the race.

“It really is a miracle this has gone ahead,’ said Ichi Ban skipper Matt Allen.

The start of the race which was cancelled last year.

Many boats were missing regular crews, with sailors either contracting the virus or ruled out by being a close contact.

It is not known if the incident where 400 people wrongly received negative Covid test results from St Vincent’s Hospital will have impact in the fleet but it seems likely.

If a sailor returns a positive test at sea their boat must retire. However it is unlikely they will be mobile phone coverage for most of the race so sailors are unlikely to know their result until they arrive in Tasmania.

But the race went on with the smallest spectator fleet in recent memory witnessing a colourful spinnaker start to the famous race which started back in 1945.

They also witnessed Witt, a former 18-foot skiff sailor now based in Asia, leave fellow supermaxis LawConnect and Black Jack in his wake at the start before his luck ended off Sydney heads.

LawConnect was on Sunday leading the fleet south.

When the gear damage happened, Witt was forced to change course briefly, stop altogether and then hoist a tiny storm jib so he could continue racing.

“We are hoping we can fix it sometime during the first night. I’m not giving up,’’ he said.

Christian Beck and his LawConnect crew took over the lead with Peter Harburg’s Black Jack in pursuit and Scallywag doggedly racing behind.

These three were late yesterday leading the fleet down the NSW coast.

It is expected it will take the fleet frontrunners more than two days to cover the 628 mile course - and the smaller yachts in the fleet more than twice this amount of time.