Sydney to Hobart officials contact families of dead sailors as CYCA prepares to honour the duo

As police and the CYCA launch investigations into the deaths of two Sydney to Hobart sailors, officials have contacted the families of the pair as they work on an appropriate for the pair.

Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Sam Haynes. Picture: Linda Higginson

Race officials are in contact with the families of the two sailors lost at sea as they work on an appropriate tribute for the race prizegiving ceremony on December 31.

Nick Smith from Bowline and Roy Quaden from Flying Fish Arctos died at sea in accidents aboard their yachts the first night and morning of the annual race.

“It is still being worked on but the club is planning something,’’ said Sam Haynes, Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia but also the overall winner of the 2024 race with his 70-footer Celestial, of the planned tribute.

A police investigation is underway with the CYCA to also do a review expected to take in excess of six weeks, focusing not just on the tragedy but the race as a whole as it does annually.

“As a sailor and competitor and for the sport, anything that happens of this nature needs to be looked at,’’ Haynes said.

“I don’t know what the findings will be and don’t know enough about the circumstances, but I think anything will be considered.

Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Sam Haynes. Picture: Linda Higginson

“I am Commodore of the club so there will be a role but I’m not sure what it will be.

“All of that will come through in the future, right now we haven’t made those moves.

“Anyone involved in the race and there are a lot of very experienced racers out there, will have input into any investigation.’’

When Haynes and his crewmates were handed the Tattersalls Cup for the handicap win, around 70 yachts were still making their way to Hobart in kinder conditions than those which smashed the fleet on the opening two days.

The majority are expected to arrive on Monday with the remainder on Tuesday in time for New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Roy Quaden. Pic LinkedIn.

Nick Smith. Picture: Bowline

By late Sunday 30 yachts had retired from the testing event forecast from days out to be one of the most challenging in recent years.

Among the arrivals on Sunday was Ocean Crusaders J-Bird skipper Annika Thomson who won the Jane Tate trophy as the first female skipper to finish.

“Jane Tate was an absolute legend. In her time and what she did was just heroic,’’ Thomson said of the first woman to finish the race back in 1946, a year after its inception.

I don’t think she saw it that way. She just got on with the job.

“And that’s what we do. We just get on with the job out there.”

Sailing with Thomson and her husband Ian were four other women in Annie Eastgate, Amberly Middleton, Phoebe Reedman and Laura Thomson.

“We just have the best sailors on the job,” Thomson said of her team.

Originally published as Sydney to Hobart officials contact families of dead sailors as CYCA prepares to honour the duo