Sydney to Hobart: Sailors throw support behind inquiry into tragic deaths of Nick Smith, Roy Quaden
Sailors have thrown their support behind any inquiries into the tragic deaths of two sailors in the 79th Sydney to Hobart, as the winners opted out of normal dockside celebrations.
Sailors have thrown their support behind inquiries into the tragic deaths of two sailors in the 79th Sydney to Hobart, including one the conducting club of the race, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, has confirmed.
Bowline sailor Nick Smith was hit by the mainsheet and thrown across the boat where he hit his head on a winch, while Flying Fish Arctos’ Roy Quaden was hit on the head by the boom on his yacht.
Both suffered their fatal injuries during the first 15 hours of the 624 nautical mile race to Hobart.
“For sure you have to get lessons learned. We don’t want this to keep happening,’’ said LawConnect skipper Christian Beck, whose supermaxi claimed its third line honours victory at 2.35am on Saturday.
Sailors opted not to participate in the normal dockside celebrations of receiving trophies, throwing the skipper overboard and cheering each other heartily due to the tragedy at sea.
“It’s a risky sport but it’s like the F1, with a certain focus they can reduce the risk.
“The FI had a lot of deaths and they got on top of it and it’s pretty fine now.’’
The CYCA has confirmed it would conduct an inquiry into what happened on both yachts during the race.
These deaths were the first in the race since six men died at sea in the stormy 1998 race.
“There will be several investigations,’’ said CYCA vice commodore David Jacobs.
“Our club, for example, will investigate to see how did this happen, are there things that we can recommend to the boats to try to prevent this from happening.’’
Other high profile members of the sailing community, including Master Lock Comanche skipper and former Australian Sailing president Matt Allen were behind any inquiry that could make racing safer.
Allan said Australian Sailing will also likely be involved with any findings being forwarded to World Sailing.
“We are like a big brotherhood,’’ said LawConnect crew boss Chris Nicholson. “We feel this.’’
Wild Thing skipper and 33-time race veteran Grant Wharington was shocked by the news of the tragedy.
“News like this makes you hang on tighter,’’ he said.
In the wake of the deadly 1998 race numerous new safety rules were introduced including a minimum age of 18 for competition and yachts having to show they had their storm sails aboard before starting the Sydney to Hobart.
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