Subdued celebrations for LawConnect, as tragedy tinges triumph in Sydney to Hobart

Celebrations by Christian Beck’s victorious LawConnect crew were muted out of respect for two lives lost to the pursuit of the blue water classic, as well as the skipper’s suspected food poisoning.

LawConnect crosses the Hobart finish line.

Tragedy tinged the triumph in the early hours of Saturday, as LawConnect took out her second consecutive Line Honours in the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Celebrations by Christian Beck’s victorious crew were muted out of respect for two lives lost to the pursuit of the blue water classic, as well as the skipper’s suspected food poisoning.

It was a third win for the defending champions, but the customary ostentatious celebrations were forgone, the crew indicating these would follow “quietly…later on”.

Crew member Tony Mutter said his team, who crossed the Castray Esplanade finish line 13 seconds after 2.35am, had become “sombre” after learning of the earlier deaths of fellow competitors Nick Smith and Roy Quaden.

“We were absolutely surprised and just felt for the other competitors,” Mutter told reporters, adding the yacht’s navigator had tried to “pick the right moment” to break the news.

Law Connect arrives in Hobart to take line honours in the early hours. Picture: Linda Higginson

With Beck holed up in a hotel room with stomach problems, it was left to Mutter to describe conditions in the deadliest iteration of the 628 nautical miles race since 1998, when six died in storms.

“There was challenging conditions, probably the roughest (Sydney to Hobart) race I’ve done,” said the Kiwi veteran of 11 contests. “But we came through okay, we didn’t break too much stuff, and people are okay, just got a few bumps and bruises.

“I have done much tougher races though, around the world.”

Image from LawConnect during one of the roughest Sydney to Hobart races some crew had experienced

It had been a wild ride out of Sydney “all the way to Green Cape and a little bit beyond”. “There were big waves, there’s always a lot of counter currents down there, which change the direction of the waves,” he said.

“You’ve got to keep on your toes, and then afterwards, once the front rolled through, we obviously had a big push from the west, which added another challenge, where we had to basically slow down for about four or five hours.”

LawConnect’s finish time was 4hrs, 19mins, 49secs outside the race record of 01 day 09 hours 15 minutes 24 seconds set by LDV Comanche in 2017.

Her first win was as Perpetual LOYAL in 2016, when the now 16-year-old super maxi broke the race record.

It was a very different finish to last year, when the gruelling 628 nautical mile race ended in a dog fight in the Derwent between LawConnect and Andoo Comanche.

LawConnect’s triumph then was by an excruciating, electrifying 51 seconds. On Saturday morning in the ink black darkness, Beck and crew had the river to themselves, following the retirement of chief rival Master Lock Comanche on Friday with a busted mainsail.

As of early Saturday, at least 25 yachts other yachts had also been forced out of the race.

Celestial V70 was second across the finish line at 05:10:20 AM, followed just over 27 minutes later by Wild Thing 100.

Amid stormy conditions on Friday, Nick Smith, 65, aboard Bowline, was hit by the yacht’s main sheet and thrown across the vessel, striking his head fatally against a winch.

A similar ¬tragedy took place on Flying Fish Arctos, where a flailing boom struck and killed Roy Quaden, 55, from Western Australia.

Cruising Yacht Club Australia Vice Commodore David Jacobs insisted conditions had not been too dangerous in a sport where competitors know that no amount of preparation, training and experience can eliminate all risk.

“The forecast was strong winds to gale-force winds. These fleets can handle those things. They’re ocean races. They’re used to those winds. It was not extreme conditions,” Jacobs said.

“Everyone’s devastated. It’s a terrible tragedy. We always want to improve safety wherever we can, so we will do an investigation. And if there’s something that boats can do to try and prevent this happening, we will implement that.”

Anthony Albanese led the nation’s tributes to the two sailors, saying that the race in which they died was “an Australian tradition, and it is heartbreaking that two lives have been lost at what should be a time of joy”.

There was almost a third death, when experienced crew member Luke Watkins from the yacht Porco Rosso was swept overboard in the dark about 40 nautical miles off the NSW coast. Watkins, 37, had to unhook from his lifeline to survive and drifted 4km away before his yacht miraculously rescued him 45 minutes later, thanks to his personal locator beacon, light-up safety jacket and the skill of his crewmates.

- Additional reporting: David Murray, Joanna Panagopoulos and Summer Liu