Tragically, history has repeated itself at the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, with two deaths on the first day of this year’s competition adding to the deadly past of the iconic national sporting event.
Nick Smith, 65, died while sailing on the Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron ship, Bowline, about 2am on Friday.
He was struck by the boom, a large horizontal pole at the bottom of the sail, approximately 30 nautical miles east/northeast of Batemans Bay and fell unconscious.
Smith was the second sailor to die in this year’s race after Roy Quaden, 55 from Western Australia, died after also being struck by the boom aboard the Flying Fish Arctos about two hours earlier.
Australians are likely to remember the infamous 1998 race, during which six people lost their lives when wild conditions, including 20-metre-high waves, caused total carnage among participants.
Only 44 of the 115 participating yachts ended up on Apple Isle, and most were forced to turn back to avoid risking their lives.
Nick Smith, 65, tragically died while competing on the Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron’s boat, Bowline, at around 2am on Friday while competing in the Sydney to Hobart.
Smith was struck approximately 30 nautical miles east/northeast of Batemans Bay and could not be revived with CPR (pictured, Bowline at the start of this year’s race)
The death of seaman Roy Quaden aboard the Flying Fish Arctos occurred around 30 nautical miles east-southeast of Ulladulla on the New South Wales south coast, shortly before midnight on Thursday (the yacht’s boom is surrounded by a circle).
With the death of a second man this year, the tragedies evoked memories of the 1998 race, where waves of up to 20 meters hit the course (pictured).
One of the ships completely destroyed was the Winston Churchill, whose nine-man crew was literally forced to abandon ship.
John Dean lost contact with his life raft and his body was never recovered, and James Lawler and Michael Bannister suffered the same fate.
In the same dark year, Bruce Guy (Business Post Naiad) suffered a heart attack, Phil Skeggs (Business Post Naiad) drowned and Glyn Charles (Sword of Orion) was dragged overboard after his safety harness failed.
His body was never recovered.
Veteran sailor John ‘Steamer’ Stanley was aboard the doomed Winston Churchill in 1998 and recalled the deafening waves in an interview.
Strong winds and 20-meter waves battered their boat, forcing the crew to climb into life rafts.
“We went up…we rode, obviously, on a big wave, a huge wave, and it broke and then I just held on, held my breath and that seemed to last a long, long time,” he told Channel. Nine is a hot topic in 2018.
A pair of inflatable rafts that Stanley and his crew fled to proved to be priceless, as three of Stanley’s companions were killed.
John Stanley’s boat, the Winston Churchill (pictured), was completely submerged in the ocean during the deadly 1998 race.
“I yelled ‘is everyone there?’ and I only heard one person respond,” Stanley said.
Fast forward to 2024 and, despite better racing protocols, there is another sense of sporting déjà vu.
Following the tragedy, Flying Fish Arctos was escorted to Jervis Bay by the New South Wales Police vessel Nemesis, while Bowline was escorted to Batemans Bay.
Commodore David Jacobs of Cruising Yacht Club Australia spoke for many when he said “everyone is devastated”.
“It’s a terrible tragedy,” he added.
Sixteen ships have currently been retired from a total fleet of 104.
Disturbingly, a west-southwest change is expected to hit Bass Strait overnight, bringing winds of up to 40 knots and possible squalls – conditions that will be particularly challenging for the fleet’s smaller ships.