sydney to hobart yacht race rescue

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Sydney to Hobart tragedy: Heroes, survivors reflect

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1998 Sydney Hobart: Extract from The Proving Ground by G Bruce Knecht

• Tom Cunliffe
• April 20, 2020

Helpless crew can do nothing except watch as one of their own, swept overboard during a capsize, drifts away in a storm

Red flare and liferaft deployed – crew of the stricken yacht Stand Aside wait for rescue by helicopter in the 1998 Sydney Hobart Race. All photos: Richard Bennett

G Bruce Knecht, sometime foreign correspondent of The Wall Street Journal , has risen nobly to this challenge in his book The Proving Ground . Originally published in 2001 in the aftermath of the tragedy, the book is now available via Amazon – and it should be required reading for all who go offshore to compete.

Within a framework of the race in general, Knecht has concentrated mainly on the events surrounding four boats. Sword of Orion is ultimately abandoned in the direst distress, Winston Churchill is lost, but Sayonara and Brindabella finish.

From meticulous research and endless interviewing of those involved, Knecht has produced a book that is hard to put down. Not only does he describe the events accurately, he takes the bold step of looking critically into the characters and motivations of the dramatis personae.

The book is skilfully crafted by a master and not written as a linear time line, but this has made it difficult to find an extract of suitable length for publication in Yachting World . I have eventually centred on the loss of Glyn Charles, an Olympic sailor from Britain, one of the crew of Sword . Charles joined the crew late in the day as a ‘rock star’ helmsman.

What went wrong and why, as described below, brings us right on board the yacht and it makes for harrowing reading.

From The Proving Ground by G Bruce Knecht

At about 1600, the owner Kooky’s requirement for giving up the race was surpassed as the wind reached close to 70 knots. By then, the yacht was 90 miles from the safe haven of Eden. In racing terms, Sword of Orion was still doing well, but even so he told his shipmate Kulmar he was prepared to give up. ‘It’s up to the helmsmen. If they want to go back, we’ll go back.’

Kulmar already knew what Brownie and Glyn would say, but he quickly checked with both of them before telling Kooky it was unanimous. ‘Fine, let’s do it,’ Kooky said.

‘But where are we going to go?’ Dags the permanent hand interjected. ‘We can’t head directly to Eden. That would put the waves behind us.’

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Hunched over a map, Kooky suggested that they head west, roughly in the direction of Melbourne, until it was safe to turn toward Eden. At 1644 Kooky announced Sword ’s retirement over the radio, Brownie got out of his bunk and told Kooky, ‘I’ll take the helm when we turn around.’ Kooky said no. ‘Glyn’s on the wheel; he can do it.’

Glyn already had a plan. ‘I’ll wait for a big wave,’ he said. ‘As soon as we’re over the top, I’ll turn the wheel hard as we go down the other side. There’ll be less wind between the waves, and we should be able to get around pretty fast.’

Being on deck was painful. The wind was ripping through the rigging, producing a constant high-pitched shriek. And having created the waves, the wind had gone into battle with them, shaving off the foam at their peaks and creating a jet stream of moisture that looked like smoke. The droplets slapped Glyn and Dags with skin-stinging speed.

All the waves were huge, but after letting several pass Glyn judged one to be larger than the others. ‘This is the one,’ he shouted. The angle increased dramatically as Sword climbed the 35ft wave. Just before it reached the top, Glyn pulled at the wheel, hand over hand.

As Sword passed over the crest and began to tilt forward, the rudder came out of the water. When it resubmerged a couple of seconds later, the Sword carved a tight arc as it skidded down the wave. By the time it reached the valley, it was on a new course.

‘Great job,’ Dags shouted, but he had already begun to worry about Glyn’s ability to drive the boat. Rather than steering the westerly course they had talked about, he was heading north.

‘How are you feeling?’ Dags asked. Glyn, who had a stomach bug and was prone to seasickness, admitted to feeling terrible and then went on to say how bad he felt about not putting in more time at the wheel. ‘I haven’t done my job. I’ve let the team down.’

‘No, that’s not true. Shit happens. If you’re not feeling well, it’s not your fault.’

AFR Midnight Rambler , skippered by Ed Psaltis, battles through the atrocious conditions

The waves were no larger than before Sword changed course, but now they were far more dangerous. The almost northerly course Glyn was steering would take them directly to Eden, but it meant the waves were coming astern. That meant Sword was doing exactly what Dags had desperately wanted to avoid – surfing, vastly increasing the chances of going out of control and rolling over.

Glyn wasn’t really looking at the waves. Having cinched the cord in his hood so tightly around his face that he looked as if he were wearing blinkers, he seemed to be paying more attention to the instruments.

Dags, not sure what to do, shouted over the wind, ‘Do you want me to steer?’ With his eyes focused on the compass, Glyn replied, ‘No, I can do it. It makes me feel better.’ Almost pleading, Dags said, ‘But you can’t steer this way. We have to go into the waves.’

Glyn was obviously miserable. His jacket was equipped with rubber seals around his neck and wrists, which were supposed to keep water out, but a steady stream was trickling down his back and chest, causing him to tremble with cold. ‘This gear is worthless,’ he said bitterly. ‘I’m completely wet. I wish we could just get out of here.’

‘You have to stop surfing,’ Dags insisted. ‘Why don’t you let someone else steer?’ Glyn said nothing.

Dags wasn’t the only crewman who was worried about Glyn’s steering. Clipping his harness onto the safety line, the experienced Carl Watson made his way to the back of the boat. ‘Glyn, your course is too low — you have to come up so we can keep heading into the waves.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Glyn replied without making eye contact. ‘I had friends who died in the Fastnet Race . I know what to do.’

• 1. From The Proving Ground by G Bruce Knecht
• 2. Below decks
• 3. Drowning
• 4. The right response?
• 5. Dry land

Terror in the Tasman: Remembering the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, 20 years on

It began, as they all do, at 1pm on Boxing Day in Sydney Harbour.

Just 48 hours later, six lives had been lost in what became the deadliest incident in Australian sailing history.

Less than half of all starters made it to the finish line. Some 24 boats were completely abandoned or written off and 55 sailors had to be rescued, by both aircraft and Royal Australian Navy ships. In all, it was our nation’s biggest ever peacetime rescue operation.

Twenty years on from the 1998 edition of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, Foxsports.com.au looks back at how the terrible tragedy unfolded.

At the starters’ gun, 115 yachts took off through Sydney Harbour and out into the Tasman Sea, to make the 628-nautical mile journey to the south-east of Tasmania.

Yet there were already troubling signs.

A few hours earlier, at the final briefing conducted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, sailors were warned of a low pressure system forming off the coast.

“It’s going to be very hard in Bass Strait, so get ready for a nasty one,” Bob Thomas, navigator and co-owner of AFR Midnight Rambler, told skipper Ed Psaltis in comments reported by Fairfax Media .

Don Buckley, a crew member on B52, spoke to NSW Police a month after the race .

“We had a last-minute update and ... the night before it had been pre-empted that perhaps the low was forming and that would be the only spanner in the works, that we might have some hard stuff,” Buckley said.

“It was hard to know how strong it would be but he (the team’s weather expert) certainly said, ‘you’ll get hammered’.

“Most people expect at some time in the Hobart race you’d have a southerly, and it’s just the cycle of the race. So I guess it didn’t ring any more alarm bells than, OK, it will hit us at some stage.

“We felt comfortable.”

Billionaire tech mogul Larry Ellison, a keen sailor, was skippering the yacht Sayonara, which eventually took line honours. But even he wasn’t expecting to get out as well as they did.

“After what was a beautiful day on Sydney Harbour the wind got more intense and the skies slowly, slowly darkened and I remember after 12 hours we were further ahead than the record holder was in 24 hours,” he told News Corp in 2009 .

“We were going twice as fast as the boat that had set the record on that race and I remember thinking, 'well that’s exciting, but what’s going on?’

“Sayonara was going over 21 knots and I kept saying, she’s not supposed to go that fast. As yet it was just a storm. We really didn’t know what we were getting into at all.”

The leaders began to enter the Bass Strait in the early morning of December 27; even smaller boats were travelling faster than anyone expected.

“It was a very fast ride. Our top speed was 21 knots, surfing a wave on an absolute knife-edge,” Psaltis told Fairfax Media .

“The yacht was going so fast there was a big rooster tail off the stern like a speedboat. We suffered two massive broaches during that period.

“They were really out-of-control capsizes – people in the water, absolute mayhem. Both times the little boat just jumped back up and kept going, showing how strong she was.”

On the 27th, the conditions just continued to worsen.

From 30, to 40, to 50 and then 60 knots in just minutes; the boats were battling horrendous winds, massive waves and the corresponding spray which made things incredibly difficult.

Overnight, some were lucky, like the late Gerry Schipper.

Schipper was a Victorian policeman who became a boat safety advocate after his experience in the 1998 race. His friend Tim Stackpool told ABC’s RN Breakfast in 2015 what happened when he went overboard while sailing on Challenge Again at around 1am.

“In the middle of the night, he was working on deck. He didn’t have any safety gear on; no buoyancy vest, he wasn’t attached to the deck. And he got washed overboard,” Stackpool said.

“He heard the call, ‘man overboard, man overboard’, and he found himself, in the middle of the night, huge seas, and just wondering how this boat was going to come and pick him up.

“He saw it disappearing into the distance, and the waves ... they’re like cliffs. So the boat would disappear and reappear as the waves washed over him.”

With no electronic positioning device - now a necessity for sailors - Schipper was left stranded in stormy seas.

“Then he remembered he had one of waterproof torches in his hand; that’s all he had to signal the crew to come and save him. Because of course they couldn’t see either, it was pitch black.

“He was in the water for half an hour; in the end it was a textbook rescue. They turned the boat around and they almost landed on top of him. They turned around ... so the weather would wash him into the boat.”

Gusts of wind were recorded at terrifying speeds of 90 knots (166km/h) around Wilson’s Promontory with crew members having to battle waves that some estimated reached heights of 30 metres.

“We just felt the boat roar up a wave and I think there were screams from the guy steering - ‘look out’. Then we just went straight over, upside down, and it was mayhem,” Don Buckley later recalled.

“It sounded like a motor accident. Just as loud, it was just horrific.”

After a particularly bad wave, Buckley and the crew tried to recover.

“When it came up it was probably worse than when we went down because we had a lot of water in it, and there was stuff everywhere. I was pinned. I had sailed came down on top of me and I was up to [my] neck in water.

“I was screaming at them to get the sails off me, so I could come out, all I wanted to do was run up the hatch.”

A stove top struck a female crew member in the head and she was trapped underwater. One man got his head stuck in the steering wheel and had to snap himself out of his safety harness; that left him 40 metres away from the boat. Fortunately he was able to swim back to safety.

Others weren’t so lucky. A former British Olympian, Glyn Charles, was swept over board from Sword of Orion and died.

Three men, Mike Bannister, Jim Lawler and John Dean, drowned when their life raft fell apart, following the sinking of their yacht Winston Churchill.

Two perished on Business Post Naiad; the skipper Bruce Guy, who is suspected of suffering a heart attack, and crew member Phil Skeggs who passed from injuries suffered when the boat rolled.

Those who were able to kept sailing towards Hobart; 44 yachts made it. Many others had to try and make their way to Eden, in southern New South Wales.

Barry Griffiths, a member of the Eden volunteer coastal patrol, told the ABC he worked a 32-hour shift to co-ordinate rescues on radios.

“There was a terrible lot of screaming. You could hear the desperation in some of the voices,” he said.

“Sometimes their radios went dead, and there could have been a multitude of reasons; [they] were dismasted, some lost power or had too much moisture getting into the radio.”

“I reckon looking out the window there that the top of the waves was nearly as high as this window. It was mountainous seas.”

Sayonara took line honours at around 8am on December 29 - but the victory celebrations were of course cancelled.

“This is not what racing is supposed to be,” Larry Ellison said after the race.

“Difficult, yes. Dangerous, no. Life-threatening, definitely not. I’d never have signed up for this race if I knew how difficult it would be.”

The billionaire still thinks about 1998.

“I think about it all the time. It was a life-changing experience,” he said a decade later.

“We knew there were boats sinking when we got in, we knew people were in trouble still out there in the midst of it and we were enormously grateful having made it.

“We were the first survivor to get in and finish the race. It was a race for survival, not for victory, trophies or anything like that.”

The 44th and final yacht to arrive, Misty, made it to Hobart on December 31. A day later, on Constitution Dock, a public memorial was held for the six lives lost.

Hugo van Kretschmar, commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (who organise the race), read out this statement:

“Mike Bannister, John Dean, Jim Lawler, Glyn Charles, Bruce Guy, Phil Skeggs.

“May the everlasting voyage you have now embarked on be blessed with calm seas and gentle breezes.

“May you never have to reef or change a headsail in the night.

“May your bunk be always warm and dry.”

If the same conditions seen in 1998 were facing the starters of 2018’s race, things would go much differently.

With better weather forecasts and more safety equipment required on board, the yachts would likely avoid the worst of the storm altogether and be better placed to deal with what does eventuate. Rob Kothe, who was on Sword of Orion in 1998, explained part of the difference to Sail World in 2008 .

“At the 12:30pm sked on Dec 27th 1998, the weather forecast read out by race control was winds up to 50 knots,” he said.

“On Sword of Orion we were experiencing 78 knots. Under racing rules we could not tell anyone, because we weren’t allowed to give other boats assistance by informing them of the weather ahead.

“We decided this was a life and death situation; it was not a game. We broke the rules to report to the wind strengths to the fleet, which soon reached 92 knots.

“It was too late to warn everyone. Many boats were close behind us, but about 40 boats retired to Eden as a result of our actions.

“Under today’s more sensible rules wind speeds above 40 knots have to be reported; therefore sudden unpredicted storm cells will not catch everyone unawares.

“Across the board, the equipment has improved, including better life jackets, better harnesses, personal EPIRBS. There’s also much better education and training. Better weather data and a change in the mind set of Race officials and race participants have made the biggest change, but all these moves have made racing safer.”

The tragic circumstances of 1998 have therefore helped save lives since then.

Twenty years on, a moment’s silence will be performed on race radio to remember the fallen.

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75 years of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

This year marks the 75th sailing of the legendary Sydney to Hobart yacht race. After its relatively relaxed beginnings on Boxing Day 1945 – just months after the end of World War II – the race has evolved into a highlight of the ocean racing calendar. Known as one of the world’s toughest blue-water events, it attracts sailors and yachts from around the globe. For some it’s a social or sporting event, for others a fierce competitive challenge. For many, it is a bucket-list aspiration.

This year 170 boats will gather: greyhounds, bare-bones super-maxis and veteran timber cruising craft among them. It is this variety of yachts, sailors and motivations, combined with the variability of the weather and waters over the 1,160-kilometre route, which gives the race its personality – equal parts old sea dog, sprinter, sports star and supermodel.

Last year Wild Oats XI took line honours for the ninth time with the extraordinary Mark Richards at the helm, and Alive became the first Tasmanian boat in 39 years to claim the title of overall winner on handicap. The current race record was set in 2017 by LDV Comanche , at one day, 9 hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds – an unthinkable record for those who sailed in the very first race 75 years ago.

The first ‘Hobart’ sailors were friends from the newly formed Cruising Yacht Club (now the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia – CYCA), who decided on a summer cruise together to Hobart. Before they left Sydney, British yachtsman John Illingworth joined the group and proposed making it a race. The Royal Navy captain had been stationed in Sydney during the war. It was just months after the armistice and life was returning to its peace-time rhythms. The CYCA teamed up with the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania to co-manage the race and, in the interests of keeping the focus on ‘cruising’, spinnakers were not permitted. 

Nine yachts left Sydney on December 26, 1945. On 2 January 1946, Illingworth’s Rani – whose crew was mostly assembled from defence personnel – was first across the line, with a time of six days, 14 hours and 22 minutes. Peter Luke’s Wayfarer arrived after 11 days, having anchored en route at Port Arthur for roast pork and crayfish! His record stands as the slowest passage in the blue-water event. 

The race grew in the post-war years, with peaks and troughs through the decades. It has seen huge social and technological change, resulting in necessary revisions of safety standards and rules. A major turning point in its history came with the deaths of six sailors in 1998, after hurricane-force winds decimated the fleet. 

Challenging, Thrilling, Racing

To mark the 75th race, the museum has developed a program of exhibitions in and around its site, including the Tasman Light Gallery, Yots Café and our wharves, where you can see the iconic Kathleen Gillett , the ketch that sailed in the very first Hobart race. The Tasman Light Gallery is named for its central feature – a large, historic, first-order lens from the Tasman Island lighthouse, which all yachts in the Sydney to Hobart must pass on the final leg of the race to the finish line on the Derwent River.

Challenging, Thrilling, Racing is a dramatic visual essay about the history of the race, with a special focus on photography located in the Tasman Light Gallery. Also on display is a showcase containing the timber trophy presented to the race’s first winner, John Illingworth, as well as examples of early navigation equipment and memorabilia, a model of Wild Oats XI and a model reconstruction of a helicopter rescue of imperilled sailors in the 1998 storm. Tiger 75, the Royal Australian Navy’s 816 Squadron Sikorsky S-70B-2 Seahawk helicopter that took part in that rescue is suspended from the ceiling of the adjacent tall gallery. The helicopter has recently been transferred from the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm Museum.

Works by Tasmanian photographer Richard Bennett are on display in the gallery, and they will also feature in the museum’s café, Yots, in the lead-up to the race. Bennett’s speciality is aerial photography, and in 1998 his aircraft was requisitioned for the search effort. His photographs of Stand Aside and Midnight Rambler fighting the huge seas have become two of the most compelling photographs from that tragic race.

Bennett, an ocean sailor himself, first photographed the Hobart race in 1974 and has captured every race since, acquiring a pilot licence to help in his search for the perfect shot. His yacht photographs are characterised by moody seas and the dramatic lines of Tasman Island landscapes. One of his personal favourites is the Shogun photograph of 1984.

I love everything about the Sydney to Hobart: the many moods of the sea, the sense of participation in a great adventure, the camaraderie, the tactics, sensing the proximity of the elements, the wildness … the gales, the different light and the dramatic coastline. It’s about putting all those elements together. There is an organisational challenge in being in the right location to capture the peak of the action. (I am not there often enough, according to the yachties!)  Richard Bennett

The Tasman Light Gallery also features work by Italian photographer Carlo Borlenghi and Italian-Australian, Andrea Francolini. 

Borlenghi grew up on Lake Como and developed his passion for photography while studying engineering. A non-sailor in a circle of sailing friends, he began to attend his local regatta. He travelled the world for the magazine Umo Mare Vogue , photographing the most important nautical events, and his passion grew into a career of international renown. Carlo Borlenghi is the official photographer for Rolex, the Sydney to Hobart race sponsor.

Borlenghi’s perspectives include close-framed, high-octane action on the water and panoramic aerial shots. All reveal delicate subtleties of light and tone, a Borlenghi signature, and capture an excitement of moment or mood. One of his photographic heroes is Henri Cartier Bresson, who promoted the pursuit of the ‘decisive moment’. 

In all these pictures the common denominator is ‘Nature’ - the incredible light, the big sea, that you don’t find anywhere in the world. Everybody knows that my favourite race is the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Race because I like the strong sea, the big waves, the different scenery. You can find so many different things: a good background for the start in one of the most beautiful cities in the word [and later] the organ pipe and Tasman Island.  Carlo Borlenghi

Andrea Francolini is another non-sailing Sydney to Hobart photographer, trained in graphic design in his native Milan. He found his vocation after a fall into the water before his first regatta left him stranded on the dock taking photographs. Francolini moved to Australia nearly 20 years ago and developed his career on the water. It remains his mainstay. Today his interests are broad and his work is informed by his admiration for reportage and portrait photographers Sebastiao Salgado, Richard Avedon and Annie Leibovitz, and Australian photographer Trent Parke.

When shooting boats, no day is the same. The boats change and, on the water, will never react the same way. A splash will always be different. As for the beaches and the ocean in Australia, the size is what really gets me, and how rough the ocean can be. The light here, too, is very different to the light in Europe or other parts of the world … You have to respect the ocean at all times.  Andrea Francolini

In 2003, a portrait-sitting with sailing winemaker and businessman Bob Oatley AO BEM, led to a 14-year appointment photographing the new Oatley super-maxi Wild Oats XI – from its construction in 2005, a record of modifications, its crew and team, and above all its record-breaking run in the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. At the time of print, the nine-times line honours champion is undergoing urgent repairs to enable it to contest the title for the tenth time in this, the 75th race. Good luck to all 170 entrants in this year’s historic Sydney to Hobart.

Don't miss  Challenging, Thrilling, Racing: Sydney to Hobart 75 Years , a dramatic visual essay about the history of this prestigious race on display now.

Main image: Skipper Captain John Illingworth (centre standing in cap) with the crew of Rani , the winner of the first Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, 1.45 am, 2 January 1946. ANMM Collection  00048228_003 , Gift from Alison Richmond

Daina Fletcher

Daina Fletcher is a senior curator at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Media Centre

AMSA to brief Sydney Hobart Yacht Race fleet

The fleet for the 2023 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is gearing up for the 78th running of the blue water classic.    As in previous years, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) will continue its vital role providing safety advice, and emergency search and rescue for the race starting on Boxing Day, 26 December 2023.    AMSA will deliver its annual safety briefing to crew and officials today, 24 December 2023.     AMSA’s Response Centre in Canberra, which operates 24/7, will be working closely with race organisers to promote the safety of the competitors and race officials.     AMSA Response Centre Manager Kevin McEvoy said supporting this and other yacht races, is a service that AMSA is proud to have provided to race crews and officials for over 25 years.    “The safety principles for the crews are the same as those that everyday boaters should follow, including having registered emergency beacons on board, wearing life jackets, and knowing how to use their safety equipment,” he said.    “The holiday season is AMSA’s busiest period with a 20-to-30 per cent increase in incidents, with AMSA routinely responding to more than 200 beacons activations a month.”    Mr McEvoy said around 75 per cent of the rescues coordinated by AMSA involve recreational boaters.    “The ocean can be a fickle but many of these incidents can be avoided by taking relatively simple steps that aren’t that different to those that the professional racers will use in the Sydney Hobart event,” he said.     “Make sure your boat is properly maintained, wear lifejackets while on board and have a registered distress beacon within easy reach.”    The AMSA Response Centre leads and coordinates search and rescue activities in Australia’s search and rescue region – around 53 million square kilometres – or the equivalent of about 10 per cent of the earth’s surface.     The Response Centre responded to over 7,800 incidents in 2022-23, saving 165 lives.    ENDS 

TV and radio gabs are available for download at: https://spaces.hightail.com/space/km8Sud0T1P   Interviews with AMSA search and rescue officers are available directly from the Response Centre media studio by emailing [email protected] or calling 1300 624 633.   

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Sydney Harbour and boat races have gone together for a long time. One writer, referring to 'what may fairly be termed the national sport of the colony, boat-racing', has left us with a lyrical description of a typical race day on the harbour:

… the glancing waters, fresh with the breeze that prevailed throughout the day, were studded by a thousand boats of every description, all freighted with life and gaiety; and round the harbour, from every point commanding a view of the course prescribed for the contesting boats, gay parties were assembled. [1]

This was 26 January, Foundation Day (also known as Anniversary Day, now called Australia Day) in 1848, and it showed the sense of adventure and exhilaration associated with yachting that has continued to be felt on Sydney Harbour.

The most famous race that has emerged is the Sydney to Hobart, as it is locally known. The race covers 628 nautical miles, starting from Sydney Harbour at 1 pm on Boxing Day (26 December), as it has done for over six decades. It has been held every year since 1945, with the inaugural fleet of nine yachts growing to a record 371 starters in the 50th race in 1994 – the largest fleet in the world for a Category 1 Ocean Race. In 2007, 82 yachts took part.

Postwar celebration

It all began in 1945, when a group of Sydney yachtsmen started planning for a post-World War II cruise to Hobart. Captain John Illingworth, who was a British Royal Navy officer stationed in Sydney at the time, had been a keen racing yachtsman in Britain before the war. He bought the 39-foot (11.8-metre) Rani , and joined them.

Because of weather conditions, the race is rarely without incident: in the first, several of the boats were briefly 'lost' during the race, among them Rani , although it did complete the course to take both 'line' (first over the line) and 'handicap' (corrected time for type of yacht) honours.

In 1984, a fleet of 150 yachts started, but 104 retired in the face of 'strong to gale force' southerly winds that battered the fleet. In 1993, there were 110 starters, but only 38 finished: crews abandoned two yachts as they sank, while the skipper of another was washed overboard and spent five hours in high seas. Luckily he was spotted by a search vessel and picked up by another yacht.

Stormy weather

In 1998 the race became a major disaster, when wild storms took their toll. The 115-yacht fleet sailed into the worst weather in the Sydney to Hobart's history. Six sailors died and just 44 yachts survived the gale-force winds and mountainous seas to finish the race. Two crew members died on the Launceston yacht Business Post Naiad , one by drowning, the other from a heart attack at the height of the storm. Several yachts were sent to the bottom and the biggest maritime rescue operation in Australia's history was mounted to pluck about 50 sailors from the sea. The storm highlighted some of the more foolhardy aspects of the race and led to a major review of race procedures. The ensuing enquiry made several recommendations for raising safety standards and requirements for competitors.

Despite such risks, the Sydney to Hobart is one of the great ocean races of the globe. No other annual yachting event in the world attracts such huge media coverage and popular attention.

The weather risks are not the only source of controversy. In 1990, a spokesman for the NSW Cancer Council ruffled a few cravats by claiming that the name and logo of the British yacht Rothmans breached the NSW voluntary advertising code – which stated that any vehicles propelled by petrol, diesel, gas, solar or wind power were banned from advertising cigarettes. This was in the midst of a war between tobacco companies – who were denying any adverse effects of smoking – and doctors and public health advocates, so it saw much heated debate. Gin-and-tonics were spilt at the bar.

While many of the same yachts compete around the world, and their focus is on the longer campaign to be best in Category 1, for many locals the Sydney to Hobart race is itself the point of it all. In its early years, the race was dominated by 'amateurs', many of whom were Wednesday and Saturday sailors for their local clubs. But over the years, the race has attracted the rich and famous, and many such Australians have been competitors: Alan Bond, and Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch among them. The race has also attracted well-known sailors from overseas: Ted Turner, the founder of CNN cable network in the USA, for one, while Sir Edward Heath skippered Morning Cloud to victory in 1969, a year before he became Prime Minister of Britain.

Nowadays, major corporations sponsor both yachts and the race itself. Many yachts now have names like Alfa Romeo, Nokia, Skandia, Porsche, Hugo Boss, and Credit Index Leopard , while the race itself was, in 2008, the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, after the race's organiser, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, negotiated a multi-year sponsorship deal with the prominent international company Rolex.

The 2007 winner of line honours, Wild Oats XI, is only the second boat to win in three consecutive years; the first was Morna , in 1948. There have been several repeat winners, like 1975 and 1977 line honours winner Kialoa III.

Names can linger on, even though the boat itself has changed. There have been various famous Gretel s and Helsal s: the original Helsal took line honours in 1973 and set a race record, while Helsal IV competed in 2007.

On the other hand, some boats like Ragamuffin keep starting year after year: her placings in the Sydney to Hobart include a second in 1986 and two thirds, in 1985 and 1989 respectively. Among the fleet in 1994 were two yachts that had started in the inaugural race – Archina and Winston Churchill . Among the crews that year were two yachtsmen, Peter Luke and 'Boy' Messenger, by then in their 70s, who had sailed in 1945. Probably the 'grand old man' of the race is Syd Fischer, now in his eighties, who in 2008 competed in his fortieth Sydney to Hobart race.

Sail-world.com website, 'Rolex Sydney Hobart Milstone Race, Overall Winners Announced', http://www.sail-world.com/Australia/Rolex-Sydney-Hobart-Milestone-Race,-Overall-Winners-Announced/52428, viewed 20 February 2009

Official Site of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, http://rolexsydneyhobart.com/default.asp, viewed 20 February 2009

Cruising Yacht Club of Australia website, http://www.cyca.com.au/, viewed 20 February 2009

[1] BC Peck, Recollections of Sydney, John Mortimer, London, 1850, pp 150–1

LIVE 0m ago

Sydney to Hobart yacht race: LawConnect wins Sydney to Hobart line honours after two-way river battle

Topic: Sailing

In a finish for the ages, LawConnect has sensationally overtaken Andoo Comanche in the final moments to snatch line honours in the 2023 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.

Andoo Comanche held the lead a lot more comfortably when rounding the Tasman Peninsula and entering the River Derwent for the final sprint, but LawConnect started to rapidly gain on them.

LawConnect and Andoo Comanche racing to the finish line. ( ABC News: Maren Preuss )

The two crews could wave to each other, if they wanted to. ( ABC News: Maren Preuss )

The speedier LawConnect closed several nautical miles between them along the river until they were neck and neck to a nail-biting finish. 

LawConnect's finish time in the end was 1 day, 19 hours, 3 minutes and 58 seconds. Andoo Comanche's was just 51 seconds behind.

If you're new to the Sydney to Hobart race, we've got a shortcut guide at the bottom of the story. Tap the link below to get the gist of the race: Explained: Common Sydney to Hobart yacht race questions 

The LawConnect crew celebrate their win. ( ABC News: Maren Preuss )

LawConnect owner Christian Beck described their dramatic win as a dream come true.

"I can't believe that result. Honestly, it's a dream come true," he said.

"I never thought it was possible, actually."

Despite trailing by a significant margin as they passed the Iron Pot on the final approach, LawConnect had the advantage of being able to watch Andoo Comanche to see where the slow spots were.

LawConnect entered with a protest flag flying, after being on standby for about 30 minutes during the race due to concerns Andoo Comanche was in distress, but a formal protest was not lodged.

There was also some interference from a spectator boat in the final moments, with a catamaran passing close to Andoo Comanche and the crew being seen yelling and gesturing.

Tasmania Police said this afternoon action would be taken against a 57-year-old man for "allegedly breaching" marine and safety regulations.

"The man was skippering a private vessel when it reportedly encroached into the exclusion zone set by Marine and Safety Tasmania," it said in a statement. 

The offence carries a fine of up to $3,900.

Sailing master Tony Mutter said spectator boats were something the competitors had to deal with.

"It's pretty fair that everyone had troubles with the spectator boats. That's part of it when it's so busy," he said.

Andoo Comanche skipper John Winning Jr said they only had themselves to blame for the last-minute loss.

LawConnect is racing to the Sydney to Hobart finish line. ( ABC News: Megan Whitfield )

"We should have been miles ahead of them with our boat," he said.

"The conditions suited us, I think they just outsailed us."

First local boat home

URM Group has claimed third place line honours, crossing the finish line at 3:07pm to record a race time of 2 days, 2 hours, 7 minutes and 19 seconds.

The first Tasmanian yacht to finish, Alive, crossed the line almost 12 minutes later.

Alive is currently in first place to win overall handicap honours.

Four yachts have now docked at Kings Pier, with Moneypenny and Wild Thing 100 expected to be the next to arrive.

Live Moment

Join us for the finish of the 2023 Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

Possible problem?

In the final moments, a catamaran appeared to cut in front of Andoo Comanche as the boat turned into the finish.

Eyewitness accounts say crew on Comanche were yelling at the catamaran to move as they tried to turn.

Could this make for an official race protest? We'll have to see.

After leading all the way into the River Derwent, Andoo Comanche won't make it back-to-back Line Honours wins. LawConnect snatched it away from them at the last moment!

How incredible. These boats set off together three days ago and it came down to mere seconds to the finish.

Andoo Comanche was in the lead when it approached the Tasman Peninsula this morning. ( Supplied: Andrea Francolini )

It has been a testing 78th edition of the Sydney to Hobart, with a man overboard, stormy seas, damaged yachts and rapid wind changes.

Eleven boats have retired, including race favourite SHK Scallywag, which broke its bow sprit on the first day.

The skipper of two-handed Rum Rebellion, Shane Connelly, was sent overboard at 6pm on Boxing Day after encountering rapid wind changes off the coast between Cronulla and Wollongong.

Two-handed Currawong also retired, after facing various issues in rough conditions off New South Wales.

Owner Kathy Veel said they were disappointed but believed they made the right decision.

"Last night was quite difficult and there was a lot more of that ahead of us in a long race," she said.

They were the last boat to cross the finishing line at last year's event, making a well-received arrival in Hobart at midnight on New Year's Eve.

Your questions answered

Here are the answers to some of the most common questions.

Who won Sydney to Hobart 2023?

When we talk about the Sydney to Hobart race, there are two major "winners":

• Line honours: This is the order in which boats cross the finish line.
• Overall winners: The order of winners once race times have been calculated to take into account the differences between boats (handicaps). This is because the boats aren't exactly the same — adjustments have to be made for things like the weight and length of the boat.

Line honours will always go to the biggest, fastest yachts (supermaxis) but is likely one of the smaller vessels will be crowned the overall winner (which is seen as the more prestigious of the two prizes).

Here's the line honours as of Thursday morning:

• Andoo Comanche

The difference between the two was just 51 seconds. 

But the overall winner won't be decided for days. 

Until then, we can only wait.

However, before the race, there were a few main contenders for the overall title – here they are listed in alphabetical order:

• SHK Scallywag

Who owns LawConnect?

Christen Beck. 

Mr Beck is the founder of a legal software company, which he created off the back of building a system for his father's legal firm in the 90s. 

In 2017, he was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year and in 2018, he was ranked 99th on the Financial Review's Rich List . 

Who owns Andoo Comanche?

John 'Herman' Winning Jnr.

He's the chief executive of Winning Appliances, a company started by his great grandfather in 1906. 

Mr Winning Jnr took over the role from his father in 2011. 

How far is the Sydney to Hobart distance?

It's a 628-nautical-mile course – that's  1,163 kilometres .

Starting at Sydney Harbour, the course runs down the south-east coast of Australia, across the Bass Strait before turning into the Derwent River to finish in Hobart. 

It usually takes about 48 hours for the first boat to cross the finish line.

What is a nautical mile?

A nautical mile is the equivalent to 1.852 kilometres .

It's an internationally used standardised term used for maritime navigation, based on the Earth's latitude and longitude coordinates.

A nautical mile is the equivalent of one minute of latitude. 

Because of this, a nautical mile is slightly longer than land mile. 

How many boats are in the Sydney to Hobart race?

There's 103 this year. 

What is the prize for Sydney to Hobart?

There's no prize money – just trophies. Here's the two main ones:

• JH Illingworth Challenge Cup: This is for the line honours winner – which is the first boat to cross the finish line.
• Tattersalls Cup: This goes to the overall winner.

What's the Sydney to Hobart record?

The line honours record is 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds .

It was set in 2017 by LDV Comanche.

If you've got even more questions, go read out Sydney to Hobart explainer  or tap the link below to jump back to the top of the story.

Take me back to the top to read the recap