Sad News: sailboats organization has cancelled all the 2025/2026 Race this morning following 6 dead and 12 hospitalized after……..

Sydney to Hobart organiser says race won’t be cancelled following 6 deaths overnight.

A yacht with majestic black sails catches the light as it sails across the ocean.

Bowline is one of the two yachts that retired due to onboard fatalities on the first night of the race. (Supplied: Richard Bennett)

 

In short:

The Sydney to Hobart yacht race’s first night was a tragic one, with two competitors dying in separate incidents.

 

The Cruising

Mr Smith, who had been a member of the Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron since 2013 and was competing in his fifth Sydney to Hobart race, was on the boat Bowline.

 

Sydney to Hobart sailor ‘lucky to be alive’ after overnight rescue

Photo shows A man with strawberry blonde hair stares reflectively at the ground.A man with strawberry blonde hair stares reflectively at the ground.

Sailor Luke Watkins spent 45 minutes in the water after he was thrown overboard during the Sydney to Hobart yacht race early on Friday morning.

 

CYCA Vice-Commodore David Jacobs said it had initially been suspected Mr Smith had also been hit by the sail boom, but he had actually been hit by the yacht’s main sheet, and then thrown across the boat.

“Unfortunately he hit his head on the winch and that’s what killed him,” he said.

 

Vice Commodore Jacobs said both boats were safely in harbour and support had been offered to the families of Mr Quaden and Mr Smith, however the race would not be cancelled.

 

He said “it was a fundamental principle of yacht racing that once the race starts, the skipper has the right and the obligation to decide whether it’s safe to continue”.

 

“The skipper is able to look at the conditions, their local conditions,” Vice Commodore Jacobs said.

 

“We have quite a complex structure around the race to help with safety, and if we cancel the race, that structure falls away, and our view is that the crews are safer with that structure over them than for it to fall away.

 

“It may not be safe for boats to try and get back to the coast. They may be going across very difficult seas. They may be going into very bad weather.”

 

Vice Commodore Jacobs said “he was sure” overnight weather conditions played a part in the men’s deaths.

 

Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron Rear Commodore Owen Heskett said Mr Smith was an “experienced off-shore sailor”.