Syd-Hob changes after deaths, helmets remain optional

Helmets will remain optional for Sydney to Hobart sailors following a review into the tragic 2024 edition of the yacht race that resulted in the deaths of two people. Sailors on two separate boats suffered fatal injuries in heavy downwind conditions on a Boxing Day night termed "extraordinarily eventful" by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's three-person review committee in its 53-page report released on Friday. A sailor from a third yacht was flung overboard in the wild weather but was recovered after 50 minutes in the water. The review committee determined each of the three incidents occurred during a crash gybe, an involuntary manoeuvre where the boat's mainsail flicks violently from one side to the other as the stern passes through the wind. Among seven "key changes" for the 2025 race, the CYCA will require 50 per cent of each boat's crew, as well as the person in charge, to have been on board for the boat's qualifying race. While boats had been required to undertake a long-form ocean race from an approved list between June 26 and Boxing Day in 2024, the CYCA had not mandated the number of Sydney to Hobart crew members required to have participated. In addition, AIS MOB personal locator beacons must now be carried by or attached to each crew member while on deck, after they had previously been optional. The report found that an AIS MOB locator beacon made the recovery of sailor Luke Watkins possible after he was flung overboard from Porco Rosso on the night of Boxing Day. The CYCA will also record and share seminars on communications, and heavy-weather and downwind sailing. A list of acceptable satellite phone systems will be published as part of a review of the race's communication requirements. The report determined that "communications were not perfect" during the night of horror on the sea, with the race operations centre struggling to get into contact with some of the vessels. Lastly, the CYCA will simplify the Sydney to Hobart's entry process and collaborate with Australian Sailing to update that organisation's sea safety and survival course. But helmets will remain optional after the committee interviewed more than 40 individuals connected to the race. The overwhelming preference, the report said, was for sailors to handle the risk of boom strike differently than wearing helmets - mostly by being "risk aware". The point was made by interviewees that helmets could hinder a sailor's ability to assess weather conditions and communicate properly with crewmates. It was also noted that lightweight helmets, like the kind used in rock climbing, would not prevent serious injury or death from boom strike, and that heavier alternatives, like a motorcycle helmet, were impractical to wear for long periods at sea. The report has been delivered to the NSW Coroner, who will determine whether further reviews are necessary. The report said Flying Fish Arctos's Roy Quaden died when he was struck by the boom attached to the mainsail as it swung on to his head just before midnight. The boat had experienced a crash gybe during a routine sail adjustment, with Quaden deemed to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the review committee remains unclear as to the specifics of the incident aboard Flying Fish Arctos, which is owned by a sailing school in Sydney. Key crew members affiliated with the school declined to be interviewed given the commercial boat is still subject to ongoing inquiries from other regulatory bodies. The one crew member interviewed did not see the moment the boom is thought to have struck and killed Quaden. "There is insufficient information as to what happened onboard Flying Fish Arctos to reach any findings with respect to the accident other than Roy Quaden appeared to be struck by the boom when the boat did a crash gybe," the report read. Just as he was going off shift aboard Bowline about 2am, Nick Smith suffered a serious chest injury when he became caught in the mainsheet and was thrown on to a winch. Crew members immediately suspected Smith, the most experienced sailor on board, had been killed. The review committee was told that Bowline crew had considered retiring about three hours before the accident when a different crew member suffered a bicep injury that required treatment. But the crew determined that because Eden, their closest port of refuge, was still ahead, it was better to push on while also giving themselves the chance to assess the injury in daylight.