2024 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - Organisers have not considered cancelling the race

CYCA Vice Commodore David Jacobs addressed the media at a Press Conference in Hobart © Salty Dingo / CYCA

Organisers of the 2024 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race were adamant the race would continue, despite the deaths of two sailors overnight.

Vice Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia David Jacobs said they had been asked the question about cancelling.

"And the answer is no, we would not cancel the race," he said in Hobart.

Vice Commodore Jacobs 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.

"So, it's the skipper's decision whether he or she wishes to race or to retire. The skipper is able to look at the conditions, their local conditions," he said.

"Because, as you appreciate, over a race of 628 nautical miles, there are different weather patterns all around so the skipper can decide whether the weather pattern that they're in is too dangerous and they want to retire, whether it's safe to retire."

Vice Commodore Jacobs said the processes and procedures around the race also needed to be considered.

"We have a 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," he said.

"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. So, they're the main reasons why we do not cancel a race."

He said he was sure the overnight conditions played a part in the overnight deaths.

"The weather was weather that these boats and these crews are used to, they trained for, the boats are prepared for. But they were challenging conditions," he said.

"In the case of one of those boats, probably both, the winds were running between 30 and 38 knots, the seas would have been between two and three meters. They're challenging conditions. You only need to be hit broadside by a wave that will knock you across," he said.

Vice Commodore Jacobs confirmed the details of the two sailors who had died.

Roy Quaden 55, from Western Australia, was a crew member on Flying Fish Arctos (NSW).

Information released earlier reported he was struck by the yacht's boom during an incident approximately 30 nautical miles east/south-east of Ulladulla, NSW. Fellow crew members performed CPR, but they could not revive him.

"The second was Nick Smith, 65, from South Australia, on Bowline. Nick is a very experienced sailor," he said.

"We thought he had been hit by a boom, as had Roy, but we now learned that he was hit by the mainsheet which threw him across the boat and unfortunately he hit his head on the winch."

Vice Commodore Jacobs said a near disaster was averted in another incident when crew member Luke Watkins was washed overboard from Porco Rosso at 0314 hours.

"So, if you can imagine being overboard in reasonably challenging conditions in the daytime, try to imagine what it would be like at night. It would be absolutely terrifying," he said.

He said there were strong procedures in place to deal with such situations.

He said Watkins was wearing a portable locator beacon (PLB), also known as an EPIRB, which aided in his rescue.

Vice Commodore Jacobs said the race conditions were not particularly worse than previous editions.

"We've got, at the moment, 21 boats that have retired. In 2021 we had 29 retired (and) in 2004 we had 59 retired," he said.