Swept overboard: Sydney to Hobart sailor’s struggle to survive alone in the ocean at night
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Yacht race claims two crew members’ lives on separate boats, while survivor recounts ‘getting thrown down waves’. The first mayday call came late on Boxing Day. Just before midnight, there had been an incident onboard the Flying Fish Arctos, a vessel competing in Australia’s most iconic boat race, the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
The race, which sees yachts set out from Sydney Harbour to make the 630 nautical mile journey south to Tasmania, is a beloved fixture in Australia’s summer calendar. Many go out to the Sydney Heads to watch the start of the race at midday on Boxing Day. Others, following along from home, will flick between coverage of the race and the Boxing Day Test match, as the country enjoys its laziest week of the year.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email. But on 27 December, the nation woke to news of tragedy. Roy Quaden, one of the crew of the Flying Fish Arctos, competing in its 14th Sydney to Hobart, had been struck in the back of the head by the ship’s boom – a large metal pole that runs perpendicular to the mast and to which the mainsail is attached.
“[The boom] was moving violently through the night in challenging sea conditions and the crew member suffered a significant head injury,” superintendent Joseph McNulty of the Marine Area Command said on Friday. Quaden’s crewmates attempted CPR and alerted authorities. Water police were dispatched, but the man, a 55-year-old from Western Australia, died onboard.
