Celestial V70 named as provisional overall winner of this year’s Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

New South Wales yacht Celestial V70 has been named the provisional overall winner of this year’s Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.

The yacht — owned and skippered by Sam Haynes, Commodore of race organiser the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) — won the 628-nautical-mile race on handicap in 1 day, 16 hours, 10 minutes and 20 seconds.

It is the second time a yacht skippered by Commodore Haynes has won the Tattersalls Cup, after Celestial claimed victory in 2022.

Speaking to media, Haynes acknowledged the deaths of sailors Roy Quaden and Nick Smith during this year’s race, and the “challenging” race forecast, which favoured his vessel.

“We were quite pleased that we gave ourselves a chance with the type of sailing that we knew this boat was capable of doing with the crew that we have,” Haynes said.

Haynes said his crew in the chartered boat, a Volvo Open 70, navigated Bass Strait with some difficulty, with the channel’s treacherous reputation standing strong this year.

“We negotiated that transition between the northerly breeze, which was quite obviously strong breezes, and then into that transition to the front, and positioned the boat really well for the crossing of Bass Strait. But it was very hard.”

Haynes said Celestial V70 was built for the conditions it faced on Bass Strait.

“On this boat, we have a yacht that’s powering at a high speed because it’s built for that type of sailing,” he said.

“The amount of water coming over the deck and the waves crashing over it, it steers through waves. It doesn’t skip across them that much, it just takes it all on.

Haynes was joined by his son, William, who last raced the Sydney to Hobart with his dad in 2016 at age 18.

Decision to take inshore route ‘paid off’, skipper says

A highlight for Haynes was celebrating his second Tattersall Cup win with mostly the same crew, who had “been through a lot of different sailing” together.

“It’s just so much joy, I suppose, of being able to perform at that level and get to the point where you’re able to hold that trophy once more,” Haynes said.

Haynes said a decision to take a more “inshore” route on meeting the Tasmanian coastline “paid off”.

“There’s a confluence zone there where you’ve got these sorts of strong westerlies. They’re trying to wrap around the island, coming from the north-west and at the top at Eddystone, and then around the bottom of Tasmania coming from the south-west.

“And where they meet, you would have seen a lot of boats stop. It’s one of the features of the race to be able to work your way through that.”

He said this year’s loss of life “balanced out some of the joy”.

“As a competitor, as a sailor, and for sport, anything that happens of this nature needs to be looked at.”

LawConnect took line honours for a second year in a row, finishing just after 2:30am on Saturday, but withheld overt displays of revelry out of respect for their deceased competitors.

The supermaxi, skippered by tech millionaire Christian Beck, had a finish time of 1 day, 13 hours, 35 minutes and 13 seconds.