NSW: Two dead in Sydney to Hobart yacht race

AAP General News (Australia)
12-28-1998
NSW: Two dead in Sydney to Hobart yacht race

By John Kidman

SYDNEY, Dec 28 AAP - One sailor drowned and another suffered a fatal heart attack after
their yacht was lashed by huge waves and gale-force winds during the Sydney to Hobart race
overnight, officials said today.

Killed were Business Post Naiad owner-skipper Bruce Guy and first time Sydney-Hobart
participant Phil Skeggs. Both men were from Launceston in northern Tasmania.

The pair were among nine crew stranded aboard the battered yacht after it lost its mast
halfway through the 630-nautical mile ocean classic.

Seven survivors were winched to the safety of a powerful CareFlight Bell 412HP helicopter,
some 90km off the far south coast of New South Wales, around 8am (AEDT) today.

As the exhausted party were being airlifted to Merimbula, details of their ordeal began to
unravel, a CareFlight spokesman said.

They told of how the 40ft boat capsized in wild seas yesterday before overturning twice
more during the night, leaving them without radio communications.

It is understood Guy suffered a heart attack during one of the two occasions the yacht
rolled, the spokesman said.

Skeggs drowned when he was unable to free himself from a safety harness.

Race officials said Guy sailed in two previous Sydney to Hobart yacht races.

CareFlight said there was no choice but to leave the two bodies secured inside the cabin of
the stricken yacht, which had taken in a substantial amount of water.

A radio datum buoy had also been left on board so a recovery vessel could track the Naiad
when conditions eased.

Responding to hand signals, the survivors tied themselves to a lanyard and plunged into the
six-metre swells one at a time where they were met by a paramedic, also attached to the safety
line.

The yacht, a Farr 40, out of Dalrymple on the Tamar River, north of Launceston, was the
former New Zealand Admiral's Cup yacht Swuzzlebubble IV.

It also won this year's Three Peaks race in Tasmania.

AAP jk/sb/br

KEYWORD: YACHTING SYDHOB DEAD LEAD

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