1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

It's hard to believe that nearly 16 years have passed since the race that claimed six lives and injured many others. I remember being on holidays in Noosa, Queensland, and following events online with a sense of disbelief. There was snow in the mountains around our home in Victoria in the middle of summer, and sailors were dying in Bass Strait during a yacht race, two days after Christmas.
There has been a plethora of books written about the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, the most deadly in the history of international offshore racing. Written from a variety of perspectives and for a range of reasons, I would like to mention two in particular that, for me, are stand outs. And while they couldn't be more different in style and substance, they are linked in an unusual and special way.

An Extreme Event, Debbie Whitmont

Debbie Whitmont was a journalist with the ABC when she first came into contact with race survivors. She was researching a documentary about the tragedy for Four Corners, which aired in February 1999. Many months later, she was still moved and fascinated by the events that transpired over the Tasman Sea, when Mother nature unleashed her fury on 115 yachts and 1135 largely unsuspecting sailors. This book is the result.
Unlike other books written about the yacht race, this one is not written by a sailor. Instead, Debbie uses her professional investigative skills and masterful writing to synthesise first person accounts in a suspenseful and chilling recount of the storm and its aftermath. There is also the history of the race, the personal stories of rescuers and, in a second edition, a chapter on the coronial inquiry and its findings.
This book is a page turner, with a sense of urgency that cannot be denied. Every chapter begins with a quote from either a sailor, rescuer, race organiser or a member of a sailor's family. It's riveting and compelling.
Like the storm, the story builds to its inevitable conclusion. Yet Debbie's focus on the lessons that can be learned, and her sensitive decision not to focus on the personal tragedies of race victims, leaves the reader with a sense of hope that such tragedies can be avoided in the sport in future.

"It's a chance for an ordinary person to do something great. It's Everyman's Mountain.' 
Rob Matthews, Helmsman, Business Post Naiad

Cruel wind : Business Post Naiad and the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race disaster / Robert Matthews with Julian Burgess.

Did you pick it up? That's right; the quote I left you with from Debbie Whitmont's book is from the author of my other favourite race account. Debbie also wrote the foreword for Rob's book. In reseaching her own account, she formed the opinion that, should Rob ever decide to record his experience and observations, it would be the ultimate account of the tragedy, and she's right.
Of the six people that lost their lives in the 1998 Sydney To Hobart, two of them were on Rob's boat, Business Post Naiad. Skipper Bruce Guy, and crewman Phil Skeggs, died when the yacht rolled. Bruce Guy suffered a fatal heart attack and Phil Skeggs drowned.
Of all the stories to come out of the race, the experience of those aboard Naiad is potentially one of the most heartbreaking because there is the strong sense that the loss of life could have been avoided. There were issues in race management and communications that were later dissected in the coronial inquiry. Suffice to say here, Naiad's Mayday was somehow downgraded when it shouldn't have been and rescue resources, already badly stretched, were diverted to other, less urgent, matters.
One of the most compelling factors about this book is Rob Guy's complete honesty about the toll the race took on him and his family. While the rest of the world moved on, life for Rob changed irrevocably. He shares his journey of healing with the reader. Without giving too much away, it was a privilege to be able to 'witness' his return to sailing and his eventual coming to terms with the fragility of life.