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Protests, twists and drama galore at start of Rolex Sydney Hobart

There’s been a dramatic start to the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race with a near collision, shouting, swearing and calls for a protest.

In spectacular and crazy scenes, two race favourites were forced into penalty turns in a wild opening to the 77th race.

WATCH IN THE VIDEO ABOVE: Protests, twists and drama galore at start of Rolex Sydney Hobart

The overwhelming race favourites were the big four supermaxis - LawConnect, Black Jack, Andoo Comanche, and Wild Oats - and they were all vying for the early lead as the boats headed up Sydney Harbour.

But Andoo Comanche was involved in a very close call with Wild Oats and both supermaxis did penalty turns amid shouts of ‘protest’.

Andoo Comanche did a penalty turn after bumping a turning mark while Wild Oats decided to do one after great confusion and debate.

Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race begins

“Furl, furl, we are going to do a 720 (penalty turn),’’ Wild Oats skipper Mark Richards shouted.

‘“I honestly think we’re in trouble.”

During all the chaos, there was also an early retirement after Avalanche damaged its bowsprit and made the call to pull the pin.

Wild Oats XI has returned to the race this year and is looking for a ridiculous tenth line-honours title.

Earlier, Andoo Comanche’s skipper John Winning Jr had opened up on what what to expect and avoid based on his previous experiences.

Finishing the Sydney to Hobart is one challenge, but surviving the post-race celebrations involving alcohol-fuelled, sweaty and unwashed sailors can be another ordeal, according Willing Jr.

He didn’t hold back when fronting the media a few hours before the race’s start about what awaited those intrepid enough to venture into Hobart’s Customs House, the traditional post-race meeting place.

“Will McCarthy off Black Jack has already announced that he is in charge,” Winning said.

“Last time at Customs house when I was there, I think he got me into a headlock and brought me back into the bar and said ‘you’re not going anywhere whippersnapper’.

“He’s a veteran of Customs House and he says we’ve got to follow his lead and I’ll be doing my best to try and avoid him.

“It will celebrating, just be good spirits and having fun and hugging our loved ones and seeing the family and hopefully some sleep and praying for a shower.

“It stinks when you’re down in Customs House when you’re in there with all those sailors that are getting off straight off the boat.

“If you ever go down there to Customs House, if you are there, put some sort of nose plug on.

“There’s a lot of sweaty sailors that have been at sea with no deodorant and no showers for days and it just gets worse and worse

“We grow with the smell from here to there so it doesn’t really matter to us too much. But I remember one day when I was on Loyal I went away and had a shower and came back in clean clothes and ‘phooor, what is that?’ it was like walking into a pig farm.”

Winning said it seemed less likely that his boat’s 2017 race record of one day nine hours 15 minutes 24 seconds would be broken.

“The conditions are just a bit lighter than it was yesterday and we’re going to be early to the transition down the bottom, which is going to hurt us a little bit, we might not see as much wind the whole way down as we thought,” Winning said.

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Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race off to dramatic start as teams threatened by thunderstorms, hail, gale-force winds

Widely considered one of the most treacherous races in the world, the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race has kicked off with a dramatic clash between two supermaxi vessels.

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The Sydney to Hobart yacht race has kicked off to a thrilling start, with two of the biggest contenders almost colliding at the start and warnings of rough weather throughout the race.

The race took a dramatic turn when defending champion Andoo Comanche, the race favourite, flew a protest flag alleging SHK Scallywag had tacked too close as the pair exited Sydney Harbour.

Scallywag subsequently performed a 720 penalty turn to exonerate the vessel from facing a potential disqualification from securing a line honours victory upon reaching Hobart.

After reaching the Heads, LawConnect’s crew had difficulties furling a sail, forcing it to jibe away. Comanche is currently in the lead.

Supermax LawConnect was the first vessel to reach the first mark.

The race tracks the eastern coast of Australia southward from Sydney, crossing the Bass Strait, before continuing along the eastern coast of Tasmania and finally reaching Hobart.

Widely considered one of the most challenging yacht races in the world, teams competing in this year’s event — the 78th edition — also risk facing thunderstorms, hail and gale-force winds through the race.

The Bureau of Meteorology, whose representatives briefed the competitors ahead of the race, said there was a high degree of uncertainty for the forecasts over coming days.

“A trough and low pressure system over eastern Australia is slowly moving to the southeast and will reach the Tasman Sea later today or tomorrow,” a bureau spokesperson said.

“Uncertainty remains about its exact placement. Weather, wind and wave forecasts will depend on the location of this system.”

At the start of the race, competitors were set for light easterly winds, the bureau said, with the chance of a shower or thunderstorm.

“Thunderstorm potential increases during the afternoon along the NSW coast and over Sydney – with very erratic winds, hail, lightning and heavy rain reducing visibility possible,” the bureau said.

“Strong wind warnings are likely during the race, and there is a slight risk of local gale-force winds over the Bass Strait on Tuesday night.”

“Rain and thunderstorms are forecast throughout the race, mainly along the NSW coast and across Bass Strait, but are likely to be more active and more widespread on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“These can reduce visibility, produce lightning, erratic winds and possibly even some hail.”

With the Bass Strait crossing often the hardest part of the race, teams can expect a larger southwest swell and strong winds.

“This year there is easterly winds and easterly swell forecast, as well as thunderstorms, which will make conditions challenging on Tuesday and Wednesday. These conditions are forecast to ease from later Wednesday,” the bureau said.

Some 113 vessels will be competing in this year’s event.

The record for the race was set in 2017 by LDV Comanche, a 100ft maxi yacht, which completed the event in just over 33 hours.

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Did a Waterspout Sink the Superyacht? 3 Unusual Design Features Also May Have Played a Role.

G . Bruce Knecht is a former staff writer for The Wall Street Journal and the author of The Proving Ground: The Inside Story of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race and Grand Ambition: The Extraordinary Yacht, the People Who Built It, and the Millionaire Who Can’t Really Afford It.

Why did it sink?

Bayesian was a massive sailing yacht with one of the tallest masts in yachting history, a 246-foot pole that would have commanded attention even if it hadn’t been illuminated at a peaceful anchorage just north of Sicily on Sunday night.

Mike Lynch, the owner, a British tech billionaire who had been compared to both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, was onboard, celebrating his acquittal on fraud charges that could have sent him to prison for 20 years. He was joined by members of his family, two of the lawyers who defended him, and an investment banker who had provided helpful testimony.

It would be difficult to imagine a better platform for celebrating, a luxuriously appointed $30 million floating palace capable of transporting guests from one Mediterranean paradise to another, looked after by an attentive crew and a talented chef. But early on Monday morning, it all took a turn. Unpleasant weather had been expected, but it suddenly became much worse than that. Just after 4 a.m., the wind reached hurricane force and, worse, spun up a waterspout, a whirling, tornado-like column of air and water capable of inflicting extraordinary violence.

The 184-foot-long Bayesian, still at anchor, began rocking from side to side. Karsten Borner, the skipper of another vessel nearby, told Reuters that Bayesian soon “went flat,” meaning its mast tipped all the way over until it was in the water and the hull was on its side.  Just a few minutes after that, Bayesian was gone. Fifteen people from the yacht were rescued; seven are dead or missing, including Lynch and Jonathan Bloomer, chair of Morgan Stanley International. Early Thursday Lynch’s body had been recovered from the yacht, Reuters reported.

It didn’t take long for the internet to explode with theories.  It seemed like everyone who had anything to do with boats had something to say, and parallel discussions ricocheted through the tech and finance worlds.  Some of the theories involved mechanical failures and broken seals. Some were patently false, starting with the suggestion that the mast, hit by lightning, fell and thus caused the boat to lose stability. In truth, the mast could act like a destabilizing pendulum.  Other theorists noted that it was a warm night, so passengers left their stateroom windows open, allowing waves to enter the interior, even though the seas were relatively calm throughout the night and modern superyacht interiors are sealed up and air-conditioned.

There was even a movie-worthy conspiracy theory, fueled by an onshore death that occurred just two days before Bayesian’s sinking. Stephen Chamberlain, Lynch’s co-defendant in the fraud case, was jogging in England on Saturday morning when he was struck by a car and died. But the idea that someone had arranged both deaths seems far-fetched. For one thing, the driver of the car remained at the scene and cooperated with police.

There is still no certainty about what did happen to Bayesian—multiple investigations are under way. But the answer almost certainly lies in a combination of extraordinary weather conditions and a trio of design features that set Bayesian apart from most sailing yachts: its extraordinary mast; a “lifting keel” that could be extended or retracted beneath the boat, altering its depth from a minimum of 13 feet to a maximum of 32; and a pair of large cockpits where guests could relax and dine.

Even with Bayesian at anchor with its sails down, the pressure of the wind against that mast and the rigging would have caused the yacht to rock. In acting like a pendulum, the outsize mast exaggerated each rocking. Perhaps the boat was at its most vulnerable angle when a gust stuck to set it on its side. But that alone seems unlikely to be the whole story.

The keel—the underwater structure essential to any yacht’s stability—is sure to command attention in the investigations. Was it extended to its full length or was it retracted?  If it was down, it would have counteracted the force of the wind in two ways. First, its resistance against the water would have slowed each of the rocking motions. Much more importantly, a fully extended keel would have substantially counteracted the force of the wind by lowering the yacht’s center of gravity.

Evan Marshall, a London-based superyacht designer who also races aboard large yachts in the Mediterranean, thinks the keel was probably retracted.  “The keels on boats like this are rarely extended,” he said.  “I know that Bayesian traveled in a straight line on the way to the anchorage, so they were clearly under power, and when you’re under power, you would never have the keel down because it only adds to drag. It slows you down, and you burn more fuel.”

“It’s rare that boats like Bayesian actually sail,” he added.  “They’re really motor yachts with sails that occasionally go up. The only time they sail is if the wind is from a direction that will get you to St. Tropez or wherever you’re planning to go.  If the wind is not in a favorable direction, you’re just going to motor.  So, the only time you have the keel down is when you’re actually sailing and you’re going upwind, so the keel can counteract the wind.”

Marshall said it’s also unlikely that the crew lowered the keel after it anchored, explaining, “They’ve no doubt been in severe weather before, and they probably never could have imagined that any sort of condition could knock down the boat.”

And then there’s the waterspout. In August 2019, when a waterspout swept across a harbor near Auckland, New Zealand, it lifted a 60-foot catamaran out of the water and caused it to literally cartwheel over the water before it blasted a 150-foot single-hull sailboat onto its side.  That’s what waterspouts can do. They are essentially no different from the tornadoes that lift trucks off the ground and rip houses from their foundations.

When Bayesian was knocked down, it was particularly vulnerable because of its two large cockpits, places where passengers could sit and enjoy meals.  One of them, a large sunken seating area, was situated around the mast and opened to the grand saloon, the yacht’s living room, by means of a pair of sliding doors.  “When the boat became unstable, everyone on the crew and some of the guests came on deck, so the companionway entrance to the large cockpit may have been open,” said Marshall, who has reviewed Bayesian’s design.  “It’s a large opening, probably six feet across, with a sliding door. Even if the doors were shut, the pressure of the water could have smashed the glass.  Regardless, as soon as the boat was knocked down, the cockpit filled really quickly and flooded the boat really quickly.”

It’s only too easy to imagine what came next.

Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2024

2024 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race | Entries Open

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The Morning

Why kamala harris’s centrism is working.

The vice president’s convention speech embodied her efforts to win over swing voters.

By David Leonhardt

Kamala Harris capped her first month as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate with a roughly 35-minute convention speech last night that embodied her aggressive efforts to win over swing voters.

It was a patriotic speech that was hawkish on foreign policy and border security. She described the United States as the greatest country in the world — a view many Americans hold but most Democratic voters do not — and she ended by saying that being an American was “the greatest privilege on earth.” She promised to confront China, Russia, Iran and Iran-backed terrorists and to make sure that the U.S. military remained the “most lethal fighting force in the world.”

She also offered a series of populist promises to help the middle class by reducing the cost of housing and health care — policies that many independents and some Republicans favor. And she spent little if any time on subjects that inspire passion among Democrats but are either secondary or off-putting to many swing voters, such as student debt forgiveness and President Biden’s climate agenda.

You can read more about Harris’s speech in this news story , as well as in this article on how she contrasted herself with Donald Trump .

In today’s newsletter, I want to explain why Harris’s move to the political center seems to be working, at least so far.

Who vs. what

Harris has surged in the polls , erasing Biden’s deficit and taking a small lead over Trump, for two main reasons. First, she has won over some swing voters, including independents, working-class Midwesterners and even a fraction of 2020 Trump voters. Second, she has done so at no apparent cost: In addition to attracting swing voters, she has built a bigger lead than Biden had among the Democratic base, such as young voters, college graduates and city residents.

How could this be? It comes down to the difference between the who and the what of her candidacy.

Loyal Democrats are energized about the who . They spent months agonizing over Biden’s flailing candidacy. Once he quit and Harris wrapped up party support in just a few hours, everything felt different.

Democrats remembered what it was like to have a candidate who could deliver a speech without making people fret that something was about to go wrong. Harris is full of energy and joy. She can cogently explain the administration’s policies, and she seems to be having fun in the process. Amid this electricity, many Democrats have been willing to tolerate her triangulation in the service of winning.

Harris isn’t just another Democratic politician, either. She would be the country’s first female president, of course, and is a woman of color. Today’s Democratic Party puts great emphasis on identity, especially race and gender. The party defines itself in large part as the defender of groups that suffer discrimination and injustice. Just watch Tuesday night’s ceremonial roll call to nominate Harris, when delegates celebrated her historic status — and their own identities.

This focus on personal identity can give pathbreaking candidates more flexibility to stray from Democratic orthodoxy without angering the base. Barack Obama benefited from a similar dynamic in 2008. He was more moderate than some other Democratic candidates that year, yet he still excited many progressives. (Obama’s speech this week was also fairly moderate. Nonetheless, it received rapturous applause.)

For all these reasons, Harris has formed an emotional bond with liberals and others who make up the Democratic base. That bond has freed her to pursue swing voters with the what of her candidacy. She offers an economic agenda that many working-class voters support. She claims that she, not Trump, is the true candidate of border security. She encourages “U.S.A.!” chants. Last night, she referred to American history as “the most extraordinary story ever told.”

A tight race

Even so, the presidential race remains close. Harris leads in enough states to win, but only just. And if recent polls have undercounted Trump voters as much as they did in 2016 and 2020 , he would probably win an election held today.

With the convention now over, Democrats won’t be able to control the narrative the way that they have this week. Republicans have already started running ads to remind voters of Harris’s liberal past. One ad opens by calling Harris a “San Francisco radical” and showing her wearing a Covid mask while she announces her pronouns. It then includes clips in which she calls for a ban on plastic straws, supports looser immigration policies and says more police officers don’t lead to more safety. Expect to see a lot of these ads before November.

It is possible that Harris has been enjoying a temporary polling bump — from the good vibes of replacing Biden — that will soon fade. (In that case, I’ll be curious to see if Harris goes even further to moderate her image; she said nothing last night, for example, about whether she supported an “all of the above” energy policy to reduce prices.)

Nobody knows what will happen between now and Election Day. What’s clear is that Harris has run an effective first month of her campaign, managing both to consolidate Democratic support and to moderately — in both senses of the word — expand her appeal.

More from the convention

Harris’s speech included a statement of support for Israel, a denunciation of Hamas and a demand for security and dignity for the people of Gaza. It was effort to bridge the Democratic Party’s divides on the war.

Harris spoke about growing up in a working-class neighborhood with an immigrant single mother . “She taught us to never complain about injustice, but do something about it,” Harris said. “She also taught us, ‘And never do anything half-assed.’”

Harris accused Trump and the Republicans of planning to jail opponents, cut taxes for the rich and ban abortion nationwide. “Simply put, they are out of their minds,” she said.

“My entire career, I’ve only had one client: the people,” Harris said of her background as a prosecutor and lawmaker. Trump, she argued, was running “to serve the only client he has ever had: himself.” Read a transcript of her speech .

Other speakers last night echoed Harris’s patriotic theme . Adam Kinzinger, a Republican former congressman, said, “I want to let my fellow Republicans in on the secret: The Democrats are as patriotic as us.”

Members of the Central Park Five — who as boys were wrongfully convicted of attacking a woman in 1980s New York — criticized Trump . Years ago, he called for the return of the death penalty over the case.

Celebrity appearances included the Chicks, who performed the national anthem, Kerry Washington , the singer Pink and the N.B.A. star Stephen Curry, who endorsed Harris in a video.

Harris’s grandnieces led delegates in a call-and-response about how to pronounce her name. “First you say ‘comma,’ like a comma in a sentence,” one said. “Then you say ‘la,’ like ‘la-la-la-la-la,’” the other said.

More on the campaign

Trump, calling in to Fox News after Harris’s speech, sought to distance himself from Project 2025, his conservative allies’ governing blueprint, and accused Harris of failing to fix the problems she was “complaining about.”

Trump said on social media that Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who is Jewish, had done “nothing” for Israel and called himself “the best friend that Israel, and the Jewish people, ever had.” Shapiro accused Trump of peddling antisemitic tropes .

Arizona can require people registering to vote to show proof of citizenship , the Supreme Court said.

Trump’s New Jersey golf club will host a fund-raiser to support Capitol rioters , billed as the J6 Awards Gala, next month.

Arkansas’s Supreme Court rejected an effort to put an abortion-rights amendment on the November ballot, saying the paperwork was faulty.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed to withdraw from the presidential election in Arizona. He’s scheduled to speak about his campaign’s future today.

THE LATEST NEWS

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Ukraine’s two-week-old offensive in western Russia has slowed , while Russian forces have gained momentum in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

In Russia, negative feelings about Vladimir Putin have increased since Ukraine’s incursion, an analysis of online posts found.

In Germany, strict budget rules and rising parties on the far left and far right are pushing the government to reduce its support for Ukraine .

Israel-Hamas War

“They could have brought him back”: The families of Israeli hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza this week expressed anger at Israel’s leaders for not agreeing to a cease-fire .

A group representing hostage families said that autopsies found bullets in the recovered bodies . The military said it was too soon to tell if gunshot wounds were the cause of death.

More International News

The second-largest diamond ever found was uncovered in Botswana. It’s the size of an adult’s palm, and weighs more than a pound.

Italian divers recovered the body of the British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch , confirming that he was killed when his yacht sank in a storm.

A volcano erupted in southwestern Iceland , the country’s sixth eruption since December.

Other Big Stories

The F.D.A. approved updated Covid vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. Only one in five American adults took booster shots last fall.

A network of more than a dozen current and former inmates used drones to smuggle drugs into Georgia prisons , prosecutors said.

Times Opinion columnists picked their best and worst moments of the last night of the Democratic convention.

This month, the F.D.A. denied approval of psychedelic drugs for mental health treatment. They won’t be approved until proponents stop conducting unethical clinical trials , Caty Enders writes.

Here are columns by Paul Krugman on Trump and crime and Michelle Goldberg on why Harris needs Lina Khan .

MORNING READS

Love and loss: Sphen, a gentoo penguin who found international fame because of his relationship with another male penguin named Magic, died at 11 .

Altered states: A survey revealed similarities between psychedelic trips and near-death experiences .

Pickle: A TikTok influencer’s recipes have caused a cucumber shortage in Iceland .

Lives Lived: Charlene Marshall was at the center of a legal battle over the estate of the New York socialite Brooke Astor, her mother-in-law. Marshall’s husband, Anthony, was ultimately convicted of fraud, but she in some ways seemed like the one on trial. Marshall died at 79 .

M.L.B.: The Seattle Mariners, who held a 10-game lead in the A.L. West two months ago, fired their manager Scott Servais. Our beat writer says the organization is at a crisis point .

College football: The sport’s fall schedule kicks off this weekend. See our 12-team playoff projection .

ARTS AND IDEAS

The CrossFit Games are usually a triumphant moment, an extreme four-day test of fitness in which participants leap over hay bales, swing sledgehammers and toss medicine balls. This year, though, the competition turned tragic when a 28-year-old athlete from Serbia died during an open-water swim. His death has resurfaced simmering concerns that the games push competitors too far .

More on culture

A biography of the poet and thinker Audre Lorde offers a new way to think about her activism and legacy.

Jon Stewart went live on the last night of the Democratic convention.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …

Harness the delight of a chicken gyro in salad form .

Download these free video games .

Clean small messes with a hand-held vacuum .

Take our news quiz .

Here is today’s Spelling Bee . Yesterday’s pangrams were chunked and unchecked .

And here are today’s Mini Crossword , Wordle , Sudoku , Connections and Strands .

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. —David

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox . Reach our team at [email protected] .

David Leonhardt runs The Morning , The Times’s flagship daily newsletter. Since joining The Times in 1999, he has been an economics columnist, opinion columnist, head of the Washington bureau and founding editor of the Upshot section. He is the author of “Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream." More about David Leonhardt

Manufacturer of superyacht that sank in Sicily with 22 aboard says human error to blame

Topic: Maritime Accidents and Incidents

British entrepreneur Mike Lynch.   ( Reuters: Henry Nicholls/File )

The body of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch has been recovered from the wreckage of a superyacht off the coast of Sicily. 

The yacht manufacturer's CEO has publicly addressed the incident, blaming the captain and crew for what he says could have been easily avoided. 

What's next? 

Rescue crews are continuing to search the wreckage for one missing woman, while four other bodies that were recovered await identification. 

The body of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch has been recovered from the wreckage of a superyacht off the coast of Sicily, as the boat's maker blamed the shipwreck on "indescribable, unreasonable errors" by the crew.

The Italian coastguard confirmed Mr Lynch's body had been recovered by rescue crews, along with four others, on Thursday, local time. They did not confirm the identities of the other recovered bodies.

Others reported missing from the yacht include the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer, Mr Bloomer's wife Judy, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Giovanni Costantino, CEO of the superyacht's manufacturing company Italian Sea Group, said there were no structural problems with the vessel that could have led to the shipwreck, arguing the crew were ill-prepared.

"It had absolutely no problem, it was a model for so many ships because it was so stable," he told the BBC.

"The weather alerts clearly showed the storm would have arrived at 4am, the captain should have closed every hatch, raised anchor, sailed into the wind, and lowered the keel. Then everyone could have gone back to sleep and the cruise would have happily continued."

Mr Costantino told Reuters correct emergency procedures had not been followed despite stormy weather already being forecast.

"The boat suffered a series of indescribable, unreasonable errors, the impossible happened on that boat … but it went down because it took on water. From where, the investigators will tell."

The Bayesian, a 56-metre British-flagged yacht, went down in a storm early on Monday as it was moored about a kilometre offshore.

Civil protection officials said they believe the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, and sank quickly.

Another yacht anchored near the Bayesian escaped unharmed. The captain of the sunken yacht and other crew members have not commented publicly on the disaster, while Italian prosecutors investigating it are due to hold a press conference on Saturday.

Fifteen of the 22 people aboard survived, including Mr Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old daughter, Sofia.

Italian firefighter divers bring ashore the body of one of the victims. ( AP: Salvatore Cavalli )

Ms Golunski's husband James Emslie and New Zealand captain of the yacht James Catfield also survived.

Interior ministry official Massimo Mariani told Reuters Mr Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah remained missing, saying she may be inside the wreck or could have been tossed into the sea as the boat sank.

Divers have struggled to find the bodies.

"We would need a crystal ball to know when we'll be able to find the next body," said Luca Cari, spokesperson for the fire rescue service.

"It's very difficult to move inside the wreckage. Moving just one metre can take up to 24 hours," he added.