The 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 Commodore Sam Haynes 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.
The crew of Celestial leaving Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day 2024. (Supplied)
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, skipper Haynes first acknowledged the deaths of sailors Roy Quaden and Nick Smith during this year’s Sydney to Hobart, and the “challenging” race forecast, which favoured his vessel.
Their deaths cast a pall over celebrations.
Celestial took out second in the Sydney to Hobart 2024 line honours. (Supplied: HYPE TV)
“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.
LawConnect took line honours for a second year in a row, finishing just after 2:30am on Saturday morning, but withheld overt displays of revelry out of respect to 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.
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