The Australian double-handed team "Nexba Racing" completed a qualifying race over 100 nautical miles. The young sailors had left Pittwater early Friday afternoon to arrive back there early to mid Saturday morning. As they set off for home to Sydney at around one o'clock in the morning in freshening breezes and swells of one to two metres, the keel suspension failed. This led to the capsize 15 nautical miles off Wollongong on the south coast of North South Wales.
After the ship was reported missing, a search operation was not launched until shortly after 1 p.m., around twelve hours later. The destroyer "HMAS Brisbane" from the Royal Australian Navy reached the 60 square nautical mile search area around an hour later.
After the passing cargo ship "MV Arietta Lily" reported a sighting of the overturned yacht shortly after 3 p.m., the "Brisbane" was able to sail directly to the "Nexba" to rescue her. In the meantime, the two sailors had been drifting out to sea in the overturned boat for 15 hours. Their condition was surprisingly good and they are currently hospitalised with minor injuries.
The Farr X2 is a 30-foot production boat designed specifically for short-handed sailing. It was designed by well-known Australian sailor Bret Perry and built in Singapore by XSP. The very first hull of the new series only arrived in Sydney on 4 May, with the team's first test runs taking place shortly afterwards. From the manufacturer's point of view, the project could not have got off to a much worse start. The plan was to conquer the market with this design and, above all, to celebrate success in double-handed regattas.
"We take the safety of all crews sailing on our boats very seriously," reads an initial statement from Farr Yacht Design. The company now wants to do everything in its power to clarify the incident so that such events do not happen again. It remains to be seen what caused the fatal loss of the keel. Further details will be announced as soon as the investigations have been completed.
