Lost at sea: The harrowing hours of the deadliest Sydney to Hobart race
There was a powder-blue sky on December 26, 1998, when Shirley Bannister stood excitedly on the coastline, farewelling the fleet of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
Her husband, Michael Bannister, was among them — racing on the Winston Churchill.
As she watched the yacht melt into the horizon, Shirley had no idea she would never see her husband alive again.
The Sydney to Hobart is one of the nation's great sporting events, and the Winston Churchill had a long and proud history in the 628-nautical-mile race.
"The Winston Churchill was a classic. It was in the very first Sydney to Hobart yacht race," Shirley tells ABC iview's I Was Actually There.
Shirley's husband Michael, a lifelong sailor, was part of the nine-person crew, including skipper Richard Winning, Paul Lumtin and John Stanley.
"I understood the passion because it had been in my family," Shirley says.
"I knew I would never change him, and if I did, he wouldn't be the man that I married, so I married for better or sailing."
Warning: This story contains details some readers may find confronting.
But setting sail, the crew were unaware they were travelling directly into the path of a huge storm and unrelenting swell that would throw the race into disarray and claim six lives.
Only 44 of the 115 starting boats made it to the finish line.
The Sydney to Hobart had a reputation for harsh weather, so the sailors weren't surprised when a pre-race briefing flagged a possible gale.
Thursday 12:50pm
With an experienced team in a solid boat, Winston Churchill crew member Paul Lumtin says the race began like any other.
"There's a 10-minute warning gun and everybody's trying to get a favourable position for the start," Paul says.
Loading...John Stanley, who was also part of the Winston Churchill crew, recounts yachts and speed boats careening around each other in the busy harbour.
"It's pretty crazy out there, really. It's a wonder there's not more accidents," John says.
The race began and everyone headed south.
Friday 11:00am
In a journey that typically lasts up to three days, yachts were powering south, and some found themselves way ahead of where they expected, entering Bass Strait less than 24 hours after the race began.
It was here that Paul felt a shift in the temperature; the breeze fell away, and a stillness entered the air.
"It was like a calm before the storm. I don't even know how to explain it, but it's something that you feel without looking at instruments; the pressure drops," Paul says.
On the horizon, a wall of dark cloud accompanied growing waves and a shrieking wind.
"We were heading into, as it turned out, a real bomb," John says.
Loading...Friday 4:03pm
Loading...In the hours that followed, several yachts came headfirst into the storm: thoughts of winning the race were thrown out as crews shifted into survival mode.
Loading...While taking on the massive swell, desperate voices filled the radio with screams for help.
Loading...The Winston Churchill's skipper Richard Winning had sent Paul down to catch some rest when things took a turn.
"I think I slept for about 45 minutes and then I woke up to an explosion," Paul says.
At this time, John was at the back of the boat when a "monster" wave picked the boat up and threw it into the weather system.
A flood of water entered the boat as broken glass and wires covered the deck.
"I think that moment was when it really hit me that we were in a bit of trouble here," Paul says.
On another boat, Midnight Rambler skipper Ed Psaltis heard the "chilling" mayday call made by the Winston Churchill.
"'We are sinking. Our pumps aren't working.' Words to that effect. I can never forget it," Ed says.
All connection to land was lost when the radio batteries went dead.
"At that moment I realised that we were alone," Paul says.
But waiting for rescue in the unrelenting storm wasn't an option, so John sprang into action.
"I had a quick look and said, 'Right, we've got to get the life rafts up on deck, and we've got to prepare to abandon ship,'" John says.
"We threw both life rafts over. And then we all proceeded to get in the rafts. Four got in one raft and five got in another raft — a round one — which was the one the boys jumped in."
Paul had scurried into the round raft with Richard Winning, Bruce Gould and Michael Rynan.
In the other, squarer raft was John, Michael Bannister, John Gibson, John Dean and James Lawler.
By the time all nine members had pulled themselves into their rafts, the Winston Churchill had already begun to sink.
Loading...Friday 7:02pm
Shirley knew from watching the news bulletin that her husband's boat was in trouble.
"But we didn't really know a lot more," she says.
"We had neighbours who came to support me. And when they said, 'Oh, they're in a raft, they're alright', we celebrated and got pizzas, not realising that it wasn't alright."
For John and Paul, being in their respective life rafts was like being in a "kiddies pool", or "beach balls in the ocean".
"The only thing different with ours was that it had a blow-up roof over the top of it. You would think that they're more complex than that, but they really aren't," Paul says of the round raft.
"Every time we got hit by a wave, we got flipped over. And these were violent hits. Our heads would crash together inside the raft. And it was really, really terrifying."
Separated by "monster waves", the rafts travelled through the ocean in opposite directions.
Saturday 2:00am
With his raft starting to lose air, Paul's hopes of survival were beginning to fade.
"The truth is, we didn't know anybody was looking for us. I felt pretty angry. We realised that we were getting hypothermia. We knew that we weren't going to last another night," Paul says.
Meanwhile, John, who was on the square raft with Michael Bannister and three others, came head-to-head with a catastrophic wave.
Loading..."We got to the top and all of a sudden it broke. And I remember just hanging on," John says.
The crew members were thrown from the raft into the unruly sea.
"I locked my arm around the roof frame and I held my breath for a long time. And then finally, I came up and I was on the outside [of the raft].
"I yelled out, 'Are you all there?' And I got one reply from John Gibson.
"The rest were gone."
Saturday 3:50pm
After 25 hours spent in the raft, Paul spotted an aircraft flying overhead.
"Because we'd been hallucinating about airplanes and boats for the last sort of five hours, nobody said anything," Paul says.
Loading...But it was not a hallucination: a rescue chopper had found the round life raft and winched the four men to safety.
"As soon as we got onto the chopper the crewman said, 'So what boat were you on?' And I said 'I was on the Winston Churchill.' Well, he passed that information up to the front of the helicopter and the two guys in the front high-fived each other," Paul says.
"That made me realise then that there must've been some people out looking for us."
Met by media packs on land, Paul says he was "ignorantly upbeat" about his belief that the members on the other raft would be found alive.
Loading...Saturday 8:00pm
But when John's raft was discovered, Paul realised they hadn't been so lucky.
"There were only two men on that raft and three members got washed off," Paul says.
Paul, John, Richard Winning, Bruce Gould, John Gibson and Michael Rynan were all rescued.
Michael Bannister, John Dean and James Lawler did not survive.
"You know, at that point, I realised that I'd survived. Others didn't. Dealing with that survival guilt thing wasn't something I'd ever been through before," Paul says.
The body of Shirley's husband Michael was recovered from the ocean on Tuesday, December 29.
"When they discovered his body, I had to go and view it to make sure it was him."
Loading...Michael looked "absolutely beautiful", Shirley says.
"Just the eyes wouldn't open. They were a little bit wrinkly round the fingers from being in the water. I was so grateful that they found him though."
John was also asked to view the two bodies that had been found.
"That was quite something, because the facial expression was an incredible smile. They say drowning is one of the nicest ways you can leave the planet," he says.
"And that confirmed it to me, with that smile. That helped me. You'll never forget it."
In the end, seven yachts had been abandoned at sea and lost. Three men on other boats also died — Bruce Guy and Phillip Skeggs of the Business Post Naiad, and Glyn Charles of the Sword of Orion.
New South Wales state coroner John Abernethy found that a lack of understanding of meteorology contributed to the tragedy.
He was critical of the race organiser Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and the Bureau of Meteorology.
He made several recommendations at an administrative level and ones aimed at improving participant safety.
Recommendations included the use of Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) in all weather conditions, mandatory use of compliant life rafts and improvements to weather forecasts.
In 2024, two further deaths occurred during the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
Roy Quaden, onboard Flying Fish Arctos, died after being hit by the yacht's sailing boom after a challenging weather forecast, including a gale warning.
In a separate incident, Nick Smith was onboard Bowline when he was struck by the yacht's main sheet and then thrown across the boat, hitting his head.
An independent review into the 2024 deaths found that location beacons should be mandatory for sailors on deck, but that helmets should remain optional.
It also recommended that 50 per cent of all crews have a certain level of experience before taking part in the Sydney to Hobart.
The race has never been cancelled due to weather conditions.
Stream all episodes of I Was Actually There free on ABC iview.
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