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After days at sea Sam Haynes still hadn’t made it to a warm bed

Home 2025 After days at sea Sam Haynes still hadn’t made it to a warm bed

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The skipper of Celestial V70 finished the Rolex Sydney Hobart on the Derwent just after dawn, crossing the line at 5:15am after a final, nerve-shredding night that almost denied his crew a finish altogether.

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Time & Date: 29/12/2025 – 1430 (73.1 hours after the start)    

Instead of sleep, there was a brief doze on a couch — and time to reflect on a race that had delivered everything from brutal upwind punishment to a finish decided by the faintest breath of wind. 

Sam Haynes and his wife Mel - CYCA/Salty Dingo pic.

“It was nice to be back on dry land after such a long race,” said Dr Sam Haynes, who is also Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, organisers of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. “But when we came in this morning, the river was like a sheet of glass — absolutely calm.” 

Celestial V70 reached the Iron Pot around 12:30am, knowing the forecast was grim. The shutdown conditions in the river lived up to their reputation. For more than four hours, the yacht crept agonisingly towards the finish line, caught between patches of breeze and complete stillness. 

“It made it extremely hard to get across the line,” Haynes said. “You could actually see it — there was a line of breeze where we were, then about a couple of hundred metres of no breeze at all. We almost thought we might not even be able to cross.” 

At one point, the race — and a hard-earned time buffer — seemed to be slipping away. Then, just enough wind arrived. 

“We held on like a tide,” Haynes said. “One tiny zephyr pushed us across the line and we managed to beat Smuggler (still on the course racing) on time. So we were the ones who got lucky.” 

The Celestial V70 crew enjoy beers and scallop pies - CYCA/Salty Dingo pic.

The agony of those final hours was sharpened by what had come before. Early on the coast, Celestial V70 had built a handy lead , only to see it eroded minute by minute.  

Near Tasman Island, two conflicting breezes fought for dominance, slowing the boat to a crawl before a more cooperative run through Storm Bay restored some momentum. 

By the time they reached the river, there was nothing left to spare. 

“We used all that time right down to the last seconds,” Dr Haynes said. 

Between 12:30am and sunrise, conversation on board narrowed to a single purpose: keep the boat moving. 

“This type of boat — if it stops, it really stops,” he said. “And it’s very hard to re-establish flow. So we weren’t talking about time or the tracker. We just knew we couldn’t spare a minute.” 

Now ashore, Haynes knows the result of the 80th edition of the race is far from settled. Smuggler is still charging south with stronger breeze behind it, and the margins are tight. 

“It’s going to be very close,” he said. “It’ll be exciting to see whether they can beat us. I know that yacht well — and they’ve got a chance. But they still have about 30 miles to go.” 

Smuggler leaving the heads in the 2025 Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race - CYCA/Andrea Francolini pic.

The race itself, Haynes said, ranks among the toughest he has sailed. 

“It was hard — right up there with the more difficult ones,” he said. “The first 30 hours were brutal, hard upwind. It was unpleasant and uncomfortable.” 

Yet that suffering was balanced by moments that remind sailors why they keep coming back. 

“We had this incredible sail down the Tasmanian coast,” he said. “A beautiful northerly pushing us straight down the rhumbline to Tasman Island. The scenery there — the Organ Pipes, Hippolyte Rocks, Cape Raoul — it’s just spectacular when you’ve got breeze.” 

That contrast — hellish conditions followed by near-perfect sailing, then a finish decided in near-silence — is, for Haynes, the essence of the Rolex Sydney Hobart.  

“You know when you do this race that you’ll get a mixed bag,” he said. “You’ll have moments where you’re thinking, ‘What am I doing out here?’ and then moments that are just beautiful. That’s the love-hate relationship with yachting.” 

Despite a period when yachts across the fleet were “dropping like flies,” Celestial V70 avoided damage and injury — a quiet achievement in a race that again tested boats and crews alike. 

Love is in the air in Hobart! - CYCA/Salty Dingo pic.

As dawn broke over Hobart, there was no big celebration waiting. Just a quiet drink at Customs House — one of the few places open — and the strange satisfaction of finishing a great race at the slowest possible speed. 

“At 6am, it wasn’t orange juice,” Dr Haynes said with a smile.  
 
“A few, you know, Mutton Birds and, yeah, Dark n’ Stormies.” 

Steve Dettre/RSHYR media