NSW: Race yacht with bodies aboard towed into Eden

AAP General News (Australia)
12-30-1998
NSW: Race yacht with bodies aboard towed into Eden

By Rod McGuirk

EDEN, NSW, Dec 30 AAP - Crippled Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race entrant Business Post Naiad
was towed to a private wharf at Eden today with the bodies of two of her crew still aboard.

A colleague of the two dead men - one believed to be the yacht's owner and skipper Bruce
Guy - was formally identifying the bodies today, Eden police Inspector Rick Mawdsley said.

Police took extensive photographs of the bodies and the yacht at the Greenseas wharf as
evidence for a NSW coronial inquiry into four deaths and two presumed deaths during the Sydney
to Hobart race.

"The bodies were in situ as the crew had secured them before they abandoned ship,"
Inspector Mawdsley told AAP.

"The crew had secured one below deck and one above deck so that they wouldn't be lost."

He said the bodies will be taken, along with bodies of two crewmen from the wrecked yacht
Winston Churchill, to Sydney for post mortem examination.

Sydney-based police launch Nemesis towed Business Post Naiad from where it had been
drifting since the weekend, 120 nautical miles east of Eden.

Seven surviving crew members were rescued on Monday morning hours after the yacht was
disabled by mountainous seas.

"The yacht was extensively damaged, including its mast, decks and cabin," Inspector
Mawdsley said.

The last yacht was expected to be towed into the port about midnight, harbour master Pat
Saunders said.

AAP rmg/fh/sc/cfm/br

KEYWORD: SYDHOB NAIAD

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