Sailor 'gutted' as she retires from deadly race

Devon sailor Meg Niblett said she was "gutted" after she and co-skipper Wendy Tuck were forced to retire from the Sydney to Hobart yacht race due to severe seasickness.

Niblett, 25, from Salcombe, said she had a recent illness which made the seasickness worse and she could not hold any food or drink down.

With testing conditions ahead, two deaths and a series of dismastings in the race, the pair decided to retire while in fifth place.

"Our time will come again and I've just got to keep moving forward and hatch a new plan," said Niblett, who also paid her respects to those who died.

High seas and gale-force winds battered the 104-strong fleet that left Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day for the 628-nautical mile (1,160km) ocean race, first held in 1945.

Niblett and Tuck's yacht 37ft (11.2m) Gizmo was among more than 30 yachts that pulled out.

Two sailors were killed in separate incidents in rough weather on the first night.

On the second day, it became clear to Niblett and Tuck that they had to pull out.

Niblett, the youngest double-handed female skipper on the start line, said: "The conditions for us were awesome, and we got some good speeds out of the boat.

"The ramps were huge. I think we were even planning up waves at one point."

But as they moved further south on Friday "the sea state was pretty horrible, with a northerly swell and then meeting a south swell", she said.

And her seasickness became overwhelming.

"I've had a few health issues, and that brought up my seasickness pretty badly," she said.

"Basically, I couldn't keep anything down and, racing double-handed, you really rely on your co-skipper to help you change sails and drive the boat when you need to get some sleep.

"If it was a fully-crewed boat, we probably would have kept going and made it to Hobart.

"But, two-handed, you don't really have time to sleep and time to recover, so, physically, I thought the safest thing was just to retire, and it was a joint decision with Wendy."

She said that the pair had been sailing "really well as a team", making the retirement even harder to take.

"Unfortunately, my health got in the way, so I'm extremely gutted about it," she said.

"But I just want to thank everyone for their support, and we'll be back next year - hopefully back bigger and stronger."

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