Hot Sailors: Noah Hastings Conquers Sydney to Hobart

Jan 23, 2025

Noah Hastings recently sailed in the 2024 Sydney to Hobart race as a crew member of Xanthus.  Considered by many to be one of the most difficult yacht races in the world, Noah and team finished 24th in a fleet of 104 boats.  All of us back home at FBYC are super proud of Noah and that he got his start at our sailing school.

Noah got his start learning to sail at Frenchman’s Bay Yacht Club Sailing School at the age of seven. He raced in Optimist, in Laser Radial, and in 420 with his brother Daniel. As a Laser sailor he competed nationally and internationally, including Youth Worlds in Kingston in 2019 and Midwinters East in Florida.  He was training to qualify for ISAF Youth Worlds when the pandemic hit.

During the pandemic, Noah began keelboat sailing, teaching his mom and dad how to race their C&C 35 with Daniel.  He competed in Lake Ontario Offshore Racing (LOOR) events in 2021 and 2022 then was introduced to professional yacht sailing/racing while working with Canada Ocean Racing during their launch tour in 2022. The crew encouraged Noah to spend the winter in the Caribbean, racing and obtaining professional certifications, which brought him to the Caribbean race circuit in 2023 and 2024, including the RORC Caribbean 600.

Noah has worked doing deliveries, maintenance, and racing on yachts full time since October 2023.  In his words, he “always dreamed of travelling to Australia and experiencing the pedigree that produces some of the best sailors in the world”. So, in November 2024, he travelled to Australia with the intention of finding a boat to compete with in the 2024 Sydney to Hobart. With a wealth of sailing available and weeknight racing every day of the week on Sydney Harbour, Noah began networking and volunteering as crew on as many boats as many days of the week as possible. Finally, he met the project manager of Xanthus after Thursday night twilight racing at Middle Harbour Yacht Club. The project manager needed help getting the boat ready for the race as they were a late entry and Noah ended up offered a spot on the crew for the race.

And with that, Noah achieved his goal of sailing the Sydney to Hobart.  As I mentioned, we’re very proud at FBYC that he got his start at our sailing school.

• Karen Danyluk