A skipper set to compete in the Sydney to Hobart race as part of a two-person shorthanded crew has raced home to Queensland with his boat in Sydney’s northern beaches unable to be retrieved. 

Skipper Lucas Burns said he had been postponing flights for the last few days while awaiting a decision from race organisers on the event but ultimately flew home when Tasmania reinstated border restrictions.

“It was taken out of the club’s hands, really, because when Tasmania closed borders to greater Sydney with quarantining, that sort of meant the race was going to be called off for us,” he told Scott Emerson.

Mr Burns, who had taken the boat to Sydney a couple of weeks ago, flew home to Queensland before being barred.

Queensland will not allow anyone who has been in the northern beaches to return to the state from 1am this morning, meaning Mr Burns could not sail his boat home.

“We’re hoping … they’ll lift the lockdown at least and we can go in and get the boat and then we’ll still have to take two weeks of cruising New South Wales to home to Queensland so we don’t have to go into hotel quarantine,” he said.

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