Clare Costanzo hadn't just been waiting months to do her first Sydney to Hobart yacht race. She'd been waiting years.

And now she will be waiting another.

Costanzo, who had been expecting to wake up early on Boxing Day with butterflies in her stomach ahead of her first Sydney to Hobart, will instead be stuck at home in quarantine.

"I was at one of the gyms with a self isolation order so I'm not going anywhere," said the 24-year-old.

"I actually had a dream last Wednesday night when we only had two cases that we wouldn't be going.

"I just had a bad feeling about it.''

The match-racing champion from Clareville had planned to make her debut in the famous race in 2019 but a ski accident and knee surgery ended her campaign.

"I've had two years to look forward to it,'' Costanzo said before she and others from the northern beaches were banned from sailing to Hobart and the race eventually cancelled for the first time in history on the weekend.

Costanzo and sister Juliet had both been due to sail south on yachts in with a chance of claiming the prestigious overall honours in the Sydney to Hobart - Clare on the 52-footer Zen and Juliet, 21, on the 45-footer Pretty Woman - before the COVID cluster on the northern beaches forced the cancellation.

"It makes me more excited for next year,'' she said.

Around 60 women were set to have are sailed this year, 75 years after the intrepid Jane Tate and Dagmar O'Brien raced to Hobart aboard their husband's yachts Active and Connella in the 1946 Sydney to Hobart.

Race organisers are now looking at putting on an offshore race in the New Year for Sydney to Hobart racers.

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Originally published as Sailing sisters dreaming of Sydney to Hobart debut