Two sailors killed in annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race news

Organizers say crew members died after being struck by a sail boom in separate incidents.

Two sailors were killed hours apart in Australia’s most prestigious annual yacht race.

Crew members died after colliding with a spinnaker pole, a horizontal pole that holds sails in separate incidents on the first night of the annual Sydney to Hobart race, the race organizer said on Friday.

The deceased sailors have been named as Roy Cowden, 55, from Western Australia and Nick Smith, 65, from South Australia.

The Australian Cruising Yacht Club said the Flying Fish yachts Arctos and Pauline were sailing about 30 nautical miles (56 kilometres) off the New South Wales coast when the incidents occurred.

The club said that efforts made by crew members to revive the sailors failed.

Police believe the men became infected while the ships’ crews were changing sails, Joseph McNulty, superintendent of the New South Wales Maritime Area Command, told reporters.

“The hull moves, the sails move, the booms move. It’s a technical change to sailing at sea. So that may have contributed to these people dying today,” he said.

“Both teams are doing it very hard at the moment. They are shaken by what they saw and what they had to do.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was among those who offered their condolences to the families of the two men.

“The flight from Sydney to Hobart is an Australian tradition, and it is heartbreaking that two lives have been lost at what should be a time of joy,” Albanese said in a post on X.

“We send our love and deepest condolences to their families, friends and loved ones.”

The annual Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, inaugurated in 1945, is one of the most prestigious and challenging yacht races in the world.

The 630-nautical-mile race has claimed 13 lives during its nearly 80-year history, including six sailors killed in storms during the 1998 event.