Two sailors die during Sydney to Hobart yacht race

Two sailors taking part in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race died in separate accidents overnight during wild weather, Australian authorities said Friday. These were the first deaths in decades during the annual race, which is one of the most prestigious in the world.

The annual 628-nautical-mile race, which began Thursday in Sydney, attracts teams from around the globe. It is known for challenging conditions that in the past have sunk yachts as they made their way south to Hobart, the state capital of Tasmania. But it has been 26 years since it last claimed lives, when six sailors died during the 1998 race in severe storms.

Australian police said that the two men who died Thursday night and early Friday were both struck on the head by booms, a horizontal beam that attaches the sail of a ship to the mast, and swings as the wind moves the sail from side to side.

The first man, a crew member on the Flying Fish Arctos, was hit just before midnight by a boom that was “moving violently through the night with the challenging sea conditions,” Joe McNulty, a superintendent of the New South Wales state police, said at a news conference Friday.

Police identified the crew member as a 55-year-old Australian. The yacht was near Ulladulla, a coastal town south of Sydney, when he was struck.

Then, farther south near Batemans Bay around 2:30 a.m., a 65-year-old Australian man died in a similar way on another yacht, the Bowline, McNulty said.

Police believe that both yachts were in the process of changing their sails, not actively sailing, at the time of the deaths, McNulty said. Both vessels have been taken out of the race and an investigation is underway, he said.

Another man, aboard the Porco Rosso, fell overboard during the night but was rescued, McNulty said.

Weather conditions were challenging overnight, with strong winds and a heavy squall, McNulty said, but “they weren’t dangerous conditions. They were safe for the race to proceed.”

The race, which traditionally begins on Boxing Day, was first held in 1945 and has become one of the biggest events in the world of sailing.

“The 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,” Anthony Albanese, the prime minister of Australia, said on social media.