Two Sydney to Hobart sailors have died at sea amid wild weather conditions that left line honours favourite Master Lock Comanche to withdraw among mass retirements.
The race will continue towards Hobart’s Constitution Dock, with the first boats expected to arrive later on Friday or early Saturday morning.
The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, which administers the yacht race, has said that one sailor each on entrants Flying Fish Arctos and Bowline were killed after being struck by the boom, a large horizontal pole at the bottom of the sail.
Both boats have since retired from the race, two of the 13 that had pulled out between the starting gun on Boxing Day and 6am on December 27.
The deaths are the first in the 628nm race since the tragic 1998 Hobart, which claimed the lives of six sailors in storms and triggered mass reforms to the race’s safety protocols.
Race organisers are expected to address the media later on Friday morning.
The incident aboard Flying Fish Arctos occurred around 30nm east-south east of Ulladulla on the NSW south coast late on Thursday night.
Crew members attempted CPR but could not revive their teammate, notifying the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in Canberra of incident around 11:50pm.
Flying Fish Arctos has since altered her course and is expected to arrive in Jervis Bay around 7am.
The crew member aboard Bowline was struck approximately 30nm east/north-east of Batemans Bay around 2am and fell unconscious, with CPR also unsuccessful.
A police vessel has since begun to escort the boat to Batemans Bay, where she is expected to arrive around 7am.
“As these incidents are being dealt with by the Water Police and all family members are yet to be contacted, we cannot provide further details at this stage,” the CYCA said in a statement.
“Our thoughts are with the crews, family and friends of the deceased.”
Flying Fish Arctos, a NSW-based 50-footer, has contested 17 previous Hobarts since being built in 2001.
She was designed for round-the-world sailing and is currently used by Flying Fish, a sailing school that operates in Mosman, suburb on Sydney’s north shore.
The crew this year comprised 12 members, a mix of Hobart veterans and internationals, and was skippered by seven-time Hobart sailor George Martin, her most experienced Hobart sailor.
Bowline had been racing in her third Hobart when tragedy struck her crew of seven sailors.
One of only four South Australian yachts in this year’s race, she placed 33rd and 79th on handicap in the 2021 and 2022 editions of the bluewater classic, respectively.
She has been skippered by Ian Roberts on all three occasions, and is a previous winner of the Haystack Island Race in South Australia.
It came as Comanche withdrew from the race as the west-southwesterly change that had been forecast brought strong winds to the Bass Strait and south NSW coast.
Comanche dropped out of the race 63nm off Green Cape in the early hours of December 27, having sustained damage to her mainsail while leading the fleet.
Her retirement has rocketed rival 100ft supermaxi LawConnect into favouritism for back-to-back line honours titles.
As of 6:15am, Christian Beck’s boat was 8nm ahead of second-placed Celestial V70 sailing through the Bass Strait.
Four-time line honours champion Comanche, one of the most impressive monohull yachts in the world, has never retired before in eight previous runnings of the Hobart.
The withdrawal will have been disappointing for the boat, which had been in with a shot of breaking the line honours record she set in the 2017 race following a fast start in north-easterly winds on Boxing Day.
Comanche had also been chasing atonement for last year’s race, when LawConnect ambushed her in the River Derwent to a claim line honours victory by only 51 seconds.
The fleet stands at 91 competitors, losing leading handicap contender URM Group late on Thursday night.
URM Group had enjoyed a dominant lead-up to the race and placed second overall last year behind Alive, which had become the first boat to withdraw on Thursday afternoon.
But just after 10pm on December 26, URM Group became the second boat dismasted this year, leaving her with no choice but to pull out south of Montague Island.
The boat headed back to Eden for the evening, her strong start unable to materialise into a breakthrough handicap win.
© AAP