Organisers of the Sydney to Hobart have vowed the race will continue after two sailors were killed and another flung overboard in separate incidents overnight. The deaths mark the first in the race since six men lost their lives in a storm during the 1998 event, and have triggered an outpouring of grief from the race community. Vice Commodore of event organiser the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia David Jacobs described the deaths as a “truly tragic situation” and said they would be investigated.
“The sailing community is a very close community, and there’s about 1000 sailors on the water in this race, and to lose two in this fashion is just devastating,” Mr Jacobs said. “Until there’s an investigation and we find out exactly what happened, it’s difficult to know. “The club will do an investigation.
We always want to improve safety wherever we can. People watching the Sydney to Hobart from Watsons Bay, Sydney. Picture: NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone “If there’s something that boats can do to try and prevent this happening, we will implement it.
” Mr Jacobs said while ships were forecast to expect strong and potentially gale-force winds in a pre-race briefing with the Bureau of Meteorology, the condition “was not extreme”. Police were notified shortly before midnight on Thursday by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in Canberra that a crew member on-board a yacht had been struck by a sail boom. Fellow crew members performed CPR, but the person c.
