TWO sailors on separate boats have been killed in boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the annual Sydney to Hobart race, adding to the event’s long history of deaths at sea. The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) in Sydney, which administers the yacht race, said Friday 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. New South Wales Police Superintendent Joe McNulty identified the two dead sailors as a 55-year-old man from Western Australia (on Flying Fish Arctos) and a 65-year-old man from South Australia (on Bowline).
He said the crews on both boats, which had been seized by police for evidence, were “doing it pretty tough at the moment.” “We’ve got police talking to them, doctors and counselling. They’re assisting with our inquiries.
They are shaken up by what they’ve seen...
and they didn’t give up.” The first all-Filipino crew of 15 sailors was entered in the 2024 race, but was among the 19 retirements because of the weather. With veteran sailor Ernesto Echauz at the helm, Centennial 7 was one of six international entrants and includes sailors from the Philippines’ national team and the Philippines navy.
Officials later said a sailor was washed overboard on another boat, but was rescued. That crew member was from Hobart yacht Porco Rosso, and he drifted a kilometer from the yacht before being rescued. The incide.
