- Two sailors died when they were hit by explosions during the race
- Another competitor had to be rescued off the NSW south coast
Details have emerged of a ‘terrifying’ incident off Sydney involving Hobart’s yacht Porco Rosso, which involved the recovery of a crew member who was swept more than a kilometer overboard during a deadly night of racing.
Two sailors were fatally struck by explosions on their respective boats overnight as the race’s death toll threatened to rise to three when an unidentified crew member fell from Porco Rosso at around 3.15am.
The sailor was blown overboard as the 2013 handicap winner, formerly known as Victoire, walked along the Green Cape on the NSW coast in the strong winds that had been forecast.
“That’s one of the most terrifying experiences you can have,” said David Jacobs, vice commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, which manages the race.
“(And) it was at night, which makes it ten times scarier.
‘Fortunately, systems and procedures have been developed to retrieve the person in that situation.’
A crew member of the Porco Rosso yacht (pictured) was blown overboard at 3.15am on Friday and was left more than a kilometer from the ship before being rescued.
The sailor was found thanks to a distress beacon that helped track them (photo: the Porco Rosso leaving Sydney on Boxing Day)
The incident triggered the crew member’s emergency position indicating radio beacon, a safety device required to be carried by all sailors in the race.
As a result, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority was automatically notified of the incident and contacted the Sydney racing committee.
AMSA also deployed an emergency aircraft to search for the crew member.
“We thought they washed up about 0.7 miles from the boat,” Jacobs said.
Four-time line honors champion Master Lock Comanche, who had retired earlier in the race, was diverted to assist Porco Rosso in the search and rescue efforts.
The crew member was located, but Porco Rosso chose to retire around 4:45 a.m. rather than continue into Bass Strait, where strong to gale force winds were blowing.
A sailor on board the Bowline (pictured) was one of two crew members killed in a blast within the first 24 hours of the famous race
“(The crew member) would have preferred not to have that experience, but they are healthy,” Jacobs said.
Earlier in the evening, a sailor aboard Flying Fish Arctos and a sailor on Bowline were fatally struck by their respective boat’s boom, the large horizontal pole at the bottom of the mainsail.
The deaths were the first in yacht racing since the tragic Hobart of 1998, which killed six people in fierce storms and led to massive reforms to the race’s safety procedures.
‘The sailing community is a very close-knit community. There are approximately a thousand sailors on the water in this race, and to lose two in this way is nothing short of devastating,” Jacobs said of the recent deaths.