The Sydney to Hobart yacht race has suffered a double tragedy after two sailors died in separate incidents.
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00:00This has been absolutely terrible news as we've heard about two people that have died
00:06in two, on two, two separate yachts in two separate incidents overnight.
00:11Now the first fatality occurred at about midnight, um, about 30 nautical miles off the coast
00:17of Ulladulla with the boat Flying Fish Arctos.
00:21Now on board that boat was a 55 year old male from Western Australia who was hit in the
00:26head by the sail boom.
00:28His crew members performed CPR on him but he was unable to be revived.
00:34The second fatality occurred about 30 nautical miles off the coast of Batemans Bay where
00:40I am right now at about 2.30 this morning on board the boat Bowline.
00:47And now on board that boat was a 65 year old male from South Australia.
00:51He too was hit in the head by the sail boom and similar to the other yacht, crew members
00:58on board that yacht performed CPR on him but he was unable to be revived.
01:03Now we did hear from Superintendent Joseph McNulty from Marine Area Command a short time
01:08ago who just gave us a bit of an update in relation to the two separate fatal incidents
01:14and he described conditions last night as challenging and called it a tragedy.
01:20Australian Maritime Safety Authority received the first May Day call from a vessel, from
01:25a yacht named Flying Fish Arctos and it requested urgent assistance as one of the crew members
01:32had been struck in the back of the head by the boom.
01:35It was moving violently through the night with challenging sea conditions and a crew
01:39member suffered a significant head injury.
01:42Unfortunately that male person is now deceased.
01:46The second incident occurred at 2.30 this morning from another vessel where a crew member
01:50had again suffered a head injury caused by the moving boom from the sailing vessel.
01:57The crew did a pretty substantial job of doing CPR trying to keep that crew member alive
02:02but their efforts were unfortunately met with the death of that person.
02:07So Adrienne, where are the Bowline and Flying Fish yachts now?
02:13Okay the Bowline remains here in Batemans Bay.
02:16You can't see it behind me, I'm actually at the Batemans Bay Marina.
02:21The Bowline is actually moored a little bit further out of the bay outside the bar, not
02:26out to sea but it's sheltered at the moment and that's because there's quite a shallow
02:32sandbar here in Batemans Bay so the boat is unable to cross that sandbar and enter this
02:37marina although that is the goal to eventually bring that yacht into this sheltered marina
02:43but for now it remains moored a little bit further away.
02:48On another note though, at this marina is another retired boat known as the Rum Rebellion.
02:52You might be able to see it behind me, it's the one with the green flag.
02:55We're not sure why that yacht retired but we know there's been about 17 yachts in total
03:00that have retired in the Sydney to Hobart race so far as we know, likely due to in many
03:07cases the conditions that we saw overnight and in this morning.
03:11The Flying Fish Arctos, which is the yacht which the man died, remains in Jervis Bay.
03:20It will remain there for a time as far as we know.
03:23Alright, so there's a lot happening in this race so far.
03:26So what's expected to happen next?
03:31Well police just have to continue their investigations into these fatalities.
03:36They can't be rushed, they need to make their inquiries.
03:40Both of the yachts in which the two men died in separate incidents will be analysed.
03:46A crime scene is actually underway on either of those yachts so they're not going to be
03:51moved until police are satisfied with the information that they've collected.
03:57But that will continue for now, so that one boat will remain in Jervis Bay and the other
04:01one here in Batemans Bay until that's all wrapped up essentially.
04:06Police aren't revealing the names of the two men which died, that's because they are
04:11contacting the next of kin and undoubtedly this is a very, very difficult time for the
04:19families involved and also the crew members which had to experience this overnight.