One of the two participants who died in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race after they were hit by sail booms has been identified.
Two men were killed just hours apart when they were fatally struck by their boat’s boom, the large horizontal pole at the bottom of the mainsail.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Two people dead after competing in the Sydney to Hobart race.
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One of these sailors was Nick Smith who was onboard South Australian yacht Bowline when he was struck just after 2am on Friday.
Superintendent Joseph McNulty said the boom was “moving around violently” and that Smith had suffered “significant head injuries”.
His crew mates performed CPR on him however he could not be saved.
Just before 11.50pm on Thursday, a crew member on board another yacht, the flying Fish Arctos, was also fatally struck by a boom.
Both yachts altered their course after the deaths, sailing to both Jervis Bay and Batemans Bay on the NSW South Coast.
More to come …