2 Die in Notoriously Risky Yacht Race

Two people died in separate incidents on the first night of the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Both were hit by a boom (the large horizontal pole attached to the bottom of a sail) on their respective ships, one of them just before midnight Thursday and the other a little more than two hours later, the BBC reports. The AP calls the first night of the notoriously dangerous race "storm-ravaged," and notes 17 of the yachts had retired at sea due to weather. As of 21 hours after the race started in Sydney, Australia, on Thursday, 87 were still sailing. The first finishers were expected in Hobart, located 628 nautical miles away in the Australian island state of Tasmania, late Friday or early Saturday.

"The conditions are challenging, but they're not excessive," said the vice-commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, which administers the race, in explaining why the race continued after the deaths. He says another sailor was washed overboard, drifting almost two-thirds of a mile from the yacht before he was rescued. "That is one of the most terrifying experiences that you can have," he said. "(And) it was at night, which makes it tenfold more scary." In the 79-year history of the race, there have been 13 fatalities, six of them taking place in 1998. (More yacht race stories.)