Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race organizers say Smith was hit by mainsheet

After two sailors lost their lives in the first deaths at the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race since 1998, the organizers have clarified that one victim, Australia's Nick Smith, died under different circumstances than previously thought. According to investigators, he was not hit by a sail boom, but by a mainsheet, and thrown across the boat where he hit his head on a winch.

"Nick is a very experienced sailor. We thought that he had been hit by the boom, as had Roy [Quadsen], but we've now learned that that actually wasn't the case, that he was hit by the mainsheet, and the mainsheet threw him across the boat. And unfortunately, he hit his head on the winch, and that's what killed him," said David Jacobs, Vice Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.