OCEAN STORM TURNS YACHT RACE DEADLY.

Byline: Tony Harper Associated Press 

Orange life rafts heaved in roiling seas Monday as a storm decimated the Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race. At least five sailors were killed as 90 mph winds and towering seas turned 40-foot yachts into tub toys, flipping them over, snapping their masts and swamping them.

A British Olympic sailor who had been missing was added to the death count, said Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokesman Brian Hill. One other sailor was still missing, but many involved in the rescue were doubtful he could have survived.

As Australia mounted one of its largest maritime rescue operations ever, military helicopters hovered over 35-foot swells to hoist about 50 other sailors to safety off Australia's southeast coast, 250 miles south of Sydney.

Many of the sailors were injured - with broken bones, dislocated shoulders, cuts on the face and hands - from being struck by broken rigging or tossed upside down when their boats capsized.

Emergency flares sent streams of red smoke into the air to speed the rescue effort.

The 725-mile race continued despite the worst tragedy in its 54-year history. Of the 115 yachts that entered, 59 were forced to seek shelter and several

boats were abandoned, race officials said. There was no list of the approximately 1,000 sailors who set off in the race.

The American yacht Sayonara, the 1995 winner, crossed the finish line this morning on the Derwent River at Hobart.

Sayonara is owned by U.S. billionaire Larry Ellison, founder and chief executive of computer giant Oracle Corp. Ellison, in tears after battling through the horror of the race, said he had never experienced worse conditions at sea.

Asked if he'd come back again, Ellison said, ``My first reaction is not if I live to a thousand years. But who knows?

``It was just awful, I've never experienced anything remotely like this,'' said Ellison, whose company is a key competitor of Bill Gates' Microsoft. ``It's been a very emotional experience to get here. This is not what this is supposed to be about. A lot of us are upset.''

Ellison said it was an extraordinarily difficult as his yacht battled ``right through the eye of a hurricane'' and his crew heard by radio of the deaths in the battered fleet.

Winston Churchill skipper Richard Winning, one of those rescued from a life raft, told of a frantic struggle to stay alive.

``After we got into the life raft and became separated from the others, the damned thing capsized twice on these great seas at night - which is bloody frightening, let me tell you,'' Winning said. ``I wouldn't want to have spent another night out there.''

American John Campbell was swept overboard when his yacht capsized. After less than an hour in the water, Campbell was so crippled by hypothermia that a helicopter dropped a policeman down on a line to scoop him up.

``There was a point I didn't think I was going to survive,'' Campbell said.

Some 27 navy ships scoured the seas for survivors after the first mayday call came over the radio.

Two Australian sailors were killed when their 40-foot boat, Business Post Naiad, capsized 60 miles off Merimbula, in New South Wales.

British sailor Glyn Charles, 33, was washed off the Sword of Orion yacht Sunday night and declared drowned today. Race officials said Charles had represented Britain in the Star Class at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, where he finished 11th.

Three crew members from the stricken Winston Churchill - Jim Lawler, Mike Bannister and John Dean, all from Sydney - were washed out to sea. Six other crewmen were rescued, officials said.

Two of the recovered bodies are believed to be those of Winston Churchill crewmen. Rescuers still were hunting for a third man.

Forty boats sought shelter Monday in the small mainland port of Eden, arriving with broken rigging, twisted masts and other damage.

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Photo

PHOTO (Color) A photograph taken by a crew member from Stand Aside shows the rough seas during the Sydney-to-Hobart race in Australia.

Associated Press/News Ltd