SAILING/Sydney to Hobart Race:Eight crew members abandoned their sinking boat and another three badly-injured sailors were airlifted from the deck of New Zealand maxi yacht Maximus during a rough Sydney-Hobart race yesterday.

Maximus and sophisticated Dutch entry ABN Amro were dismasted in rough seas overnight, five other damaged boats were forced to retire and the 38-year-old timber boat Koomooloo was adrift and sinking. Koomooloo's crew abandoned their Australian boat after it was damaged when it fell heavily off the back of a steep wave. They were plucked from their life rafts by British entry Adventure and transferred to a police launch.

Koomooloo's owner and skipper Mike Freebairn told race officials his crew had ripped out the boat's floorboards in a vain attempt to find the leak.

Six crew members were hurt on board Maximus when its €380,886 carbon-fibre mast snapped. ABN Amro was leading the 78-strong fleet when it was dismasted, but no one on that boat was hurt. The Maximus crew members were hurt when the boat's mast snapped and brought rigging down on to the deck amid headwinds of up to 30 knots and three-metre swells.

"There was a hell of a crack . . . it smashed all the deck and knocked guys down," Maximus co-owner Bill Buckley told reporters. Race officials said one crew member had suffered chest injuries, another had a suspected broken pelvis and the third had a back injury. The police launch carrying Koomooloo's crew later picked up the skipper of Australian boat Illusion after he suffered cracked ribs.

Maxis Wild Oats and Skandia were leading the fleet, but rough weather meant Wild Oats was unlikely to better the race record of one day, 18 hours, 40 minutes and 10 seconds it set last year.