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A search-and-rescue mission has prevented a third death from occurring on the first night of the 2024 Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

Details have emerged of a "terrifying" incident off Sydney to Hobart yacht Porco Rosso, which had to recover a crew member swept more than one kilometre overboard on a deadly night of racing.

Two sailors were fatally struck by booms on their respective boats overnight, as the race's death toll threatened to rise to three when an as-yet-unidentified crew member fell off Porco Rosso around 3.15am.

The sailor was blown overboard as the 2013 handicap winner, formerly known as Victoire, made her way past Green Cape on the NSW Coast in the strong winds that had been forecast.

"That is one of the most terrifying experiences that you can have," said David Jacobs, vice-commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, which administers the race.

"(And) it was at night, which makes it tenfold more scary.

"Fortunately there are developed systems and procedures to cater for that situation to retrieve the person."

The incident triggered the crew member's emergency position-indicating radio beacon, a safety device that must be worn by all sailors in the race.

As a result, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority was automatically notified of the incident and contacted the Sydney to Hobart's race committee.

AMSA also deployed an emergency aircraft to begin searching for the crew member.

"They had, we believed, been washed about 1.2km away from the boat," Jacobs said.

Four-time line honours champion Master Lock Comanche, which had retired earlier in the race, was diverted to assist Porco Rosso in the search-and-rescue efforts.

The crew member was located, but Porco Rosso opted to retire at around 4.45am rather than continue into the Bass Strait, where strong to gale force winds were blowing.

"(The crew member) would prefer not to have had that experience, but they are healthy and well," Jacobs said.

Earlier in the evening, a sailor aboard Flying Fish Arctos and one on Bowline were fatally struck by their respective boat's boom, the large horizontal pole at the bottom of the mainsail.

The deaths were the first in the yacht race since the tragic 1998 Hobart, which claimed the lives of six in violent storms and triggered mass reforms to the race's safety procedures.

"The sailing community is a very close community. There's about a thousand sailors on the water in this race, and to lose two in this fashion is just devastating," Jacobs said of the recent deaths.