Yacht crash during race off San Francisco Peninsula kills one

A sailboat participating in a race struck a buoy outside Redwood City off the San Francisco Peninsula on Wednesday evening, killing one person and injuring another, authorities said.

The sailboat was in the shallow waters just outside the city’s yacht harbor when it collided with a navigation buoy just before 7 p.m., said Lt. Joshua Dykman with the U.S. Coast Guard.

Aaron Coffin, an employee with the Coast Guard, said the impact caused the boat’s mast to snap in half and crash onto the deck, killing one man and injuring another.

According to a tweet from the Redwood City Fire Department, the man who survived was treated for a head injury.

After the buoy collision, other boats trying to assist the passengers had trouble navigating the channel’s shallow waters, Dykman said.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Redwood City Fire Department responded to the scene, but by that time, said Dykman, a U.S. Geological Survey boat in the area had already reached the damaged sailboat, rushing both men to shore. One was declared dead at the scene, Dykman said.

The other man was transported to Stanford Hospital for treatment.

Three other passengers aboard the boat were uninjured, Dykman said, and were later able to free the boat from the buoy.

Dykman said local Coast Guard officials were looking into whether the race was a permitted event. No other information was immediately available about the incident.

christine.maiduc@latimes.com

Twitter: @cmaiduc