Breakage at the SailGP in Australia: In a crash between Brits and Japanese: Bow severed!

Serious crash in Sydney: At the penultimate regatta of the professional series on the speeding F50 catamarans, there was a collision between the British and Japanese teams at the start of the third race on Friday. The starboard hull of the Japanese boat was severed. No strangers were at the helm of the two boats involved in the crash: four-time Olympic champion Sir Ben Ainslie on the British boat and Australian 49er Olympic champion Nathan Outteridge on the Japanese boat. On the way to the starting line of the third race of the first day, the British sailed a deeper course than the Japanese. In doing so, the British allowed their leeward hull to take off quite high. As a result, the port foil of the British shaved off the starboard bow of the Japanese. A short video clip shows the seconds of the collision (please click!). And here is the YouTube video showing the collision from the air (please click!). The collision dramatically illustrates how dangerous sailing has become at this level.

Both teams were initially disqualified for the third race. Extensive investigations into the incident and the repair options have been launched in parallel. The British SailGP team was penalised six points for the damage caused to the Japanese boat and slipped back to seventh place before the second day of racing. Sir Ben Ainslie said after the disastrous encounter: "We just didn't see them. That was devastating for both teams." A detailed report on the accident will follow.

The Australian SailGP summit continues on Saturday. In Australia, the Spanish SailGP team with skipper Phil Robertson has taken the lead ahead of the Australian top favourites around Moth World Champion Tom Slingsby, who has just been voted World Sailor of the Year. In third place is the American SailGP team with helmsman Jimmy Spithill. In the season standings, Australia led the way with 45 points ahead of the US team and the Japanese, who are now likely to be condemned to watch (both 44 points), ahead of the last two regattas in Australia and the USA (end of March 2022). The British were fourth overall with 40 points before the disastrous crash. Click here for the season ranking (please click!).