The accident occurred shortly before the start of the first race of the Superyacht Challenge Antigua: 90 seconds before the starting signal, the J-Class yacht "Svea" collided with her classmate "Topaz", dramatically running over her stern with her pointed bow. The fact that the sailors were largely unharmed seems almost miraculous when you look at the pictures. Both yacht beauties were badly damaged. One sailor from "Topaz" went overboard, two "Topaz" sailors required medical treatment but were not seriously injured. This was announced in a very brief statement on Friday night by the J Class Association.
The jury decided that the "Svea" crew was at fault for the crash
Both boats were able to reach the harbour of Antigua under their own power, but can no longer take part in the regatta. The regatta jury has since determined that the "Svea" crew violated rules 10 and 14. At the time of the collision, "Svea" was sailing on starboard, "Topaz" on port and with right of way. There was initially no further comment from the up to 35 crews involved, nor from the organisers or the class association. The video of the momentous crash is one of several clips circulating on social networks and shows at the end how the "Velsheda" crew members sailing very close to the accident take cover below deck because they fear that the masts of the boats involved in the collision will break. The shouts of "below deck now" can be heard loudly.
For the rest of the fleet, the start of the beautiful sailing show was less dramatic: in the "Bucaneers" class, the 26-metre Oyster 885 "Firebird" with tactician and double Olympic champion Jesper Bank from Denmark took the lead. In the "Privateers" class, the 33-metre-long "Missy" is in the lead, and in the "Corsairs" class, "WinWin" was initially ahead of "Nilaya" and "Pink Gin VI".
Here to the intermediate results of the Superyacht Challenge Antigua.
Here to go to the homepage of the J-Class Association.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
