America's Cup: "Demolition Derby" in the Great Sound: Kiwis capsize off Bermuda
Tatjana Pokorny
· 06.06.2017
The second day of racing in the America's Cup Challenger Playoffs was like an action film. After more or less breakage on all boats, flying carbon fibre fairing parts and an "endless" penalty story, the final highlight was provided by the New Zealanders, whose catamaran "Aotearoa" capsized spectacularly in the pre-start phase of the duel against the British team Land Rover BAR. According to initial information, the six-man crew around helmsman Peter Burling remained largely unharmed. Three sailors, including Burling, were able to hold on to their positions on the overturning giant, while the other three fell into the water and were picked up by the escort boats. Shortly afterwards, Emirates Team New Zealand reported to the regatta director: "The crew has been counted. We are now working on righting the boat."
Just how badly the 15-metre-long racer with its 23.5-metre-high rigid wing sail was really damaged when it capsized in the second race of the day will be revealed during the shore crew's night shift at the Emirates Team New Zealand base camp in Bermuda. The wing, the experts agreed on seeing the capsized pride of the New Zealanders, could be irreparably damaged. But unlike their boats, the teams have two of them. Despite everything, the New Zealanders still lead 3:1 in this semi-final duel.
A few hours after the capsize, helmsman Peter Burling reports on the moments of the capsize and the state of affairs at the Kiwis' base camp
Peter Burling reported that evening in Bermuda: "The most important thing is that the crew remained safe and without major injuries. It's definitely a relief when you see some of them fall but then see their heads above water and know that they are OK. Our team is just getting the boat out of the water and will inspect the damage, of which we have plenty. But we feel like we can fix it and get back into action. The winds had obviously reached their upper limit today. But that's part of it. We had a problem with the wing before the first race, so we went in to change it. The fact that we managed to do this before the first race was very satisfying. I think every single member of the team contributed to it, got something or tightened something quickly. We New Zealanders are very resilient." The Kiwis had turned up just minutes before their first race. What remains to be said, however, is that the boats are very vulnerable overall. Which is not really surprising for prototypes that have only been in use for six months and have hardly ever been tested in conditions like today.
The top favourites among the challengers, the New Zealanders of all teams, who had so far performed so confidently, brought themselves to the brink of elimination from the Cup by capsizing in winds of around 20 knots with gusts of up to 27 or 28 knots, after they had almost casually overtaken and defeated the British in the first encounter of the day as a result of a cautious start on the fifth section of the course. Burling said later: "We just wanted to get off to a clean start. It wasn't so important to us whether we were ahead or behind our opponent, because we believe that we have very good speed on the course." And so it was. The British, on the other hand, had power problems, among other things. Sailing Team Manager Jono Macbeth admitted: "These boats are extremely physically demanding. So far we have always sailed on courses with five or six sections. Today it was nine! It's incredible how much energy is needed to get round these courses. Unfortunately, we lost power at a critical time, which is why our manoeuvres were not as crisp as they should have been."
All the teams had breakages on this memorable Cup day. Right from the start, it was clear to see that the teams started the first races with some respect. However, SoftBank Team Japan scored against Artemis Racing in the first match of the day against the Swedes with outstanding timing and impeccable match race tactics from the experienced and, at 44 years old, oldest helmsman Dean Barker. Even before this first race, sailors and experts agreed on what Dean Barker put so well: "This will be sailing at the limit today." He was proved right.
The Cup rules allow a maximum of 24 knots. If this limit is exceeded between minute 8 and minute 3 before the start, the start must be cancelled and retried. This happened several times before the first duel could start, which the very experienced 44-year-old Dean Barker had under control from the start. An apparently permanent system problem in the Swedes contributed to this, as Artemis helmsman Nathan Outteridge later admitted without explaining it in detail.
From the third leg of the first match against the Japanese, equipment and parts of the boat's aerodynamic panelling could already be seen flying around on the Swedish boat. Every now and then, the sailors had to pull out a snagged piece and throw it overboard. Jochen Schümann commented on Sky Sport: "It looks like the teams are struggling more with themselves than with their opponents." The water on the course is not the usual seductive blue-green colour. White whitecaps on a dark sea testify to the challenging conditions. The "Barker Boys" mastered them best. Barker said: "We are obviously delighted with our result. The boats just flew around. We set the fastest speed we've ever achieved with our boat. Chris and I struggled to keep the thing on course while the others were madly producing the power we needed for the manoeuvres. I'm really proud of this team, who were asked to do an incredible amount today. An incredible day!"
What the competition thinks about the Kiwis' capsize and what the helmsmen themselves experienced with their teams today
Nathan Outteridge said in the evening: "Most of our breaks were mostly cosmetic. But there were a few other things that slowed us down a bit today. We didn't win any points today unfortunately, but our boat and sailors are okay for tomorrow." Artemis Racing abandoned the first race on the final downwind leg. SoftBank Team Japan also won the second duel against the Swedes, who were unable to jibe in the afternoon and subsequently sailed far beyond the course limit and received a whole series of penalties for this. Tactician and team boss Iain Percy was so angry about this that he shouted his displeasure at the umpires. The Brit in Artemis' service could not understand why all his team's efforts to give the Japanese an extra two boat lengths advantage by slowing down their own boat were not honoured by the referees. Instead, the penalty (there were actually three in a row) stood still for what felt like an eternity. "We simply didn't know what we could have done better. We slowed our boat down, let the headsail flutter - and still sailed at 40 knots. But anything else could have jeopardised the safety of the boat and crew," said helmsman Outteridge.
The Brits had fared better than the Swedes with a winning point on the day. "It was a great day and certainly the most exciting acceleration sailing I've ever experienced. It was like skiing on ice. You just have to go as fast as you can. Once you start to slow your boat down and try to sail more safely, it usually gets worse. We were happy with our team performance. It's so physically demanding to get these boats round the course. And if you make just one mistake, that can be it for the rest of the race. Looking at the conditions today, we are happy with one loss and one win. On days like these, this is the ultimate team sport."
Commenting on the capsize of the New Zealanders, Ainslie, whose team had to deal with a "small technical error" in the first race, said: "The incident happened just as the Kiwis were about to cross the start line. They fell off heavily. That's not easy. It looked to me as if there had been a miscalculation when calculating the angle. But I don't think any of us here would criticise it in any way. These boats are incredibly difficult to sail. Things like this can happen. Thank God nothing happened to anyone. I'm sure they'll recover from this and get back out there tomorrow. Or the day after." Sir Ainslie's last sentence was more about the weather forecast than the Kiwis' chances. More wind is expected off Bermuda on Wednesday. Many observers expect that the planned races on Wednesday will not be able to take place.
