Two sailors injured after severe crash in Auckland Sail Grand Prix

There was a major crash on Day 1 of the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix which resulted in two sailors being injured and taken to hospital. The incident happened soon after the start of the third race, with the fleet reaching on starboard tack at up to 93 kilometres per hour, which is just over 50 knots, as they converged towards the first rounding mark. Both New Zealand and France had started near the leeward end of the line, with the sailors reporting that the wind was both shifty and very gusty. New Zealand was initially positioned to windward of the French boat, but then went into a sideways slide ahead of the French, spinning to windward with the boat nosediving and continuing to spin into the wind. The port hull of the New Zealand team rose up going into the slide. The French had very little time to react with their port hull impacting with the New Zealand starboard hull near the shroud. The French team reacted very quickly to cross the boat and check on the New Zealand team. The onboard footage from both boats is horrifying, seeing how the port hull bow of the French boat carved through the New Zealand starboard hull, and it looks like the slight movement DS Team France’s helm Quentin Delapierre made to windward could have saved this from being a tragedy. All our thoughts are with the injured sailors and we hope they make a swift and full recovery. Thumbnail photo (c) Simon Bruty for SailGP #sailgp #sailing