Yachting: Near-death at top of the mast

Team Germany's Christian Buck hangs unconscious from a halyard. Picture / Chris Cameron

MALMO - Team Germany are still in shock after watching one of their crew members nearly die on the second day of the America's Cup pre-regatta in Malmo.

Following their race against Team China, crew member Christian Buck was at the top of the mast to drop the mainsail when he lost control in the strong swell and was thrown against a jumper on the rig which could have killed him on impact.

Swinging round and round the mast, Buck hung limply from the 35-metre structure but came around and was escorted down by a fellow crew member.

Buck remains in hospital, where he is in a stable condition. The rules state the mainsail must be able to be retrieved from the deck without the need for someone to be up the mast in case of bad weather. But it is understood the Germans had a problem with their mainsail, which required someone up the mast.

The Germans were unable to compete in racing yesterday due to a problem with their rig.

There were no problems for the Emirates-sponsored Team New Zealand after they passed their first real test in the regatta by beating Team Luna Rossa by 30 seconds.

After an even start, Team New Zealand's brains trust was a little more successful in picking the shifts up the first beat than their rivals, which gave them a 16-second lead at the first mark.

The black boat also appeared to have a slight speed edge over the Italians in the moderate conditions.

They followed up with a 1m 21s win over Team Shosholoza after a superbly timed start.

Team New Zealand raced France's K-Challenge and Italians +39 overnight and meet Sweden's Victory Challenge and BMW Oracle Racing tonight.

In the other big match of the day, defenders Alinghi secured a comfortable 1m 29s win over BMW Oracle Racing after Oracle broke its headsail halyard clip on the second upwind leg. Prior to that Alinghi held a comfortable lead, but Oracle was by no means out of the race.