The Black Foils’ season could be over after a major crash at their home SailGP event last weekend, a sailing expert says.
The New Zealand crew’s boat suffered major damage after it collided with the French team early in the Auckland regatta.
Black Foils grinder Louis Sinclair suffered compound fracturesin both legs, while French strategist Manon Audinet was hospitalised over concerns of an internal injury.
Mark Orams, sailing commentator and former Team New Zealand sailor, said on Ryan Bridge TODAY the team could be out of action until the end of July.
“That starboard hull is completely destroyed,” Orams said, “so a brand-new hull needs to be built.
“It’s not just that, it’s all the electronics, all the hydraulics and the major structure of the beams completely gone, so maybe end of July, that’s the race that goes to Europe, the first one in the UK, so they will be out for a long time.”
The Black Foils' season could be over after a crash with France in the third race of SailGP Auckland.
The Black Foils would miss five SailGP events if they were to return at the UK event, missing the regattas in Sydney, Rio de Janeiro, Bermuda, New York and Halifax.
A SailGP spokesman said a full and extensive evaluation of both boats to determine the path forward is being conducted, with plans to communicate next steps due to come out soon.
“They’re going at speeds we drive down the motorway and we know what happens when there’s an accident on the motorway at nearly 100ks an hour.
“And so it was I think an enormous credit to Quentin Delapierre, the French helmsman, who just at the last second turned to avoid the bow actually piling into the front pod where Marcus Hansen and Louis Sinclair were in the Black Foils boat.
“So that while Louis Sinclair was badly injured, if it had been a direct hit, it could have been a lot, lot worse.”
This was the Black Foils’ second smash of their SailGP campaign, after they crashed with Switzerland in the opening regatta in Perth.
