Kiwi SailGP athlete Phil Robertson believes questions will be asked of the league about the best way forward after a major crash between New Zealand’s Black Foils and France.
The opening day of racing in SailGP’s return to Auckland was abandoned after two races on Saturday, after a collision early in the third race of the day.
The Black Foils were travelling at a high speed down the first leg of the contest before losing control of their F50 foiling catamaran and spinning into the pathway of the French.
Two sailors were injured in the collision, with Black Foils grinder Louis Sinclair transported to Auckland Hospital to treat compound fractures in both legs. A French team sailor was also taken to hospital, however the team have not yet confirmed who that was.
Robertson, who mans the wheel for Red Bull Italy, was racing on the outside of the Black Foils at the time of the incident, and said he saw them slide towards his boat before they veered sharply towards their inside.
“[I] took a glance over my shoulder and saw them sort of spin out and that was it. Didn’t really see the rest until we stopped and looked back and saw two boats on top of each other, so it’s not very nice to see that,” Robertson said.
“These boats are pretty hard to control at those high speeds and everyone’s pushing like mad on those reaches and they were pushing their ride height and got a bit slidey, which is very natural to happen, and slid towards us. You trust that they’re going to get grip again, but they got grip before I needed to take action.”
While Robertson referred to the situation between the Kiwis and French as a racing incident, he said it would raise questions about how the league structures its action dependent on conditions moving forward.
With a 14th boat joining the fleet in the 2027 season, the league will be splitting the fleet and racing seven boats at a time. At the moment, they split the fleet in practice but have the full 13-boat fleet on the course together for racing proper.
“When it’s conditions like this, I think [splitting the fleet] is probably the expectation. We know it’s going to be tricky, there will be crashes, but it just minimizes that risk a bit when there’s a bit more space on the course. Bigger courses for sure, 13 boats, no problem, but I think small courses and big breeze, when everyone’s on the limit of control already, it’s probably a smart idea to start having that conversation seriously,” Robertson said.
“I think it’s the shortest racecourse in SailGP and 13 boats, yeah, I don’t know. I think questions will be asked.”
That conversation will be a hot topic over the coming days both inside and outside the league, with the next regatta in Sydney – another venue that historically serves up solid conditions for racing – just two weeks away.
Emirates Great Britain driver Dylan Fletcher said such an incident gave the rest of the fleet plenty to think about while there were still boats on the course.
“As ever, the first thing that goes through your mind when we saw the incident is ‘oh God, I hope everyone’s safe’ and coming on the radio and checking in, but it was really good to hear that they are stable and from that point onwards we were sort of waiting to see what went on, are we going racing, are we not going racing? Ultimately, quite rightly, the focus is on ensuring everyone’s safe and the boats are safe,” Fletcher said.
But in terms of the structure of race days, Fletcher favoured the all-in, 13-team format.
He did, however, suggest that given the damage sustained to the Kiwi and French boats, it would be some time before there were 13 boats on the starting line again.
“I’d rather we stay as one fleet. It doesn’t honestly feel that different, you know. When you’ve got 11 or 13, it actually feels relatively similar; kind of spread out a little bit and, even at the start, you kind of get that separation. So, from my point of view, I do love the racing, it’s great with the 13 boats. It’s unfortunate we won’t have that for a little bit of a while now, but it’s the way it is.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.