SailGP Auckland: French reaction in Black Foils crash might have saved a life, says British sailor Freddie Carr

Former America’s Cup sailor David “Freddie” Carr has praised French SailGP driver Quentin Delapierre, saying his reactions in the moments before a crash with the Black Foils “probably saved a life”.

Two sailors were hospitalised in stable conditions after the French and New Zealand SailGP entries collided early in the third race of the weekend in Auckland.

Black Foils grinder Louis Sinclair suffered compound fractures in both legs, while French strategist Manon Audinet was being assessed for major injury, with the team particularly concerned for her abdominal area.

Carr, who retired from the America’s Cup after six campaigns but continues to sail professionally and was in Auckland covering the event for The Foil, told Newstalk ZB’s Jason Pine that Delapierre should be applauded for his efforts to limit the impact.

“Full credit to Quentin Delapierre. His reactions, in my opinion, and I don’t want to overdramatise it, probably saved a life yesterday,” Carr said.

“What the French helmsman did was fantastic, and it’s very sad what happened to Louis, and he has got serious injuries, let’s not talk it down, but how the French reacted to what they saw in front of them was world-class.”

Having watched the incident back, Carr suggested it happened after the Black Foils got a little too high out of the water, lost the grip of the foils on their boat and skidded sideways.

“Now at that moment in time, you’re an absolute passenger. There is nothing that anyone on board the Kiwi boat in that split second can do, and it’s horrible, and you’re waiting for the regrip,” Carr explained.

“We all saw what happened when the boat regripped. They gripped back in the water, flew up head to wind and effectively put a roadblock in front of the French.”

Delapierre spoke to media after the event on Saturday afternoon but was not able to recall too much of what happened, as he was largely acting on instinct and how the incident played out was not completely clear to him at the time.

“I think everyone, both team New Zealand and us, are pretty shocked. Full support to team New Zealand and my teammates, also. Hopefully, we’ll recover from this,” Delapierre said.

“Everything happened so quickly, it’s pretty cloudy in my mind. I just tried to do my best to avoid the collision but obviously it happened too quickly. I didn’t have the time to respond and steer the boat. It was a super-scary situation.”

In response to Saturday’s crash, SailGP made the call to race in a split-fleet format for Sunday’s racing.

Great Britain, Germany, Brazil, Canada and Italy will race in Group A, while Australia, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and USA in Group B. The Black Foils and France were drafted into group A, but neither will be sailing on Sunday.

It’s a format the league considered for its debut in Auckland last year, trialling it for practice racing before ultimately sticking to a full-fleet format.

They have split the fleet for practice at every event since, with Sunday’s racing the first time it has been implemented for racing proper.

“It feels like a significant one, doesn’t it? And it’s probably an appropriate reaction to what we saw out on the racecourse yesterday,” Carr said of the decision.

“It’s the first time that the fleet has been split, so from a sporting point of view, it’s going to be very interesting to see how the teams adapt to that style of racing. Only racing four or five other boats will put a different tactical spin on the racecourse, but it’s still going to be fast.”

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.