New Zealand’s SailGP team suffered a devastating blow following the final race on the opening day of the France Sail Grand Prix in Saint-Tropez overnight with its wing collapsing.
Shortly after the end of racing, New Zealand’s 29-metre wing of the team’s F50 Amokura collapsed andbroke into the water. There were no injuries.
Speaking after the incident, New Zealand driver Peter Burling said: “Thankfully everyone on board is safe - it could have so easily fallen at a different angle and we were all on the starboard side of the F50 just touching down - something we’ve done 30-40 times today. We just heard an almighty bang and watched it all unravel.”
The disastrous incident capped off an otherwise great day of sailing on the French Riviera, in which the Kiwis found themselves tied for pole position with the Denmark SailGP team. New Zealand finished first, sixth and fifth in the first three fleet races of the weekend.
Burling said it was too early to comment on what caused the structural failure.
“The whole group has done an amazing job as a team getting the boat back here in the shape it’s in. I think we’re getting more and more angles and debriefing and I’ve honestly got no idea [why it failed]. On board, we weren’t doing anything different - just gently touching the boat in and coming up on course.”
“We’re really happy to take the win in the first race - obviously in really tricky conditions. In the second race, we got a middle-of-the-road start and didn’t get the best race put together, then in race three we had a pretty terrible start but did a really good race to get back to fifth. We’re top of the leaderboard with Denmark - something that we’re really proud of as a group but it’s all for nothing if we can’t sail tomorrow.”
New Zealand wing trimmer Blair Tuke said the team was “pretty gutted.”
“Everyone’s pretty shaken after what was obviously a very scary incident. We’ve had the time to react, ascertain that we’re okay and now as the minutes and hours go on, I think we’re starting to realise both the extent of the damage and how lucky we were.”
“It was a strong statement from the team to bounce back from Los Angeles and win race one, followed by two other really well-sailed races.”
The New Zealand team were racing to repair the F50 in time for when racing resumed at 1.30pm CEST.
Luke Kirkness is an Online Sports Editor for the NZ Herald. He previously covered consumer affairs for the Herald and was an assistant news director in the Bay of Plenty. He won Student Journalist of the Year in 2019.
