The 12-strong SailGP F50 catamaran fleet will return to action this weekend in New York after a long period of downtime after the last event in San Francisco. Back then, during the pre-start of the final race of the fleet racing, the rig on Tom Slingsby’s Australian boat came crashing down in spectacular fashion.
A full examination of the wings across the rest of the fleet revealed serious issues – specifically, a potential defect in the bonding of the core material in the shear web which could compromise the towering rig’s structural integrity.
Agonisingly, the repair schedule for all of this – which SailGP managing director Andrew Thompson described as the “almost re-manufacture of 12 wing sails in the last month or so” – necessitated the cancellation of the Brazilian stage of the tour, which was scheduled for early May in Rio de Janeiro.
Now, after an 11-week pause, the SailGP teams are fired up and ready to do battle once again.
