Six sailors managed to escape serious injury amid a “very scary” capsize during the SailGP leg in Bermuda.
It was during the third fleet race of practice day when the Team USA boat spectacularly flipped onto its side.
Five members of the crew could be seen falling several metres from one side of the boat down into the water after the vessel flipped.
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Miraculously none of the crew were seriously injured, although the F50 was deemed unfit to race, so USA had to settle for last place and one solitary competition point from the weekend.
Analysis of the crash later found it wasn’t a technical fault, but rather human error.
Wing trimmer Victor Diaz de Leon accidentally pressed a wrong button, causing a wing to invert and completely flip the boat.
“While operating the wing, I chose the wrong function on my control panel, which caused our boat to flip,” he later said.
“It was very scary and I’m thankful all my teammates are safe.”
Diaz de Leon said he was “disappointed” after making the costly error.
Diego Botin made an aggressive move at the start and skippered Spain to a wire-to-wire victory against heavyweights Peter Burling of New Zealand and Tom Slingsby of Australia to win the Bermuda Sail Grand Prix.
It was the second regatta win for the Spanish in season four of tech billionaire Larry Ellison’s global league.
The season standings remain the same with three regattas to go before the $3 million, winner-take-all grand final in San Francisco on July 15.
New Zealand leads the 10-boat fleet with 77 points, followed by Australia with 67 and Spain with 65.
It’s another 10 points back to ROCKWOOL Denmark and France.
Australia, the three-time defending SailGP champion, was hurt by an eight-point penalty in the season standings for hitting a mark in the previous regatta in New Zealand.
SailGP returns to New York on June 22-23.
– with AP