Sailors know the risks and rewards that come with these new space-age America’s Cup boats that speed like race cars across the waves.
Still, the death of British Olympic champion Andrew “Bart” Simpson during a training session on San Francisco Bay gives fresh urgency to one question in the chase for the oldest trophy in international sports this summer.
How safe are the boats? Authorities are hoping they’ll have a good answer once they complete an investigation into why the 72-foot catamaran sailed by Artemis Racing of Sweden nose-dived and capsised on Thursday after completing a difficult maneuver.
It wasn’t the first accident involving the high-performance catamarans, which were introduced as one of many changes to make the stodgy old sport of sailing more appealing to mainstream sports fans after Oracle Team USA, owned by software tycoon Larry Ellison, won the Cup in 2010 with a giant trimaran.
Since the new champions always get to rewrite the rules, Ellison and his world-class sailors tossed out the plodding sloops that previously had been sailed in the Cup in favour of the fast catamarans.
Sailing on San Francisco Bay rather than on the ocean, Oracle envisioned the cats wowing both spectators by skimming across the top of the waves. The boats have everything to capture the attention of landlubbers. When they hook into a breeze, the ride is exhilarating. Make the slightest mistake or push the boat too hard and it can all go wrong.