Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Tom Slingsby says more crashes and injuries are inevitable for SailGP following a horror collision in Auckland, but does not expect they’ll come at the high-speed sailing league’s Sydney regatta.
Organisers are considering fitting the SailGP fleet with airbags and kevlar safety straps after New Zealand grinder Louis Sinclair broke both his legs and France’s Manon Audinet spent two weeks in hospital with a chest injury when their catamarans crashed at this month’s Auckland event.
Both sailors have since been discharged from hospital but France and New Zealand remain absent from the third event of the SailGP calendar on Sydney Harbour this weekend.
Calmer winds are forecast for the Sydney regatta, to be raced in twilight on Saturday and Sunday, though the easterly breeze will still make for challenging sailing.
“Getting rainy easterlies at this time of year is very uncommon,” Australia skipper Slingsby told AAP.
“This weekend’s forecast, I don’t see any danger (of more crashes). It should be moderate breezes, light to moderate breezes.”
It means SailGP is unlikely to split the fleet in two or widen the Sydney Harbour course; both measures can help reduce risk of crashes if conditions are gusty as they were in Auckland.
SailGP is continuing its review into the Auckland crash, the most serious since the league’s inception in 2019.
The league is satisfied with the immediate emergency response, but will investigate whether better safety equipment could be implemented to minimise future risk.
“There are a whole host of ideas,” SailGP chief executive Russell Coutts told AAP.
“Could you have airbags on the inside of the cockpit? A kevlar strap (could) be on the outside of the cockpit, for example, stopping a penetration (by another boat).
“You could consider having airbags on the inside that also at least dampened that, on both sides of the cockpit and possibly the front.”
Sailors and administrators alike recognise that accidents will always happen when 13 F50 catamarans jostle for space on a tight course at speeds above 100km/h.
“It’s an extreme sport and we will have injuries. As for the incident in Auckland, it’s tough, there’s no way of putting on an exciting show without a level of risk,” Slingsby said.
“There will always be some sort of crashes, there’ll always be some risk involved.”
Slingsby believes sailors want that risk mitigated, not eradicated.
“We’ve trained our whole lives for these situations and we want to be out there pushing our skills to the limit, not dulling them down in the name of safety,” he said.
“At the same time, we don’t want to see people hurt. It’s a fine line.”
SailGP is hopeful damage to the French boat will be repaired in time for Quentin Delapierre’s team to line up in the next regatta off Rio de Janeiro in April.
But New Zealand’s hopes of reaching this season’s $US2 million ($A2.8m) event final are in tatters as the heavyweight crew expects to miss Sydney, Rio and possibly the two events to follow.
