The Extreme Sailing Series is being talked about all over the world this week, after two of the massive Extreme 40 catamarans were involved in what can only be described as a “T-Bone”.

The 12m long high performance catamarans haul themselves around super short courses and frequently top 20 knots of boat speed. Aimed at being a spectacular style of racing, the fast and furious courses can be completed in less than 15 minutes, with multi million dollar yachts coming within centimeters of each other every leg. This event they reduced the number of boats in each race for safety reasons, allowing on 6 to enter the course at one time due to the strong winds. On the shore, F1 style pit crews watch with bated breath, waiting for an incident to occur so they can spring to life, fixing whatever needs it and keeping the boat performing to its maximum.

But when something like this happens, there’s not much the pit crew can really do to salvage the regatta. So when Red Bulls entrant (who was clearly on port tack) didn’t quite bear away in time, poor Alinghy copped it. Taking a nose directly into the side of her hull, both boats were instantly out of the running due to the extensive damage to both yachts. Luckily with Alinghys great scores leading up to the event, and a decent redress score being awarded after a hearing, she won the regatta overall.

Now they just need to get into it with some carbon before the next regatta!

Check out the footage to see one of the most spectacular boating accidents you’ll ever come across.

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