A few pics from yesterday

Select to expand quote

515 said..

cammd said..
NZ penalised.......rightly so.

Cannot believe Burling thinks others should "make room" for him. What an ego.

The fishing's good, and as a kiwi I'll bite

Absolutely no doubt about port starboard and getting a penalty.
His point is that the collision could have been avoided.

Having the transom taken off just behind you is dangerous and the Swiss should also have a small penalty for collision.
Remember Tom sailing onto a course marker to avoid a collision with another boat and for crew safety.

Stadium sailing in extremely fast boats in a small area there are always close calls but keep it safe.
Can't wait for Auckland, but for sailing you're in the gustiest part of the harbour to accommodate close grandstands

100% could have been avoided, .....by respecting tne rules.
Burling said he saw the swiss preparing to gybe, its no surprise to anyone they gybed when they got to the layline, why did he keep coming on port. He should have gybed when they did.

Thats how the collision should have been avoided.

He didnt gybe because he wasnt on the layline, he thought he could bully his way past them and force them to duck. You know make room for him.

The swiss took action to avoid the collision when they realised NZ were not taking any action. They had one or two seconds to try and avoid whereas NZ saw them prepare to gybe, then gybe, then 3 or 4 seconds on stb tack. NZ would have had 10 x the time to avoid knowing the Swiss would gybe and then have right of way.

Its reasonable to make a mistake in such a tight fast race but Burling is blaming everything/one other than himself, even with hindsight.

He keeps stating he didnt know what else he could have done. He could have gybed to give way to stb boat. He put himself and everyone else in danger and the ego won't allow him to recognise it.

I think everyone who has ever raced a sailiboat sails with the expectation that the right of way boats will not make room.
To try and blur that well established norm is dangerous in itself.

Select to expand quote

cammd said..

515 said..

cammd said..
NZ penalised.......rightly so.

Cannot believe Burling thinks others should "make room" for him. What an ego.

The fishing's good, and as a kiwi I'll bite

Absolutely no doubt about port starboard and getting a penalty.
His point is that the collision could have been avoided.

Having the transom taken off just behind you is dangerous and the Swiss should also have a small penalty for collision.
Remember Tom sailing onto a course marker to avoid a collision with another boat and for crew safety.

Stadium sailing in extremely fast boats in a small area there are always close calls but keep it safe.
Can't wait for Auckland, but for sailing you're in the gustiest part of the harbour to accommodate close grandstands

100% could have been avoided, .....by respecting tne rules.
Burling said he saw the swiss preparing to gybe, its no surprise to anyone they gybed when they got to the layline, why did he keep coming on port. He should have gybed when they did.

Thats how the collision should have been avoided.

He didnt gybe because he wasnt on the layline, he thought he could bully his way past them and force them to duck. You know make room for him.

The swiss took action to avoid the collision when they realised NZ were not taking any action. They had one or two seconds to try and avoid whereas NZ saw them prepare to gybe, then gybe, then 3 or 4 seconds on stb tack. NZ would have had 10 x the time to avoid knowing the Swiss would gybe and then have right of way.

Its reasonable to make a mistake in such a tight fast race but Burling is blaming everything/one other than himself, even with hindsight.

He keeps stating he didnt know what else he could have done. He could have gybed to give way to stb boat. He put himself and everyone else in danger and the ego won't allow him to recognise it.

Pete's just pissed at everything that happened. Like any of us after something that could have been avoided or we end up in the wrong, he's attempting to justify his perspective. Shoulda, coulda, might of ... He'll get over it and get on with the job quick enough. Black foils have the skill and the time to make up for a bad outing.

Watching it all unfold as a spectator, time slowed down. You could see something was going to give as they all manoeuvred into the bottom marks at full throttle. It's why you need to be out front at the start, everything concertinas back down the positions.

If they got Brazil fixed last year between events, NZ should be ready for AKL.

I've seen other video angles and yes Black Foils could have gybed earlier and avoided collision.
Agree they wanted to go further on port before gybing to get to the layline.
I'll take my kiwi eye patch off.
Wow, I've admitted I was wrong - I'll try not to make a habit of it

Boats should be fixed, guessing Spain are first priority with daggerboard and bulkhead damage.
Wouldn't want to be fixing these boats!

Great photos westozwind

Onto AKL, looks like the Kiwis have a strong chance of being on the start line.

Looks like all the teams will be racing in Auckland tomorrow. 11am on Kayo in Perth for those interested in the live feed. And some interesting news just announced

Big collision in NZ, so very lucky that there wasn't more than 1 injured.

Edit now 2reported injured

Kiwis jinxed at the start of this season, this time it's a massive cavitation causing them to round up and cop the French bearing down. Ouch

Yeah, nasty crash
Unlucky injuries, could have been worse than broken legs.

Sail GP are awesome at rebuilding boats but that's a lot of work to get boats back on the water.

In that direction it's the shortest course and windy and extra gusty.
Fleet is going to be split in two and early start.

Here's a quote from Phil ...

With a weather bomb forecast for the North Island this weekend, the local lad was quizzed about the prospect of racing in big winds on the Waitemat? at Friday's official media conference.

His reaction: "You wet your pants a little and move on."

Italy narrowly avoided their own disaster, when they were caught in a gust of win that almost tipped them over during the build-up to race one. They barely managed to regain equilibrium and bring their boat back down on both hulls.

Sunday racing has already been moved forward a few hours to avoid the worst of the weather, but most drivers anticipate even more testing conditions on day two."

Super sub Glenn back on Flying Roos and first race win

From what I saw FRA are seriously stuffed. It wasn't just nose cone damage, it looked like the port hull had severed just in front of the fwd cross member. This is as bad as what the Kiwis suffered in Freo. Considering shipping and set up times I doubt they'll be in SYD.

With the rig down and the nature of the crash, the Black foils boat will be an absolute mess. Might see a call to leave both boats in AKL where they have a chance of being repaired in time for Rio. Keep in mind Rio was a non event last year, drama all round this season!

AUS take the win over GBR with ESP in third. Heart in mouth stuff all weekend, off the Sydney at the end of the month.

Select to expand quote

Brent in Qld said..

We might see sailGP having a serious think about the racing format. It's a bit like the early days of Formula 1 motor racing. The drivers were pretty exposed back then. There's an accepted ratio of near misses to serious accidents.

Just googled it. It's 1 severe accident to 29 minor accidents and 300 near misses.

Select to expand quote

Ian K said..

Brent in Qld said..

We might see sailGP having a serious think about the racing format. It's a bit like the early days of Formula 1 motor racing. The drivers were pretty exposed back then. There's an accepted ratio of near misses to serious accidents.

Just googled it. It's 1 severe accident to 29 minor accidents and 300 near misses.

A good aspect about SaillGP is they move quickly on and off the water. The split format had been discussed and practised by the teams prior to Sunday. There's now been 5 vessels disabled since the start of training in Fremantle, 4 due to collisions. Pretty obvious going forward, small courses plus 15-20+knt winds = split fleet. Too risky for the crews, too expensive with the assets and no-one wants to see injuries.

WOW, looks like FRA might be a slim chance to make Sydney. Apparently enough parts have been scavenged and it's 24/7 at Southern Spas in AKL.

I hope the French boat gets rebuilt in time and fair call that they take part of the kiwi boat.
Hugh respect that the French helmsman reacted to head up enough to save lives.
If your ever sailed in Auckland harbour in those conditions, its very challenging as the rain squall that came through in the final reduced them to survival mode until it passed.
Good call to start earlier as it was super windy later and with the small race area it was the best call to split the fleet.

In the Auckland Prerace press conference, Russel was talking about (smaller 25 -30ft) training boats to operate from America Majic base.
Also building a 14th boat for another new team, a spare boat for collisions, Spain in discussions to be sold.

My kiwi boat is badly damaged, and we are going to be out for a while but still drawn to watch the racing