American Magic’s racing yacht went airborne, then capsized in an America’s Cup challenger series race against Italy’s Luna Rossa Sunday off Auckland.
“The vessel was hit with a sudden gust of wind and tipped over on its port side,” Fox News reported.
Video footage shows the vessel cutting through the water, then taking a sharp turn before being lifted into the air.
“Oh boy, this looks really windy right now all of a sudden,” one of the announcers said.
Moments later, the yacht leaned left, then slowed and capsized.
“None of the 11 crew members on the yacht were injured,” the Fox report stated.
Following the incident, skipper Terry Hutchinson said there was concern the Patriot would not be saved, but other teams and emergency crews eventually hoisted it upright, pumped the water out, and towed it back to shore.
“When you start attaching things to the top of the mast, you know that’s not a good situation. But we’ll assess the situation. Obviously, the boats are highly complicated on the inside. We’ll have a good look at her and figure out where we go from here,” he commented.
Hutchinson added that there was damage to the bow, noting, “It’s too early to really comment on how long it takes or the extent of it.”
“We’ll get a better look at it when we get Patriot in the shed and from there we’re going to keep our sights set on the semifinal, get our feet back on the ground,” he explained.
In a Facebook post Monday, America’s Cup shared a video of Patriot’s initial launch:
Hutchinson said the team plans to use parts from its back up vessel for repairs, according to Reuters.
“We’ll live to fight another day,” the skipper told reporters. “From here that has to be the goal. The beauty of our team is there’s a high level of resolve, I think that we’re going to see over the next eight to 10 days is the boat being rebuilt.”
“She might not come out of the shed as pretty but we’re going to get back into racing. The team’s committed to it,” he continued.
Patriot’s next race will be in the Prada Cup series which resumes on Friday.