Videos: Two Teams Capsize At America’s Cup

[Updated] In advance of tomorrow’s racing at the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series in Chicago, Emirates Team New Zealand capsized during today’s [June 10] practice session, however the team has said that “it appears no one is hurt.”

Peter Burling, Emirates Team New Zealand Helmsman, said: “These boats are pretty hard to sail and every now and then you get them wrong. We were going through a normal gybe, both rudders ventilated and I got ejected.

Slideshow showing the capsizes, photos by Ricardo Pinto and Sam Greenfield:

“It was our own doing but this is what practice days are for. It was a bit of a shame but the boat didn’t look too bad and we didn’t have any problems being straight back for the next race. Now we’re just looking forward to the rest of the weekend which I’m sure is going to be good,” added Burling.

“We certainly needed the practice day today,” said skipper Glenn Ashby, “We haven’t sailed together since New York and it was certainly a baptism of fire here in Chicago, but we weren’t the only ones that were a bit wobbly getting around the track. There were plenty of boats having difficulty today.”

Video of Emirates Team New Zealand capsizing:

Update: In addition to the New Zealand team capsizing, Oracle Team USA also capsized during the official practice race day after making a quick-maneuver to avoid a collision.

“We just didn’t see Artemis Racing coming upwind at us,” explained tactician Tom Slingsby. “I’ll put my hand up for this one. We were setting up for a gybe. We went into the maneuver and then saw Artemis at the last second. Jimmy pulled the helm away so luckily we didn’t hit them. But unfortunately we capsized.

“Jimmy did the right thing by turning up although we did capsize and we came last in the race. But it’s better than having a collision and damaging two boats and not competing on the weekend.”

Video of Team Oracle USA capsizing:

In both cases, all crew members were safe and accounted for and the boats were quickly righted and able to continue racing.

The event in Chicago — a qualifying event for the 2017 America’s Cup in Bermuda — is set to take place this weekend, with ZFB channel 7 to air the action. The local times to tune in to catch the event are from 3.30pm to 5.00pm on Saturday, June 11, and from 3.30pm to 5.00pm on Sunday, June 12.

Recap of Friday’s sailing action:

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