Foto copyright Gilles Martin Raget/ACEA
Fuente info AC34
WELCOME TO THE CLUB
POSTED ON 23 JULY 2011
Team Korea joined the AC45 capsize club on Saturday, during a training session ahead of the AC World Series - Cascais.
There was no damage to the boat or wing, nor any injuries to the crew, and the team resumed its training session without needing to check in at shore.
Skipper Chris Draper said, "We have been pushing the boat and the manoeuvres harder and harder all week, and today midway through our session we got caught out. We were trying a manoeuvre perhaps a little too early in our plan and paid the price when it didn’t go well!"
"Our guys reacted very quickly and the wing touched down slowly with everyone safe and uninjured. The support boat was very fast to help and we had the boat upright and damage free within three minutes, but it shows these ‘Cat’s have to be respected. After assessing the situation we were clear to get the boat wound up again and continued our training session.
"I’d like to say what a great job the support team and the guys on board did in being able to right the boat so quickly and not damage anything. We lost one winch handle, so it was actually very encouraging that we were able continue sailing and move on from this quickly.
"in many ways it’s good to have got this out of the way and behind us. It’s all been in our minds of course, and we were able to deal with it quickly and efficiently. These things are going to happen when you start to push hard, but we learnt a lot from the situation and will be able to improve the righting process further - if it happens again. Apart from that we are pleased with our progress and see today’s ‘blip’ as a positive, it’s done and we’re through it ok. These are really physically demanding boats and we’re learning more about how to handle it every day – clearly you can’t take any liberties with these cats..."
With today's incident, Team Korea joins both ORACLE Racing crews, Artemis Racing and Emirates Team New Zealand in the 'capsize club'.
With the new teams pushing both man and machine harder with each training sail, the question now becomes, who's next???
