Green Comm Racing toppled by a gust on Day 2 of 2011 America’s Cup World Series at Plymouth
Several boats faced trouble on Day 2 of 2011 America’s Cup World Series and had terrible accidents. Spain’s Green Comm Racing also suffered from such an incident, as the boat toppled by
a heavy gust during the only race of the day. However, the team sailed well and managed to finish third in the race but they still occupy the bottom most spot in the overall standings of the tournament.
The forecast at Plymouth wasn’t like the first day and winds were showing no mercy to the sailors. The nine-boat fleet AC45 began to sail under ruthless winds blowing up to 30 knots. Moreover,
the heavy gusts, which touched the speeds of 40 knots at times, gave sailors a challenging time throughout the race as the gusts usually caught them offguard.
Green Comm Racing was hammered by such a heavy gust and throttled badly but, somehow, the crew managed to maintain their sail instantly and finished the race on third position successfully.
However, the Spanish team is still on last spot in the overall standings after four races.
While describing the incident to the media, Green Comm Racing wing trimmer Simon Hiscocks said, “We had a slight lack of concentration right at the end and we thought we crossed the finish
line when we hadn't. That's what they call a danger zone breach when you can't really go up or down and the boat is fully powered up.”
He further added, “We had a small gust and that was it. In hindsight, we should have been sailing the boat at very lower angle to the breeze and wait until we were at a fairly tight angle
into the finish and come up. That would have been a very safe way. Our approach was to take it safe and avoid excessive risks, but at the end we found ourselves in a situation we didn't really want to be in.”
The overall standings at the end of Day 2 are given below:
1. NZL Emirates Team New Zealand, Dean Barker 10, 8, 10, 9 = 37 points
2. USA ORACLE Racing Spithill, James Spithill 9, 10, 7, 10 = 36 points
3. SWE Artemis Racing, Terry Hutchinson 8, 9, 9, 3 = 29 points
4. USA ORACLE Racing Coutts, Russell Coutts 3, 7, 8, 8 = 26 points
5. CHN China Team, Charlie Ogletree 5, 6, 5, 6 = 22 points
6. FRA Aleph, Bertrand Pace 7, 4, 6, 3 = 20 points
7. FRA Energy Team, Loick Peyron 3, 5, 4, 7 = 19 points
8. KOR Team Korea, Chris Draper 6, 3, 3, 5 = 17 points
9. ESP Green Comm Racing, Vasilij Zbogar 4, 3, 3, 3 = 13 points
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