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April 9, 2017 By Jack Griffin 4 Comments

Oracle Has a Scare on Thursday, Capsizes on Saturday

Thursday 6 April 2017 – On an official practice race day, Oracle had a scare, nearly capsizing their America’s Cup Race Boat.

Two days later they did capsize. The boat was righted within 10 minutes. After tests and repairs, they were back out sailing the next morning. In the video, Oracle has blurred out the foils but you can see their shape in the video from MyislandhomeBDA, below.

MyislandhomeBDA also captured the incident. In this video it looks like the boat was righted by pulling it up from the side rather than by “flying it up” – towing the boat forward into the wind with the wing trimmed down. There may have been too little wind for that technique. Note that you get a good look at the foils when the boat is on its side – very long with high aspect ratio.


Comments

  1. Richard Parslow says

    April 13, 2017 at 13:03

    Ease main… ease main… EASE MAIN! Never mind.

    Reply
    • Jack Griffin says

      April 13, 2017 at 13:09

      Good advice Richard! Thanks for chiming in. I wonder if that works on these boats though? Maybe there are some situations you can only avoid by doing something earlier, and once the boat starts going over you’re just along for the ride?

      Reply
  2. Scott Saunders says

    April 13, 2017 at 14:07

    With that speed everything happens in moments, not seconds. At least the wing sets down softly with minimal damage.

    Reply
    • Jack Griffin says

      April 14, 2017 at 16:15

      Thanks for chiming in, Scott! You are right – things happen so fast on those boats that the crew probably would have needed “to react” a few seconds *before* the problem started to show up!

      Reply

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