SailGP’s inaugural Germany Sail Grand Prix in Sassnitz was renamed “crashnitz” by some, thanks to a drama-filled weekend with Emirates GBR, United States, Mubadala Brazil and France SailGP Teams being involved in high-speed crashes.
Emirates GBR suffered a devastating incident at the hands of the USA SailGP Team on Race Day 1 in Sassnitz. As the Brits were sailing the upwind leg on starboard with right of way, the USA approached on port and failed to alter course sufficiently – striking the Emirates GBR hull and rudder, breaking off their own bow and leaving a gaping hole in the hull of the British F50. This abruptly ended the day for both teams, and suddenly Emirates GBR faced a huge challenge, to repair their F50 and get back on the water for Race Day 2.
Emirates GBR’s Shore Team Matt Haslam, Henry Woodhouse, Sam Stephan and Kai Hockley worked tirelessly alongside the SailGP Tech Team, led by Luke Porter, in a bid to repair the British F50 before racing began on Sunday. It was no mean feat, with the teams having to work through the night to get the job done.
Emirates GBR Boat Captain Matt Haslam said: “It was pretty touch and go.
“Once we got the F50 out of the water on Saturday, we had to dry everything out and cut back all the damaged laminate to find the extent of the repair needed. After cutting away all the damage, we then had a template of the hull to fill, which we cut from the USA SailGP Team’s F50.”
The repair to Emirates GBR’s F50 was carried out using part of the USA SailGP Team’s hull as they were at fault in the incident.
Emirates GBR CEO Sir Ben Ainslie explained the reasoning: “The way it works in SailGP is, if you’re at fault in a crash like that, where the other boat can’t sail, you have to effectively try and make good, so that’s what happened. Our Shore Team and the SailGP Tech Team worked through the night to take a piece of the hull from the American boat, fit that on our boat and cover the hole. It’s not straightforward, you can’t just plaster it on the side, there’s a lot of carbon work and bonding involved, so a huge shout out to the Shore Team and Tech Team for getting the job done – it was a massive turnaround.”
Once the piece of the USA hull was positioned on the Emirates GBR F50, it had to be laminated with carbon tape in various stages to ensure the pieces were structurally bonded together. Once this was bonded, laminated and cured, the team then placed the cockpit back in the hull and had to begin the post curing process, which took several hours. Once the damaged sections had been reinstated, the teams then worked to install the Emirates GBR branding on the replaced section of the hull.
Haslam said: “There was probably a core group of 5 people working on the F50 from start to finish, but as we got closer to racing on Sunday we had lots of hands helping as we were going down to the wire, thankfully we just managed to get the job done before we had to roll the boat out of the base to be craned into the water for racing.”
SailGP CEO Sir Russell Coutts praised the effort of all those involved in the repair.
“It was amazing to get Emirates GBR back on the water for the final day,” he said.
“It was an incredible effort from the SailGP Tech Team and the Emirates GBR Shore Team and it shows this really is a team effort to put these events on. I think everyone was amazed, when we saw the damage there was, there wasn’t many people that thought that boat would be back on the water for Day 2, so full credit to those involved – an amazing job.”
The Emirates GBR F50 will now be making its way to Saint Tropez for the ROCKWOOL France Sail Grand Prix on 12-13 September. Further testing and repair work will be carried out to the Emirates GBR F50 once it arrives in the South of France, with a full replacement of the hull scheduled for the end of the 2025 Season.
