America's Cup boats are considered the Formula 1 of yachting because of the speed they can achieve. One of the high-tech sailboats of the six teams preparing to compete in the 37th edition of the competition, to be held off Barcelona between August and October, BoatOne of the Swiss team Alinghi Red Bull Racing, suffered a spectacular accident this Thursday when its mast broke while training. The accident did not result in personal injury, but it did leave some spectacular images and meant the team's engineers and crew had to get to work to investigate the causes of this "catastrophic failure" of the mast on the AC75 vessel, which occurred when sailing at 20 knots (about 40 km/h).
"No major damage" to boat says Alinghi manager
The accident happened shortly after 2 pm, when a strong garbí - the Catalan south-westerly wind - was blowing, which shifted by 10 degrees for a three-second gust. "It was a beautiful day," said Alinghi's Silvio Arrivabene. "A very productive day in the top range of wind speeds," he said, before matter-of-factly describing the mishap that ended the day's training. While the boat was bearing away at high speed, the lower section of the mast gave way under pressure, causing the craft to sink into the water downwind. The support teams following the vessel reacted quickly, throwing divers into the water, to attend first to the crew - who were not injured - and then to verify that the boat did not suffer major damage either, beyond small scratches around the bow area. "Now we'll get into the repairs. Of course, we've got spares."