Team New Zealand's America's Cup campaign has suffered a significant blow after their boat capsized in spectacular fashion in race two of their America's Cup Challenger semi-final against BAR on Wednesday (NZ time).
All crew are safe and have been accounted for, with the extent of the damage to the boat as yet unknown.
After a comfortable win in their opening race of the day against BAR, the Kiwi boat was on its way past the start line before a heavy wind gust looked to topple it off its foils and on to its nose in the rough Bermudan seas.
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In what were startling scenes, some of the crew were thrown overboard immediately, while others remained stuck inside the vessel as it teetered upright while awaiting the safety boat to come to their aid.
The New Zealanders looked to be struggling at times with the intense wind conditions through race one, going precariously high on its foils on a couple of occasions as gales exceeded 25 knots - the high threshold for racing to be permitted.
Damage was also suffered to the boat's wing prior to race one forcing a late replacement, with the likelihood that replacement has also now been ruined.
"If you know the prices it's not funny as a team manager. I'm sure Grant Dalton is counting the numbers," said Team France's manager Bruno Dubois.
"Fairings are gone, top of the wing, and I'm sure the electronics are damaged as there's much water in the boat."
However, Sail World editor Richard Gladwell believes the Kiwis may have escaped with only a relatively minimal requirement for repairs.
"The damage looks a bit horrific to the untrained eye, but when you go down it looks like it's not too bad," he told The AM Show.
Despite the incident gifting BAR a win, Team NZ still lead the best of nine series 3-1, with Thursday's (NZT) racing likely to be postponed.
Newshub.
