America's Cup catamaran flips out

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Team New Zealand’s catamaran dramatically pitch poled before crossing the start line of the America’s Cup Challenger Race semifinal on June 6th , going airborne and plunging bow first into the water. Three crew members were ejected overboard leaving the rest of the crew suspended in the cockpit, 40 feet above the water. The crew was all accounted for, uninjured, and the vessel was righted in 15 minutes and taken back to base for repairs. 

The shore team repaired the ripped wing sail and wrenched fairings in time for New Zealand to compete as planned on June 7th, providing the scheduled race was not delayed by weather conditions. The race is stopped and restarted when the average wind speed is outside the limit of 6-24 knots (those limits are specific to this America'a Cup and were agreed upon ahead of time), and sometimes called off. 

BBC Sport’s Tony Husband described the day of the crash as “one of the most dramatic day’s in America’s Cup history…[it was] racing right on the edge in treacherous conditions". Team Great Britain skipper Sir Ben Ainslie said, “in 30 years of racing I’ve never seen anything like that…all of us sitting here are not going to pass criticism – these boats are incredibly hard to sail and these things can happen…most importantly everyone is fine. It's the first time we have sailed in this much wind. It's full-on and it's mind blowing." 

Despite the crash New Zealand leads the best of 9 series 3-1.

Here is the moment they capsized

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jli_m5zm91g

Here is a link to a video by the New Zealand Herald showing the team talking about the crash

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11871552

By Ocean Navigator