The toughest break of all

By Suzanne Mc Fadden

Young America will have to forfeit valuable America's Cup points before they return to sea.

With one boat bent like the letter V, the New Yorkers will have to turn to their untried USA58 for at least the rest of round two of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

But under the challenger rules, a campaign must forfeit the points from their next race before they can introduce the replacement boat.

So in effect, Young America have already lost eight points, and could forfeit more if they decide they need more time to work on the new boat before it goes out to race for the first time.

But that is the least of skipper Ed Baird's worries right now. The burning question is: can the damaged boat be saved?

Baird and his ground crew in Auckland, and the Bruce Farr design office in San Francisco, worked through the night last night, examining the boat to determine just what went wrong, and figuring out what could be done to rebuild it.

There is also the question of whether boat No 2 must be strengthened before it enters the fray.

"At this point the major structural pieces [on USA53] are in place. From a layman's point of view we will be putting it back together," Baird said.

But it could be a very costly exercise. The Young Americans have a budget of $80 million, but a near-sinking is not a planned expenditure.

"The boat is both priceless and potentially a big expense. But these are the types of things we have to be prepared for," Baird said.

No one could be truly prepared for what happened on the Hauraki Gulf yesterday. At 2.10pm, Young America was leading Nippon by 26s as it neared the final mark rounding.

The winds were nothing out of the ordinary, 17 knots gusting to 22, with one-metre seas. The problem, though, was the waves. It was wind against tide, and the waves were often sharp and quick.

Young America was out on the left-hand layline, and went to tack. A rogue wave rolled under the boat and the bow reared up. The boat came crashing down - and a second big wave hit them immediately.

The deck caved in in a matter of seconds. The hull tore on either side, at a weak point just behind the mast. The boat began to bend up violently like a banana.

All but two of the 17 crew dived into the water, where support and rescue boats had pulled alongside. The two men who stayed on the boat tried to salvage some sails, but then the call came for them to jump overboard as well.

The boat was bucking back and forth in the waves and looked certain to sink. But when it became clear it was not going down in a hurry, a couple of crew clambered back on board and a salvage mission began.

"I really want to thank the Prada guys, some other syndicates and the police who stayed with us right from the moment this happened and helped out," Baird said. The crew inflated bags and put them inside the hull to keep the boat afloat, and had four pumps working to drain the water pouring into the boat.

The trip back to the dock was a long and arduous one, taking more than three hours, but the Young America team worked tirelessly to keep their pride and joy afloat. Before 9pm it was lifted out of the water, skirts hiding the damage, and put away for the night.