SailGP: New Zealand SailGP Team ruled out of Taranto event after wing sail collapse

The New Zealand SailGP Team have had salt poured into their wounds.

At last weekend’s event in Saint-Tropez, France, the team had to withdraw after just three of five fleet races when their 29m wing sail imploded and collapsed on top of the team, caused by the wing coming out of alignment.

There were no spare wings on site, and no equipment to safely repair it so the New Zealanders could not continue. Because SailGP rules do not accommodate teams in such a situation, they did not accrue any more points when the other teams were still racing, and finished the event eighth overall.

Now, they’re going to miss an entire event, as SailGP will be unable to ship their one spare 29m wing from the league’s workshop north of Auckland to Taranato, Italy, in time for next weekend’s regatta. In addition to shipping timelines, the new wingsail requires extensive setup and testing once it arrives on-site and the short time between events makes it impossible to get the team back on the water in Taranto.

SailGP is now working towards a solution to get the Kiwi boat, Amokura, back in action for their event in Spain in mid-October.

It was a disappointing turn of events for the Kiwis, who had been sailing will in France before their wing collapsed, and co-chief executive and wing trimmer Blair Tuke said they were working with the league around reviewing how to approach such situations moving forward.

“We’re working closely with the league to chart a path forward from here. That includes reviewing the rules for redress and compensatory points to ensure this forced non-participation does not further hinder our results this season,” Tuke said.

“As a group, we’re really proud of how we’ve been sailing, and how we bounced back on day one in Saint-Tropez after a difficult event in Los Angeles. It’s incredibly disappointing to not be able to build on that momentum, but we’ve faced adversity before and we will come back stronger in Cádiz, and for the rest of the season.”

It’s a unique but not totally unfamiliar situation for the league. At the start of last season, the Japanese team was forced to relinquish their boat as there were not enough to go around and - before they were withdrawn from the season entirely - a bespoke scoring system was put in place for them. In that situation, they were to get an average points for the races they miss based on the first events they race in the season. However, they were withdrawn from the league before they got to sail an event.

It remains to be seen how SailGP will approach the Kiwis in regards to their season points haul for the event in Italy. While league chief executive Sir Russell Coutts said the team were not given any additional points when they withdrew midway through last weekend’s contest because “the results should be decided on the water during the race similar to how most other professional sports are organised”, this is a particularly unique situation.