America's Cup challenger BOR90 dismasting - pictures and news updates

by Sail-World on 4 Nov 2009
Earlier today BMW Oracle Racing's 90ft multihull was dismasted while sea trailling off San Diego. The first pictures are coming through and will be updated on this this image sequence.

The statement from the team says that no-one as hurt in the incident and all crew are safe.

The incident happened four hours ago

Support craft were with the race boat at the time and are currently working to salvage the rig and get the boat back to shore.

The team is investigating the cause of the failure, however it is believed to be a stay failure. it is also believed that damage is confined to the mast itself and there is no significant damage to the yacht, however a full inspection will have to be done after she is towed in.

They were believed to be testing their third mast. A fourth rig, believed to be a hard wing sail, is still being prepared and the team have two other masts.

The update from BMW OR's blogsite is as follows:

UPDATE - 16:30 local time San Diego - The BOR 90 should be in around 17:00, with the support RIBs that have retrieved the mast a couple of hours behind.

Early indications are that the boat platform hasn't suffered much damage, but it will take time to do a full assessment.

The shore team is geared up to dig in to the job list right away.

Update - 1645 local time San Diego Sail-World has just spoken to Jane Eagleson of BMW Oracle Racing. The crew is debriefing at present. James Spithill did a short interview before the debrief which will be available soon. Gilles Martin-Raget was on the water and will be providing images when he comes ashore.

Update 1700 local time James Spithill interviewed for the BMWOR Blog:

Spare a thought for Jimmy Spithill this evening. Moments after stepping off the boat he was front and centre for the assembled media. Here's what he said about today.

'We had a mast failure, the mast broke and came down. Nobody was hurt and that's the most important part. The crew are all safe and all of our support boats and contingencies that are built into the programme really showed today. I just commend the crew and all our support boats for swinging into action. Everyone is back on shore safe and we'll roll on forwards...

'The weather was actually quite nice. It was relatively light wind speeds and the sea state was quite flat. So until we delve into it and dig deep into our analysis tools, we don't know what the cause of the failure was...

'The real (sign of) heart in a team is the team that can come back from setbacks. This is a small setback but I have no doubt the team will bounce back… I'm sure we'll be fine for the race (in February).'

Within minutes of the boat reaching the dock, the sails and boom were being craned off. This day isn't over by a long shot. You can bet the team will be running the numbers overnight and into tomorrow to find out exactly what happened.

We'll have more from San Diego tomorrow.

More information and images as they come to hand.

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