BMW Oracle's flip side of the America's Cup

by Tim Jeffrey on 25 May 2008
Daily Telegraph yachting writer, Tim Jeffrey, was sailing with Russell Coutts in one of the BMW Oracle Racing Extreme 40's when they capsized off Valencia, earlier this week. Here is his story and pictures:

One of them is the most successful skipper in America's Cup history, a Kiwi aged 46 and with an Olympic gold medal to his name. The other is a 35-year-old Frenchman, a dominant force in the 60ft trimaran circuit, multiple record breaker and an unwanted star of the television news bulletins at the start of the year when his crew was rescued from their 105ft trimaran Groupama 3 in the Southern Ocean off New Zealand during a round the world record attempt.

And still Russell Coutts and Franck Cammas are trying to teach each other how to sail. We're on Extreme 40 catamarans. It doesn't go too well. We have a big capsize, a slow-motion heel from gentle to steep angle and then ultimately beyond the vertical as the whole boat rotates and comes down on our heads in the Mediterranean off Valencia.

Somehow it's elegant and messy, alarming and calming at the same time. A quick head count shows Jono McBeath and Albi Barovier are accounted as well Coutts and Cammas. Then in righting the flipped cat, Coutts falls against one of the knife-edge daggerboards. He needed stitches later for a cut and the thigh bruise is going to hurt like hell for a while.

For the full story http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2008/05/24/uosail124.xml!click_here