Danish Nacra sailor in hospital after foil strike
by Yachting NZ/Sail-World.com/nz 4 Feb 2018 04:29 PST
Lin Ea Christiansen / CP Lubeck (DEN), Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta, Day 2, February 5, 2018 © Yachting New Zealand
One of the crew of a Danish Nacra 17 has been hospitalised and will require surgery after a foil-strike incident at the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta today, Sunday.
The second-string New Zealand Nacra 17 crew of Liv Mackay and Micah Wilkinson went to the aid of CP Lubeck (DEN) on the final race after the Dane had his leg sliced by the foiling catamaran's rudder. Lubeck was incorrectly identified earlier. His full name is Christian Peter Stephensen Lubeck, known as CP Lubeck.
Lubeck's trapeze hook broke, sending him over the side of the boat and into the path of the rudder.
He was taken to hospital and was expected to undergo surgery and the initial view was that he was likely to be off the water for some time. However Sail-World undertstands that he underwent surgery last night and the injury is less severe than initially envisaged.
The class is under the spotlight after switching to foiling catamarans for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and this incident will prompt more discussion about safety after an American sailor lost three fingers last year. The Nacra 17 switched to a new foiling package last year designed to make the class foil in a more stable fashion.
There have also been several other incidents of foil-strike - or near-misses and foil-strike has been an issue in most foiling classes from the America's Cup down.
In August 2017, top US sailor Bora Gulari, suffered a partial loss of three fingers after a pitchpole while training in France. The injury was initially blamed as foil strike however a World Sailing inquiry found that the injury occurred after his gloved fingers became entangled in a traveller line.
Prior to the 2016 Olympics, World Sailing commissioned a research study which that found that "sailors in the Olympic classes are not only sustaining more injuries, but these injuries are more severe than in the past". The study was published in the prestigious British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The rising trend was attributed to the introduction of faster and more physically demanding boats since the 2000 Olympics including the 49er, 49erFX and Mark1 and versions Nacra 17.
World Sailing has also commissioned a review of five of the long-standing "low-performance" Olympic classes with the possibility of introducing further "high performance" classes including more foilers and short handed offshore racing.