Artemis Pitchpoled; 1 Dead

Discussion in 'Multihulls' started by Earl Boebert, May 9, 2013.

  1. Earl Boebert
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    Earl Boebert Senior Member

    News fragmentary now, death confirmed. Condolences to the family, friends and team mates of the lost crewman.

    Earl

    Edit: Other reports say capsized.
     
  2. daiquiri
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    daiquiri Engineering and Design

    Now, if i say what I think about these AC cats and of the latest AC rules, I will be accused of being old, conservative and not thinking out of the box. I've said enough, RIP for the dead sailor.
     
  3. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    This is a great tragedy -all the more so because of the Oracle pitchpole and the heads up that gave all the teams. High speed sailing is dangerous but we don't know exactly what happened. Now is certainly not the time to be making sweeping comments about the Cup, the boats or the personnel. Such a shame for the crew members family and for his crew "family"-these guys work like hell and I'm sure this deeply affects every person associated with the Americas Cup.
     
  4. EvanStufflebeam
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    EvanStufflebeam Junior Member

  5. P Flados
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    P Flados Senior Member

    From the Artemis website

    It is with immense sadness that Artemis Racing confirms the tragic death of crewmember Andrew “Bart” Simpson today in San Francisco.

    Simpson, a British double Olympic medalist, was one of the 11-man crew aboard Artemis Racing’s AC72 catamaran which capsized during training on San Francisco Bay ahead of this summer’s America’s Cup. All other crewmembers are accounted for.

    Simpson, however, was trapped underneath the boat and despite attempts to revive him, by doctors afloat and subsequently ashore, his life was lost.

    “The entire Artemis Racing team is devastated by what happened,” said CEO Paul Cayard. “Our heartfelt condolences are with Andrew’s wife and family.”

    Condolences to the family and team are all we need to say at this point.

    Lets come back and discuss details later.
     
  6. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Just a note: there is an Americas Cup thread with almost the same posts as here?
     
  7. 2far2drive
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    2far2drive Senior Member

    It is a sad day in the world of professional sailing and especially with America's Cup.

    Sailing, especially high speed sailing, can be a very dangerous sport. Im actually quite surprised no one has been seriously injured before with the AC45s. My condolences go out to the families and teammates.
     
  8. redreuben
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    redreuben redreuben

    Death is not something I expected to see in AC racing. It is a very sad day, it's an awful day, a black day.
    My condolences to the families and teammates.
     
  9. MikeJohns
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    MikeJohns Senior Member

    John Bertrand was expressing similar opinions publicly yesterday on ABC radio. He said that it's now very likely that the AC will return to monohulls. He also expressed his opinion that monohulls are intrinsically much more forgiving and considerably safer to race.
    He also said that the AC committee is currently heads down trying to work out what to do to stop any more disasters when the racing starts in earnest, since the racing teams need to be protected from themselves when the boats are continually operated on the edge of disaster.
    He also said it's apparent now to everyone involved that these multihulls are not at all suitable for the course ! One consideration being looked at currently by the committee for future races in this series is to severely limit the sail they can carry.
     
  10. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    ==================
    Thats a real shame-especially at a time when the details aren't known. I'm surprised and disappointed.
     
  11. oldsailor7
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    oldsailor7 Senior Member

    :eek:
    I also am disappointed-----but not surprised.
    The same things happened during the early days of motor racing and also during the "Golden Years" of light aircraft racing.
    But the enticing holy grail of advancing technology persisted and with improvements in both design and safety rules these competitive sports moved forward to the present day.
    There will be pressures from some sides to return to the past. However the relentless drive for the future will persist, albeit with some hiccups along the way. It may well be that the AC will be now be sailed with 45s, but I will be very surprised if the luddites succeed in bringing back the big monohulls.
    To the general public it would be like watching grass grow. :eek:
     
  12. MikeJohns
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    MikeJohns Senior Member


    Yet this has been a failure on every front. No competitors because the cost is too high, even sponsors deciding not to fund a challenge stating well before that the perceived risk of the type of craft was too great to risk the crews.

    It's certainly apparent that the craft are too hard to handle in the conditions, a slight mistake and over they go again and again.....White knuckled crews hanging onto a barely controllable craft operating on a knife edge of stability. And now we've just seen that having divers on the chase boats is not rescue effective either.

    Giant wings on foils was supposed to be a grand spectacle for the onlookers but most people I talk to in the sailing scene are quite disinterested now in the AC.

    The committee is ultimately reponsible for the competitors lives. If they reduce the risk to the competitors they are not luddites. It's not just this recent failure but the whole series of capsizes and pitchpoles that have been occuring and they are not even racing in earnest yet !
     
  13. michael pierzga
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    michael pierzga Senior Member

    Ive been a sailor my whole life. I worked Gran Prix race boats for many years.

    I wont follow the regatta..Its a joke.

    Extreme sport ? Who cares.

    I would prefer to watch crew muscle 12 meters around a match race course not some gee whizz ! its made of carbon media event
     
  14. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    =================
    That is an unfortunate and grossly inaccurate description of the situation. There has been one pitchpole and one accident-cause unknown. At a time like this making wildly inaccurate statements to further your agenda is shameful!
     

  15. daiquiri
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    daiquiri Engineering and Design

    I can confirm this info, based on my talks with people directly involved in the world sailing competitions. The new AC is a flop - that's the brief summary of it.

    Rabbit-paced races might be ok for automotive sports, but the old slow AC was immensely more interesting, fascinating and media-appealing than the current event.
     
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