Mast crashes down on OneWorld

Peter Gilmour sees $300,000 go down the drain on an expensive day out in Auckland, writes Andy Rice

OneWorld’s new mast came crashing down on Monday, just days after the Seattle syndicate had set up shop in Auckland. The accident took place on the team’s training yacht USA 51, the former America True, and rumours are that it was only the mast’s third day out.
Skipper Peter Gilmour said it was windy, but nothing they shouldn’t have been able to cope with. He commented: "We were out there in the [Hauraki] Gulf doing a bit of training and some fine-tuning on the mast when unfortunately it came down. We lost a couple of the crew overboard but luckily no one was hurt."

Gilmour said they would spend some time analysing what went wrong with the rig. It was a windy day, for starters. Ian Walker told madforsailing: "We chose not to sail yesterday. Team New Zealand were out there but didn't have their sails hoisted. OneWorld was out sailing and the rig fell down."

Estimates for the damage run at around $300,000 for that sort of accident, quarter of a million for the mast and another $50,000 for the mainsail which would have had to be cut away from the rig. But as Walker pointed out: "That doesn't even take into account four or five months to design and built the mast plus the loft time involved.

"It's a reminder of how these boats can come back and bite you when you make the slightest mistake. You've got to be right on top of your boathandling, your design, your maintenance checks, there are no shortcuts in these boats."