PRANG!

Ben Ainslie at the helm of Skandia Leopard carves up Morning Glory on this morning's America's Cup Jubilee start line

On the start line of the America's Cup Jubilee regatta's IRC Modern Division 2 this morning there was a huge collsion between two of the most expensive and competitively sailed boats in the fleet.

Mike Slade's Skandia Leopard has had the One World duo of Ben Ainslie and Peter Gilmour in the driving seat all week. Meanwhile Dr Hasso Platter's maxi Morning Glory has an afterguard comprising many of Team New Zealand's top talent.

"We were on the start line. The gun went. Leopard was forced outside the committee boat. They tried to cut across the whole fleet to dip below the start line and restart. And they didn't succeed," commented Morning Glory's Murray Spence. "We hit their starboard quarter. They took a chunk out of our bow."

Several boats managed to get out of Leopard's way. Spence says one even ended up going downwind. Unfortunately Morning Glory tried to avoid the collision but had boats either side of her on the congested line and couldn't avoid the collision. Morning Glory's bow struck Leopard 8ft forward from the stern.

"We were trying a bit too hard," commented Skandia Leopard's navigator Hugh Agnew. "The problem is that on Morning Glory they have the afterguard of Team New Zealand and Ben thinks he's in a Laser!" Having raced with Ainslie all week Agnew, who has sailed with many top names in the racing world, says he has been thoroughly impressed by Ainslie's ability.

Both boats completed the race, although Skandia Leopard retired on crossing the finish line and Mike Slade is said to have come to some sort of agreement directly with Dr Platter over the repairwork. Following some hasty repairs after the racing today both boats are expecting to return to the race course tomorrow (Saturday).

Let's hope that this incident won't un-nerve Ben when it comes to big boat racing.