(Reuters) – New Zealand said its AC75 America’s Cup boat was damaged while being lifted by a crane in Barcelona and would not take part in Friday’s race while the full extent of the damage was assessed.
New Zealand said all team members were safe after Thursday’s incident, which occurred on the first day of a competition in the Spanish Mediterranean city for the world’s oldest international sporting trophy, known as the “Auld Mug.”
“There was an issue with the lift and the boat landed hard on its support platform,” the team said in a statement, adding that after an initial assessment it had decided not to set sail on Friday.
The team said they would secure the boat with a mobile crane and spend the night assessing the extent of the damage.
“These are defining moments for our America’s Cup campaign and we have incredible dedicated and talented people working around the clock to repair the boat,” New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton said.
After the race, the America’s Cup AC75 boats are lifted ashore by crane and placed on huge cradles that support the hull and protect their huge foils and deep rudders. They are then stored in huge hangar-like “sheds” to allow engineers to work.
As the defender, New Zealand does not need to reach a head-to-head final but is still taking part in a six-boat round-robin series that will determine which of five potential challengers they will face in October.
Britain, France, Italy, Switzerland and the United States have all entered crews hoping to become challengers in huge, high-tech “foiling” monohulls that “fly” above the water on hydrofoils at speeds of more than 30 knots per hour.
Before the crane incident, New Zealand had won a close race against Italy, while Great Britain recovered strongly after their boat came off its foils before the start but still had a lot of work to do to beat the USA.
France won the race against Switzerland, while Italy bounced back after losing to New Zealand with a win over France.
In a “double round robin” series, all teams will play each other twice to determine the four teams that will advance to the semi-finals, which will begin in mid-September.
New Zealand won the tournament’s qualifying regatta last week, throwing down the gauntlet to any challengers.
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Reporting by Alexander Smith; Editing by Prita Sarkar
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