Sailing-Wingsail issue fixed ahead of New York SailGP
(Reuters) -Repairs and upgrades to all 12 wingsails on the F50 catamarans will be completed in time for the New York Sail Grand Prix, SailGP said on Monday.
SailGP cancelled its Rio event last month due to a wingsail defect which was identified after the Australian boat's wing collapsed in San Francisco in March.
"These new components for the wingsails feature an Aluminum Nomex core and increased laminate, which means the new shear webs will be approximately twice as strong," SailGP CEO Russell Coutts said in a statement.
"It's a huge team effort, but our fans can expect all twelve teams back on the race course when racing kicks off in New York."
The operation — shared between American Magic's Florida workshop and SailGP Technologies in the UK — has seen teams extract compromised components, refit electronics, and prepare each hull for exhaustive sea trials.
With a strict one-design ethos underpinning the league's competitive integrity, the May 3–4 Rio event was cancelled, ensuring no team gained or lost advantage as the refit progressed.
The event will resume at the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix on June 7-8, its final North American stop before the European leg begins in July.
Australia, skippered by Tom Slingsby, lead the season's standings with 39 points after five races, one ahead of Dylan Fletcher's Britain, with Diego Botin's Spanish team third.
SailGP is the global sailing championship featuring national teams competing in identical, high-performance F50 foiling catamarans that can reach speeds over 50 knots (93 kph).
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru and Ossian Shine, editing by Ed Osmond)
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