The French team confirmed strategist Manon Audinet was also hospitalised and being assessed for injury, with particular concern for her abdominal area after being “violently thrown forward inside her cockpit” in the collision.
“The entire DS Automobiles SailGP Team France has Manon Audinet and Louis Sinclair in their thoughts and stands fully alongside them during this time,” a team statement said.
The crash occurred early in the third race of the day, with the Black Foils losing control of their F50 foiling catamaran at high speed and falling into the path of the French. While French driver Quentin Delapierre appeared to do what he could to evade the rival boat, there was little time to prevent the two coming together as the French vessel’s hull went over the top of that of the Kiwis close to where the grinding pedestal is positioned.
“I think everyone, both team New Zealand and us, are pretty shocked. Full support to team New Zealand and my teammates, also. Hopefully we’ll recover from this,” Delapierre said.
“Everything happened so quickly, it’s pretty cloudy in my mind. I just tried to do my best to avoid the collision but obviously it happened too quickly. I didn’t have the time to respond and steer the boat. It was a super scary situation.”
The Black Foils elected not to send a representative to speak with media after the race as the team didn’t feel they could add anything further to what had already been publicly released while further medical assessments were taking place.
The Kiwis made a terrific start to their home event with a third and a first, while France had a second and a third. The Kiwis were ruled to be at fault by the race umpires for the crash and were penalised eight event points.
It’s the second major collision in as many events for the Black Foils, who were ruled out in Perth after a crash with the Swiss led to the transom being ripped off their boat.
Saturday’s racing in Auckland was the first time all 13 boats in the fleet had been on the starting line for racing, after Spain missed all of the Perth event when their vessel was damaged during a practice session.
Delapierre said it was difficult to say what caused the incident.
“It’s a complex situation. We have to take time to analyse and see if something can be done for tomorrow and the rest of the season,” he said.
“I think the New Zealand boat is pretty much destroyed and our boat, the port hull is in bad shape. We’ll see what happens for tomorrow. I don’t think we’ll be able to race, but anything is possible so we’ll see.”
Racing is expected to go ahead as planned tomorrow, with the day’s action beginning at the earlier time of 11.30am after being brought forward because of the threat of afternoon thunderstorms.
How the day’s racing unfolded: