Published: 3:52PM Thursday June 06, 2013 Source: ONE Sport
Nearly a month after their horrific accident on San Francisco Bay, Artemis Racing have returned to the water in their first tentative steps towards re-entering the America’s Cup fray.
The Challenger of Record for sailing’s ultimate prize were rocked four weeks ago, when their AC72 boat capsized during training and British sailor Andrew “Bart” Simpson was killed.
Simpson’s funeral was held in England last weekend and yesterday, his shaken crewmates were back in action, albeit in their smaller AC45 version of the full-sized America’s Cup catamaran, with Australian Nathan Outteridge at the helm.
“A good day to get back out on San Francisco Bay, sailing the foiling AC45,” the Artemis team tweeted.
Their presence was welcomed by the Cup holders.
“Great to see Artemis Racing back out on San Francisco Bay this week,” responded Oracle Team USA.
Since the accident, America’s Cup organisers have moved to make racing safer in the fickle winds in the iconic harbour.
But the Swedish-sponsored team has remained largely silent over its future in the event – while their first boat was destroyed, they were in the process of developing a second model when the tragedy occurred.
The only real indication from Artemis of their intentions came two weeks ago, when boss Paul Cayard issued a statement, claiming they were back to work, but would not race if they believed the AC72s were unsafe.
“This confidence will be dependent on many criteria, one of the most important of which is the new safety criteria and rules changes that the America’s Cup organisers and competitors will adopt,” he said.
Among the changes proposed by the regatta safety panel were a reduction to the number of races for the three-team challenger series, a lowering of the allowable maximum wind limit for racing and the ability to postpone a race at the start if conditions are deemed unsafe.
The Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series is due to start on July 8 (NZT), but speculation is building that Artemis may not be ready to race by then, given the work needed to bring their second boat up to speed and repair their crew’s shattered confidence.
“I kind of expect them to turn up to race maybe by the end of July, or certainly by the repechage against either us or [Luna Rossa] in early August,” Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton told Sail Racing Magazine last week.
source: http://tvnz.co.nz/sailing-news/artemis-water-after-america-s-cup-tragedy-5457483