SuperFoiler: Disaster for Tech2 as Euroflex justify favourite's tag
by SuperFoiler/Sail-World.com/NZ 2 Feb 2018 21:26 GMT
3 February 2018
Tech2 lifts off - Day 1, SuperFoiler Grand Prix Adelaide © Andrea Francolini / SuperFoilers
Tech2’s Adelaide aspirations are on ice, after they suffered catastrophic damage to their superfoiler on the only race of the opening evening of the three-day SuperFoiler Grand Prix Adelaide, sailed on Friday.
The ruby red SuperFoiler was travelling at nearly 33kts (60 kms/hr) when they came to a complete halt and capsized on the Outer Harbor race course.
Further ahead and out of trouble the star-studded Euroflex crew put on a clinic and lit their after-burners underlining their status as the boat to catch with a victory that was nearly an entire leg.
“Everyone said it looked easy but it wasn’t easy on board,” said the first winning skipper of the SuperFoiler Grand Prix Nathan Outteridge, “The effort and training paid off for the first race we were just waiting for it to come crashing down.”
While it wasn’t surprising to see America’s Cup winner Glenn Ashby and fellow Auld Mug pursuant Iain Jensen in the winning fold aboard Euroflex, the Pavement team did catch a few off-guard – claiming second place in the inaugural race.
As he declared at the start of the season Paul Campbell-James was proudly flying the British flag at the pointy end of the fleet in reaching conditions, rounding out the podium aboard iD Intranet.
While none of the three-person crew on Tech2 were injured, their machine was left nursing serious wounds that will likely end their South Australian regatta. The back end of the port hull fractured and broke away with the foil attached, causing the spectacular lift-off captured on both on the water and onboard video.
The Luke Parkinson helmed entrant clipped and dragged a mark on their starboard side earlier in the race, which could well have caused enough structural damage to explain the damage to the other side of the machine.
“We had the boat fully lit up there coming to the finish doing 30 knots,” said the tech2 Skipper, “We are pushing the boundaries these things haven’t gone this fast before.”
“Even not to finish fourth is disappointing. To be questioning if we will get it out there to battle it out tomorrow is tough. We are going to do everything we can to get back out there racing tomorrow and for further races,” said Parkinson, “We are going to work all night.”
Only one of the three races scheduled for the opening day were sailed.
The racing continues with live-streaming beginning on Saturday and Sunday at www.superfoiler.com with Saturday’s stream running from 1pm-3pm ACDT and Sunday’s from 2pm-4pm ACDT.