It’s only two days since Emirates Team New Zealand’s AC75 Taihoro was catastrophically damaged in an event involving a crane and a 6-metre fall to the ground – oops! Working around the clock, the NZ team has worked hard to get it sea-worthy again!
Initially, the extent of Taihoro’s damage was unclear; a thorough examination showed that it was not significant enough to stop it from getting back on the water to race again.
“There was a big scope of work to figure out where the damage was and how to fix it. The structural damage is reasonably significant, but it was all stuff we can repair to the hull.” said structural engineer, Dave Olsen.
“You wouldn’t say we were lucky because it was a bad afternoon, but compared to what it could have been we are feeling very thankful for sure.”
Behind the boat shed doors, the work has been relentless with a highly skilled group of boat builders embracing the challenge presented just 24 hours ago.
“The shore crew and boat builders are world-class; they turn this stuff around really high quality and quickly. They are all putting in big hours and we will get this boat back on the water and racing again.”
The team aims to be back on the racecourse tomorrow, Saturday night NZ time, lining up again for their next scheduled race.
Having not been able to sail today against INEOS Britannia, the British team took the win for the race against Emirates Team New Zealand. However, the remaining two races were canceled due to the lack of wind; the scheduled race between Orient Express Team France and Emirates Team New Zealand will now be made up on another race day.
For Shore Team Manager Sean Regan, who has been overseeing the repairs of Taihoro, the last 24 hours is a situation he has had plenty of experience in.
“Sometimes things happen out of the norm, and you have to be ready to react to them. And, we have amazing people on the team who are knowledgeable and able to get in and sort a situation and come up with a solid plan. In this game it is not about planning over several days and weeks; it is about hours. We have to get the boat out sailing as soon as possible.”
