Sail Racing Magazine – sailracingmagazine.com –
The racing sailing community has been stunned by the news of the death of British Olympian Andrew Simpson today when the Artemis Racing AC72 catamaran capsized during a training session on San Francisco Bay.
Simpson is believed to have been trapped underneath the boat for several minutes after it capsized not long in to the training run. Attempts by doctors both on the water and later on the dock of the San Francisco Yacht Club failed to revive him. Earlier reports by news agencies that two other crew members had been ‘seriously hurt’ appear to have been erroneous.
Details of what happened leading up to the capsize has not been released but aerial video footage of the wreckage of the boat afterwards shows the main part of the port hull completely fractured close to where it connects to the rear crossbeam. Whether this damage happened before or after the capsize is impossible to say and it should be borne in mind that the hull could have been damaged as part of a rescue attempt.
Simpson had been in San Francisco only since late February and joined the Swedish team to give weather and tactical input to the crew’s afterguard. His move to Artemis Racing reunited him with his lifelong friend and Olympic helm Iain Percy who is the team’s director of sailing.
Speaking at a press conference at the Artemis base in Alameda, team CEO Paul Cayard spoke about the shock of the day’s tragic events. He gave no indication of what the situation was with the boat and said that he and the rest of the management would be ‘focusing on the people’, adding that ‘we have a lot to do over the coming days to make sure everyone is OK.”
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