The New Zealand SailGP team will have to borrow a boat for the upcoming regatta in Sydney with their "fried" catamaran still unusable after it was struck by lightning earlier this month.
Investigations into the damage Amokura sustained following their regatta win in Singapore last week have resulted in the F50 being sent back to Auckland for urgent repairs, leaving the Kiwi team without a boat heading into the Australian leg of the global circuit in three weeks.
“Since [the strike] we’ve realised that the damage to Amokura is pretty significant. Quite quickly we discovered that all of the electronics on board were fried,” wing trimmer Blair Tuke said.
“On a lot of the hydraulic components - especially the titanium parts - you could see where the current had been, leaving scouring.
“More and more issues started to crop up and that’s when the decision was made to bring Amokura back to Aotearoa. Very thankfully everyone on board the boat was okay, and that’s absolutely the most important part.”
With the circuit using a one-design-for-all system for their 50-foot foiling catamarans, it means the Kiwi team won't be too out of touch with a new boat but it's still another obstacle in their path as they push towards a top-three finish for the season-ending race in San Francisco.
The second-placed Kiwis will instead take boat six - formerly the Japan boat - off Canada's hands for the race in Sydney with the Canadians getting back on board their own F50, boat 10, after it was recently completed in Warkworth and shipped to Australia.
"One of the cool things about SailGP is that when you’re lining up, you know you’re racing against a boat that’s exactly the same as yours," Tuke said.
"We have in the past sailed other teams’ boats in training days - it’s been awhile since we’ve done that, but you can hardly notice the difference other than some of the visual references."
While that is happening, the Kiwi team will be working hard in Auckland to revive Amokura.
"The reason to bring [Amokura] back to New Zealand is that we have the facilities and resources here to do the investigation that we need to do," SailGP tech team director Brad Marsh said.
"In the marine industry, boats do get struck by lightning regularly - but not often a boat as complex and advanced as the F50.
"So, we are a little unsure of exactly the testing we will need to do, but we know we need to put it under structural load testing, which is a test we do for every new boat. We will do some thermal imaging, tap testing and some core testing.
"It’s going to be a relatively compressed schedule to do all this - a full electronic refit, hydraulic refit and all new components and parts - in order to get Amokura down to Lyttelton and ready for sailing."
The Sydney regatta takes place in three weeks before action moves to Christchurch for March 18-19. The finale in San Francisco then plays out on May 7-8.
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