High impact

It was a jaw-dropping impact that saw fans around the world recoil from their screens, as the bow of Team Great Britain sliced dramatically down through the starboard hull of Team Japan. As the Japanese boat abruptly stopped in its tracks, crew members that had been flung across the boat recovered to their feet – thankfully uninjured - to question what had just happened. The incident, just seconds before the start of race three, was quickly dubbed by the media as the ‘craziest crash’ in SailGP’s history; almost as quickly, GBR’s skipper Ben Ainslie put his hand up and offered his boat to rival skipper Nathan Outteridge so the Japanese team could compete on day two of the event. For the Brits that was them out of the event and out of the running for the overall season title.

For those on board with Ainslie, it was a surreal moment; while anticipation of what was about to unfold only served to heighten the drama for those watching, the crew were, by admission, oblivious to the impending collision as they focused their attention forwards and on the American boat to leeward. Only afterwards, a realisation of what had