SailGP Got Lucky and Needs a Better Playbook
Yesterday was a rough day in Sydney and could have been much worse
After American Magic, the US entry in the 2020 Americas Cup held in New Zealand, signed Airbus as a sponsor, I asked a friend at Boeing why they had turned it down. Boeing has a very long history of helping US Americas Cup racers with technology, so before the US team had signed Airbus, they must have been turned down by Boeing. My friend said: “We don’t like having our name on things that could crash.” Not long after that comment, American Magic had a spectacular crash, taking them out of the running for the Americas Cup. No one lost their life, but it was close with Terry Hutchinson.
Sailboats and airplanes are more similar than most people think. They both must operate in a highly volatile natural environment, they both rely on cutting edge materials, and they both can crash. The crashing part is on the rise now that many sailboats are flying above the water.
Sailboat racing was dangerous even before the boats started flying. Sailboat racers are reminded of the dangers when putting on their life jackets and more recently: helmets, impact vests, rescue knives and “spare air” which enables breathing underwater if trapped under an overturned vessel. Golfers and tennis players don’t wear “life” jackets.
SailGP got very lucky yesterday. Given the nature of sailboat racing today, it is only a matter of time until they have to manage a significant incident – including the loss of life.
Mercifully, after racing was finished on Saturday, a squall ripped through the land base while they were pulling the boats out of the water and caused a bunch of damage. I say mercifully because the destruction on land gave SailGP leaders a reason to cancel the second day and avoid what could have been an even worse outcome on the water.
There are often near misses at SailGP events. The SailGP TV production team even celebrates them as being exciting and a reason to watch the racing. Some think people watch car racing for the potential wrecks. Yesterday’s near misses were closer to the edge than many in the past.
Here are the facts as they stacked up Saturday in Sydney:
It was windy and puffy, gusting to 50 kmph.
The course is in a highly populated area, with spectator boats going onto the race course.
The Australian boat had technical difficulties but raced anyway.
The New Zealand boat broke during the first race, but also continued to race.
The British boat had a breakdown that caused a sailor to fall into the water and get dragged under the boat at speed.
The sailors have not had much practice in windy conditions.
The boats were going over 50kmph much of the time and hitting the 90s from time to time.
(Yeah, the use of kilometers per hour is weird, so here is a conversion to mph and knots. 1 km is .62 miles or .53 nautical miles (knots). So the easy thing to do is cut the number in half for knots, and if you want miles it’s a little more. For example, 90kmph is 48 knots per hour or 56 miles per hour.)
So, these 50 foot long boats are flying over the water at between 30 and 50 miles per hour. In a sailboat race, the boats are nearly facing each other when they “cross” paths on the upwind legs. These crosses resemble a joust, but without the lances and thank goodness the sailors are trying to avoid hitting each other. When crossing they are closing at between 60 and 100 miles per hour. Each boat has six souls on board. Some of the boats are broken, others could break at any time.
Last night, after the squall destroyed Canada’s wing and a bunch of tents, SailGP released this statement:
After racing today at the KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix in Sydney, a major weather event occurred that has resulted in significant damage to the wing sails and at least one boat at the SailGP technical site.
As far as we know, no one was seriously injured during the incident. As a result of the damage, SailGP has had to cancel racing for the second day of the Sydney event.
From a marketing perspective, SailGP appears to be playing catch up. The standings on the web site have been updated to reflect the premature conclusion of the Sydney event, and the season totals have also been updated. But there is clearly confusion about what to do next. No announcement has been made about a post event press conference, or an awards ceremony. Just the same picture of the destroyed equipment. These events are creating enormous interest from SailGP’s many fans and stakeholders. Everyone wants to know what is going on.
The sailors have set plays for complex maneuvers on the race course. They call for a “JK” or a “Chicago” and everyone on the boat knows what to do. SailGP needs a more fully developed playbook, so when bad things happen, everyone knows what to do.
Like in any disaster management situation SailGP should start by communicating regularly and demonstrating mastery of the situation. They do not need to know what they are going to say to announce that they will give the next update at 9:00 AM Sydney time. When 9:00 comes and they don’t have all of the answers, they can say: At this point we believe there have been no injuries. We are grateful for that and if anyone has any other information, please contact us at [number/email]. We are working on [this] and [that] and will make our next update at 12:00.
Thanks for reading. I will continue this tomorrow because there is a bunch more about SailGP owning the boats and the teams, but this post is already too long. With luck, by tomorrow we will also have some updates from SailGP.
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