The final day of the SailGP event in N.Y. had a “carbon-crunching, three-way crash” on the start line of the final fleet race that “will dominate people’s memories of a mad” Sunday, making Australia’s victory of resilience somewhat of a “footnote at the end of a wacky weekend.” Team Italy, U.S., and Brazil crashed. There were no injuries, but the crash took the three teams out of the race. Following a crash in the Auckland, N.Z., race three months ago, SailGP said that they would “see a lot more ‘split fleets’ -- dividing the pack into two groups as a means of reducing high-traffic moments of risk.” Nathan Outteridge of the Swedish team said, “It was a cool event, but it was a shame we only got one day of racing” (THE ATHLETIC, 5/31).
The race is part of a spring and summer of major sporting spectacles in the N.Y. region that includes the Knicks’ march to the NBA finals and the World Cup in N.J. SailGP took over the harbor for an “exotic sailboat race that features high tech catamarans careening across the upper bay,” their “vivid colors stamped against some of the most recognizable scenery in the world.” The Coast Guard sent a notification on Thursday “alerting all mariners ... that it would establish an exclusion zone inside the harbor that is roughly the size of the Lower East Side, just west and south of Governors Island.” Spectators watched from the western edge of Governors Island (N.Y. TIMES, 5/31).
