America's Cup “under review”

Tasked with running a review into the circumstances surrounding the fatal capsize of the Artemis Racing AC72 on Thursday, Regatta Director Iain Murray says consultation with stakeholders is already underway.

On Tuesday, Murray scheduled a formal meeting when all four teams competing in the Summer of Racing – Oracle Team USA, Artemis Racing, Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa Challenge – will be in San Francisco.

"The meeting with the teams is a crucial next step," Murray said. "We need to establish an open flow of information to ensure this review meets its goals of fact-finding and putting us in a position to recommend changes, if necessary."

One aspect of the review will involve study of all data that was captured at the time of the incident.

"Once we have the information, the basic facts, all the data, then we will be able to re-build the entire chain of events and start to assess why this incident resulted in a tragic loss of life," he said.

America’s Cup organisers have also released a statement saying that Murray and Golden Gate Yacht Club Vice Commodore Tom Ehman will soon announce the members of an independent panel to review all aspects of training and racing of AC72 yachts in the 34th America’s Cup.

The panel will report and make recommendations to the organisers and the competitors.

Crucially, the review and report will be conducted independently of any organiser or competitor in the 34th America’s Cup, the statement said.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the accident, Sailing Team Germany announced the withdrawal of its squad that had qualified for the Youth America’s Cup, which is scheduled to be sailed Sept. 1-4 on San Francisco Bay, prior to the America’s Cup finals. "We can’t and we won’t take responsibility for sending our young team over there. The death of one sailor is reason enough [to withdraw],” Sailing Team Germany founder Oliver Schwall said in a statement.

"We also feel that our decision has to send an important message after this disaster. It’s time [for organisers] to start thinking.”

Mr Schwall was also critical of the time the Youth Team had on the water on the AC45s prior to the event: "Until the beginning of the Youth America’s Cup there should have been more training sessions, but those already were reduced to about 10 practice days on the water," Schwall said. "To us, that’s simply insufficient for a thorough preparation."