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Two sailors were taken to hospital after a “catastrophic” crash between the New Zealand and France boats on the opening day of the New Zealand Sail Grand Prix in Auckland.<\/b><\/p>\n
Racing was abandoned following the incident and SailGP said the injured sailors – one from each team – are in a stable condition in hospital.<\/p>\n
The collision happened at the start of race three when, according to SailGP,, external<\/span><\/a> the Kiwis “lost control and veered sharply in front of the French boat”.<\/p>\n Races three and four were called off, while New Zealand and France will not be able to take part in Sunday’s action because of the damage sustained.<\/p>\n “Everything happened so quickly – it’s still super cloudy in my head and I haven’t reviewed the footage or spoken to the umpires,” said France driver Quentin Delapierre.<\/p>\n “I think both teams are OK. I want to give my thoughts to the New Zealand team and also to my team-mates – this was tough for everyone on both teams. I believe we’ll find some solutions to make sure we never see this kind of thing happen again.”<\/p>\n New Zealand were also involved in a crash in the opening event of the season in Perth last month when they collided with Switzerland.<\/p>\n The Black Foils had moved into first place after winning race two in Auckland but have dropped down the leaderboard as they were given an eight-point penalty for the crash with France.<\/p>\n Defending SailGP champions Great Britain, who won the season-opener<\/a> in January, were 11th in the first race before claiming second place in race two.<\/p>\n Organisers have rescheduled the start of racing on Sunday to an earlier time because of adverse weather conditions being predicted later on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n