This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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British Olympic gold medalist sailor, Andrew Simpson dies in a boat accident while practicing for America’s Cup after the Swedish catamaran he was crewing capsized in San Francisco Bay.
Simpson, 36, from Sherborne, Dorset, was sailing with the Swedish Artemis Racing team when the yacht turned over and trapped him underneath.
The sailor, also known as “Bart”, was in a crew of 11 when the 72ft vessel overturned at 12:30p.m. local time (8:30pm GMT). The accident was reported by Andrew’s team on Thursday night and the reason for the accident is still not clear.
According to Artemis, Simpson – the team’s strategist, was trapped underwater for around 10 minutes, and both the doctors, in water and on the shore tried to revive him after he was freed from the wreckage of the 22-metre AC72 carbon fibre wing-sailed boat.
Simpson leaves a wife and two young children. He represented Great Britain in two Olympic Games, racing in the Star class with Iain Percy, his Artemis team leader, who was also onboard during the incident but returned safely. They won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and a silver at the 2012 London games.
An AC72 has been involved in such an incident not for the first time. Previously, Australian Olympian Tom Slingsby and compatriot James Spithill were capsized in their Team Oracle catamaran in San Francisco Bay in October, which also left most of the crew in the water and wrecked the $8m boat. However, there were no casualties but it had raised the concerns about the stability of large multihulls which can exceed 40 knots and require team members to wear crash helmets and other protective gear.
Artemis’ chief executive, Paul Cayard has said the entire team was “devastated” by the tragedy: “We obviously had a tragic day today on the bay and our thoughts and prayers are with Bart Simpson’s – Andrew Simpson’s – family, his wife and kids, and also with the rest of the team-mates.”
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