INEOS Britannia have suffered a setback in their America’s Cup preparations after their T6 test boat capsized twice and caught fire on the water in Mallorca on Wednesday afternoon (8 February).
According to Marine Industry News, the boat got loose with a leeward heel and went bow up, capsizing seconds later. But as the team attempted to right the vessel, it flipped to the other side and turned turtle in the water.
Seawater ingress flooding the boat’s lithium batteries then caused a fire on board, though this was swiftly dealt with.
“We’ve got the boat back in probably the best shape we could considering it went turtle and we’ll re-group and have a look at what the issues are and what caused it,” said skipper and team CEO Sir Ben Ainslie.
“The only positive was that we were about to go into an upgrade window so if this was going to happen, it’s not a bad time.”
The T6 prototype had only had new sails installed last month as part of the team’s winter testing and data-gathering regimen in Palma, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.
