Alinghi Red Bull Racing have today, Tuesday 20 August, suffered a rig failure when out training on their AC75, just two days before the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta is due to get underway. The Swiss-flagged team are scheduled to feature in the first race of the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta against Orient Express Racing Team on Thursday August 22 at 14:00 CET.

The incident was confirmed by Alinghi Red Bull Racing in a post on their social media channels. The posts reads:

“Today there was a rig failure during the early stage of training on BoatOne. Everybody onboard is safe, and an investigation will be carried out in due course. In the meantime, the team remains fully focused on racing.” 

TEAM STATEMENT ℹ️ @americascup #AlinghiRedBullRacing #AmericasCup pic.twitter.com/xzgVENaC4q

— alinghiredbullracing (@alinghiredbull) August 20, 2024

Of concern to the team will be two key facts. Firstly this is the second significant rig failure Alinghi has experienced this year with a previous mast failure on 13 June 2024. The second factor that will be of concern is the relatively light winds and unremarkable sea state forecast today in Barcelona. These two facts together could indicate some fundamental issue in the teams masts… of course it could also just be bad luck.

That the team state they are ‘fully focussed on racing’ is good news and would imply that they do have a spare mast that they can use. Indeed we understand they did have another mast delivered to their base at some point in early August. They will now be hoping that there is no fundamental underlying issue with their mast construction.

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