Coutts confirms safety overhaul – but is SailGP ahead of the game or playing catch-up?

Following the collision in Auckland that put Louis Sinclair and Manon Audinet in hospital, Russell Coutts confirmed at Sydney's press conference that engineering teams are deep into design reviews. 

That includes looking at control systems, structural reinforcements, finite element modelling, and possibly physical crash testing. On the athlete protection side, cockpit airbags and an external Kevlar strap concept are being evaluated alongside clothing and impact treatment protocols.

But buried within the reassurances was an admission that invites scrutiny. "In these situations when you review them, there's always things that in the communication or in the response that you can then learn from to apply in the future," Coutts said. It's a telling line. Even SailGP's CEO acknowledges there were gaps.

The official line is that both athletes are recovering well. But Quentin Delapierre’s words at the press conference revealed that Manon Audinet’s injuries may have been downplayed, with the French strategist needing a full two weeks in hospital.

“Manon is fine, she's sorted,” Delapierre assured. “She just spent two weeks at the hospital and I think she would like to thank SailGP and also the fans for the support she received at the hospital. It's not really funny for an athlete to be stuck in bed for two weeks. I know Manon pretty well. She's already focused on what happens next and she's moving on.”

Coutts added: "If you look at where we've come from as a sport over the last five years, I think we've come a long way. I'm not sure if you had taken it back to, for example, 2017, that we would have been able to respond as well as that."

That may be true. But there's a difference between improving response times and preventing incidents in the first place. At points this season, SailGP has looked like a league expanding more quickly than it can handle.
 

READ MORE: Tom 'Mozzy' Morris: SailGP's Auckland safety review doesn't add up

The split fleet format, trialled in Auckland after the crash, is now confirmed for every event next season once the 14th team joins. But Coutts conceded the limitations: "Splitting the fleet wouldn't remove all the risk of a situation like Auckland happening. That situation could equally happen with two or three boats.”

Course geometry is also being looked at – leg lengths, gate distances, congestion hotspots. “Those are all positive steps and will make the sport safer,” Coutts added. “Will it remove all risk? It won't. Of course not. But it's definitely taking some pretty significant steps to make it safer.”

But SailGP needs to walk the delicate line between safety and spectacle. As we saw in Sydney’s marginal conditions, the racing already lacked bite with eleven boats on the course, and halving the fleet won't help.

Meanwhile, the teams caught up in this season's on-water incidents are recovering at very different rates.

Spain topped the fleet racing in Sydney, showed impressive control throughout and finished third in the final. Diego Botín’s crew now sit fifth overall – a remarkable result given they missed the entire event in Perth and all the on-water practice that comes with it.

France had to sit out Sydney, but five compensation points have kept them level with Team USA in third. Following a Frankenstein operation with the Kiwi boat, their F50 is back in one piece. Coutts confirmed it's being repainted and will be on the water in Rio. The French team is still very much in the mix.

Contrast that with the two boats involved in Perth's collision. So far Switzerland has picked up a single point in Sydney and sit in last place overall. The Black Foils have just two points to show for their season, and remain stuck on shore with no return date in sight.

With no spare boat in the fleet, one bad collision can knock a team out for a season. It's a vulnerability the league still needs to address. So as Coutts admits lessons are still being learned, the question lingers: is SailGP evolving proactively, or merely scrambling to respond after the fact?