A plan to take the yacht Shosholoza out of the water to assess damage after a collision with a whale in Table Bay had to be put on hold when the crane to lift her out broke down early on Tuesday.

Shosholoza skipper Geoff Meek and navigator Marc Lagesse were injured during the sail training session in Table Bay on Monday when the America’s Cup yacht hit a Southern Right whale while sailing at 10 knots under spinnaker.

Auto electricians worked flat out on Tuesday to repair the mobile crane and managed to fix it before noon, after which the Shosholoza crew planned to haul the boat out to inspect her for possible damage to her keel.

The sudden impact on Monday brought the yacht to a dead stop, crew said.

Olympic sailor Ian Ainslie, who was on the helm at the time, fell forward over the port steering wheel, breaking the wheel clean off its mount.

Crane mishap delays inspection of Shosholoza

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 14th, 2005 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Team Shosholoza. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.