‘Oh my lord’: Australia’s SailGP boat blown to pieces in scary scenes

Australia’s SailGP boat has exploded in a seriously scary crash that ruined their hopes in San Francisco in “heartbreaking” scenes.

Australia’s SailGP team has been left shaken after a disastrous incident at the San Francisco SailGP.

The Aussies had already qualified for the three-boat final on Monday (AEDT) but they were unable to take their spot in the decider after their wing exploded on the start line heading into race seven.

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SailGP commentator Stevie Morrison exclaimed: “Oh disaster for Australia! The wing’s fallen down. Massive incident there, oh my lord.

“That was a huge moment. Let’s hope no one is hurt.

“Oh my, wow. There was no gap for them to go into there and that is not good.”

In shocking footage, the Flying Roo was coming in with some serious speed towards the start line when its 50-foot wing suddenly collapsed into pieces.

“It’s a bit of shock obviously,” Australia’s driver Tom Slingsby said after the scary incident.

“A very scary situation. We are all unharmed and we’re all OK but when something like that happens, all you can think about is, is everyone going to get through this?

“Fortunately we’re all safe, that’s the first priority. We’ve just got to try save the boat as best we can.”

The main wing of the Australia SailGP Team breaks at the start of the race on Day 2 in San Francisco. Photo: Jason Ludlow/SailGP via AP.

Australia SailGP Team helmed by Tom Slingsby are attended to by their support boat after the main wing broke. Photo: Simon Bruty/SailGP via AP.

Reigning SailGP champions Spain ended up winning the final, beating Canada and France to claim their first victory of the season.

Team Australia now have a lot of work ahead of them to repair the damage on the boat as they now prepare for the next even in Rio de Janeiro in early May.

“Obviously it’s heartbreaking,” Slingsby said.

“The results and the points are what they are. We’re not even concerned about that.

“It’s just about saving the boat as best we can. Everyone’s safe. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

The Flying Roo was a wreck after the incident. Photo: Felix Diemer/SailGP via AP.

The SailGP Technical Team will spend the coming days assessing the damage and the repairs required to the Flying Roo.

“Obviously the thoughts go to our season and if we can get replacements in time and be at the next event,” Slingsby said.

Slingsby said his biggest priority was “figuring out what happened.”

“We’ve got to go look at the camera angles. We need to determine if it was a wing failure, or was there something else at play?”

Slingsby was doing an interview after the incident when the boat collapsed even more behind him, showing serious structural damage to the F50.

Tom Slingsby assesses the damage on Australia's broken wing. Photo:: Fox Sports.

Australia’s F50 fell down in scary scenes. Photo:: Fox Sports.

Australia won the first three seasons of SailGP, a sailing league likened to Formula One on water, before being upset by Spain in last season’s grand final.

Slingsby’s Aussie crew had been aiming for a fifth event victory in San Francisco before disaster struck on the windy course near the Golden Gate Bridge.

Despite the dramatic wing collapse, the Australia Team’s dominant performance across the weekend has pushed them into first place on the overall season five leaderboard.

The incident continues a couple of carnage filled weeks in SailGP — Denmark missed the entire San Francisco event after it was unable to repair damage in time from a crash in Los Angeles last week.

SailGP season five leaderboard

Australia: 39 points

Great Britain: 38 points

Spain: 36 points

New Zealand: 35 points

Canada: 34 points

France: 28 points

Switzerland: 18 points

Italy: 13 points

Denmark: 9 points

Brazil: 2 points

United States: 2 points

Germany: -1 points