G'day All,

We were in pole position as witness to the infamous nose dive. Both BladeF18's were about half way into a 60 nm race. We were both about 150m apart & the blue boat ( 1st prototype) was closer to shore. Gusts were coming thru very irregular & as I looked to windward checking out when the next bullet was coming from I saw them nose dive (and crew flying thru the air) & unfortunatley there was a shallow sand bank & the boat did seem to stop very quickly. We also were then hit with the same large gust & went like skinned cats for about 30 seconds & no nose diving (the 2nd Blade F18 is nose dive resistant)& then looked back about 300m to see the crew walking in about chest height water. We noticed that they were very slow at re righting & did not see them finish the race. The windward hull was also damaged getting the boat back to dry land where they could be picked up after the race.

Needless to say the new owner was very glad that we built a sealed bulkhead under the main beam allowing them to sail slowly to safety as they were about 5km from any accessable area by car.

The hull broke off from the bow under the deck line up to the bridle bulkhead.

Seems the insurance company will write off the boat at the missing bits are putting repair quote's thru the roof.!!!

Catch you all later.

Regards

Marcus