Check out this article from Yahoo. Also check out some of the comments people left. Some of those people left some real dumb-a$$ comments.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110614/ap_on_sp_ot/sai_america_s_cup?bouchon=807,ca

By BERNIE WILSON, AP Sports Writer Bernie Wilson, Ap Sports Writer – Mon Jun 13, 8:43 pm ET
SAN FRANCISCO – When America's Cup sailors said their fast new catamarans were cutting-edge and exciting, they were factoring in inevitable capsizes.

Monday afternoon on breezy San Francisco Bay, it was no less than one of the most dominant skippers in America's Cup history, Russell Coutts, whose 45-foot catamaran went head-over-heels in a spectacular wipeout.

Grinder Shannon Falcone was thrown through the wing sail and into the chilly water, and another crewman was thrown into the water. Falcone was examined by paramedics on the dock and taken to the hospital for precautionary X-rays. Sailors wear crash helmets and foul-weather gear when sailing the speedy boats.

Coutts, the CEO of defending champion Oracle Racing, was racing skipper Jimmy Spithill as part of a media day to publicize the U.S. debut of the new boats. His boat was bearing away during the prestart maneuver when the bows buried in a wave and the cat lifted into the air and went over before coming to rest on its side.

The catamaran was pulled upright by a support boat.

Coutts almost capsized on Friday, the second day of Oracle's first testing session in the new cats on San Francisco Bay. The AC45s debuted earlier this year in New Zealand, where two capsized. The AC45s will be used for the AC World Series this year and next. The 2013 America's Cup will be sailed in 72-footers, which will be faster and more powerful.

Sailors have known that getting up to speed in the new catamarans is going to be tricky and possibly dangerous.

Coutts, a four-time America's Cup winner, was prophetic when he and Spithill spoke at a news conference earlier in the day about the risk-reward of sailing the cats.

"They're very demanding but also incredibly exciting," said Spithill, a 31-year-old Australian who is the youngest skipper to win the America's Cup.

Said Coutts, a 49-year-old New Zealander: "Sometimes it helps to be a little younger, you know. You've got to get to the point of finding the edge and not going over the edge, and sometimes you're going to go over the edge. That applies not only in a sailing sense — we're challenged as sailors like never before, probably, in these boats — but in the design sense. These guys will tell you, that's one of the big considerations in the 72. Because the closer you design it to the edge, the faster it will go. But you don't want to go over the edge. Or preferably not over the edge."

After sailing a monstrous, space-age trimaran to defeat Alinghi of Switzerland in 2010 to win the oldest trophy in international sports, Oracle — owned by software billionaire Larry Ellison — decided to contest the next America's Cup in catamarans on shorter courses to make the sport more TV-friendly. The cats replace the plodding monohulls that were used from 1992-2007.

"It's a complete change," Spithill said. "I think if you ask the average person about America's Cup, they think of guys sitting on the side of a monohull yacht, a heavy displacement yacht, going quite slowly around the course. These boats are the complete opposite. Everyone is wearing helmets for a reason. There's a significant amount of risk. They're probably one of the most athletic boats I've seen for the crew to sail. There's also a huge reward for sailing them well. They're the fastest boats out there at the moment. To get the best out of these boats, you have to push."

The Oracle sailors joked about having an "old guy boat" and a "young guy boat."

"We're trying to get comfortable with these boats. It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks and I can tell you, I'm not sure if I'll ever get comfortable with these boats," Coutts said. "Anyway, I'm giving it a go. Basically, Jimmy and the guys are way better than we are in our boat right now. I'm pretty sure Jimmy and J.K. (tactician John Kostecki) get amused when we screw up. They had grins all over their face the other day when we almost capsized. Jimmy actually said to me, 'It's a pity you didn't capsize.' I don't know. we'll be certainly duking it out and trying to beat the hell out of each other just to try and get these guys ready to go and race the cup."

Kostecki grew up sailing in the Bay Area.

"If these things are that much fun, the 72s are going to be wild," Kostecki said.

The combination of the fast catamarans and San Francisco Bay is sure to be spectacular. The bay provides a natural amphitheater, ringed with famous landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, the Transamerica Pyramid and Coit Tower.

looks like rule #1: boatspeed in the turn, boatspeed in the turn, boatspeed in the turn.

At the very beginning of the clip, it looked as if he was going to turn upwind then decided not to. But look in the background, there is a RIB bobbing out there, maybe he was affraid if he continued the upwind turn he would run over the RIB? It looked like he could have saved it buy continuing the turn if the RIB wasn't in the way, but from that short clip and the angle it's hard to say if that was a factor or not. Did Couts say what happened in the debrief?

plus there is something wrong with how they are handling the main. They let the sail out too far, or too much camber or ?. The sail seems to drive the boat over.

Speed, wave, and too much power in the top of the main. On a A Class, when I get some of those things wrong, I hear a "wooof"/"pooof"/"pop" sound from the top of the main when the wind catches and it's all over. I wonder what sound a wing sail makes.

He should have headed up it looks like to me. When he bears off, the wing barndoors.

It made the Today Show.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/43391549#43391549

I love the MSM hysterics over it. You'd think thats the first time she's ever seen that happen.

Must be a pretty amazing (and scary) feeling to be ohhhhh 40' up in the air in about 2 seconds.... and then holding on for ....

PS pretty awesome that the guy who fell...didn't hit some controll wires or lines... I could only imagine how tramatic that would be

should have seen the carnage on the Raccoon straits side of the bay. 46 hobies racing and all but about 8 flipped. one wildcat pitched so hard the skipper went through the spreader bar.

What was the wind speed that day?

"...training for a race..."

Yeah, that's all. Nothing to see here...

Mike

upper 20's to low 30's gusts went up to the low 40's thats when we went home. plus the tide was rushing out and making a huge chop on the bay.

I've got people at work asking me about it...word must really be out. I guess there's no such thing as bad exposure.

And now we get to tell all of our capsize stories to the uninitiated..

Everyone loves to watch a crash.

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=ftpc1
16 to 20 at 1:30
On SA a 5o5 confirmed NOAA above linky?
The flips reminds me of watching newbies sailing H16s.

06 13 3:00 pm WSW 14.0 21.0 - - - - 30.02 +0.00 57.0 55.8 - - - -
06 13 2:54 pm WSW 14.0 21.0 - - - - 30.02 - 57.6 55.6 - - - -
06 13 2:48 pm W 11.1 20.0 - - - - 30.02 - 57.7 55.6 - - - -
06 13 2:42 pm WSW 13.0 21.0 - - - - 30.02 - 57.4 55.4 - - - -
06 13 2:36 pm WSW 15.0 21.0 - - - - 30.02 - 57.2 55.4 - - - -
06 13 2:30 pm WSW 15.9 22.0 - - - - 30.02 - 57.2 55.2 - - - -
06 13 2:24 pm WSW 15.9 22.0 - - - - 30.01 - 57.4 55.2 - - - -
06 13 2:18 pm WSW 14.0 20.0 - - - - 30.02 - 57.7 55.0 - - - -
06 13 2:12 pm WSW 14.0 20.0 - - - - 30.01 - 57.7 55.0 - - - -
06 13 2:06 pm WSW 14.0 20.0 - - - - 30.02 - 57.4 55.0 - - - -
06 13 2:00 pm WSW 14.0 18.1 - - - - 30.02 +0.00 57.7 55.0 - - - -
06 13 1:54 pm WSW 14.0 18.1 - - - - 30.02 - 57.9 55.0 - - - -
06 13 1:48 pm WSW 14.0 20.0 - - - - 30.02 - 57.7 55.0 - - - -
06 13 1:42 pm WSW 14.0 20.0 - - - - 30.02 - 57.7 55.0 - - - -
06 13 1:36 pm WSW 13.0 21.0 - - - - 30.02 - 57.9 55.0 - - - -
06 13 1:30 pm WSW 15.0 20.0 - - - - 30.02 - 57.7 55.2 - - - -

CNN is showing the clip every 30 minutes.

Already my wife has seen it 3 times, and every time she points at it as it's going over and she says, "SEE?? THAT'S why I won't sail with you!!"

And I say, "What? Nobody got hurt, looks like fun to me!"

I was impressed how quickly it came back up once they got the crash boat on it, and the little amount of damage (that I could see) there was to the mast/wing, looked like one hole in the wing, did one of the crew go straight through it on the way down from up high?

Yes - Sir Coutts himself blessed the wing with his acceleration due to gravity.

I think the one that let go went thru the wing/main