The New Zealand Black Foils team are confident they will be back on the water in time for their home event, the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix in Auckland.
The collision between the Black Foils and Switzerland caused catastrophic damage to the left-side hull of the Kiwi F50, and ripped out all the steering system and rudder, immediately ruling the team out of any further partticipation in the Perth Sail Grand Prix.
Initial inspections and non-destructive testing revealed the F50’s critical structure remained intact, allowing SailGP Technologies facility in Southampton UK, to carry out a repair rather than replacing the entire platform.
However the bulkhead, a key structural partition within the hull, was badly damaged, requiring an entirely new section of hull to be manufactured at Southampton before being flown to New Zealand.
Once there it will be bonded to the Black Foils’ hull – and barring any major issues the team will be back on the water for the start of racing.
SailGP Technologies Director, Joel Marginson, explains the process . . .
As soon as we saw the damage on the television we were working with the design team, the engineers and the logistics, straightaway.
In Southampton a new port stern section is being fabricated to form part of the repair to the Black Foils F50.
Just to even make the stern it has to be done in a split mould, a whole section has to be laid up. Outside skin, cure, core, cure. Inside skin. So many different progress stages in one individual component.
And then we need to tie them back together and then you get into the complexity around the rudder housing, the rudder housing, the rudder boot, the trough, the rudder itself, the steering system.
Now were talking hundreds of components. All before it can be shipped out.
On completion it will be air freighted down to a facility in New Zealand CEK in Auckland where the hull section of the boat is also being transported to CEK, and we also have an individual in the USA building all the steering components . . . Once there it will be bonded to the Black Foils’ hull.
Barring any major issues the team will be back on the water for the start of racing.
Blair Tuke, the Black Foils’ co-CEO alongside driver Peter Burling, paid tribute to the herculean efforts by SailGP Technologies to keep their hopes of wowing home crowds alive.
“It’s huge for us,” he said. “This is the best event of the season – we get the opportunity to race in front of our home fans. So, for us, even after this adversity that we’ve faced, to have the opportunity to come out here and race in front of home fans, we’re absolutely pumped.”
It all comes down to time . . . compressed time.
The second 2026 SailGP circuit event, the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix Auckland, takes place on 14 and 15 February 2026.
