VIDEO: Tommy Tumbleweed Goes Sailing

Tom Slingsby, who will be at helm for Oracle Team USA at the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series event in France this weekend, gets flung forward in heavy conditions during training on September 8, 2016. Riding in the sixth man position was team member Andrew Campbell who grabbed the helm.

Here is the report from the team:
Just a couple of minutes into his career as a helmsman at the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series, Tom Slingsby found himself flipping head over heels as he was propelled forward, bouncing off a winch.

“We had just come off the mooring, and that was my first ever bear-away on a foiling AC45F, and I got it a little bit wrong, and you can see what happened,” he explained.

“I’m a little bit sore today. I have a few bumps and bruises down my left hand side from hitting the winch. I got a bit of a knock on the head too, but fortunately I had my helmet on…

“As you can see in the video, it took about five seconds before the guys were laughing at me and pushing me over! But that’s the way it is on our team – we laugh these things off.”

The team stayed out for a further 90-minutes getting in some good testing and practice ahead of the weekend’s racing.

“It was great. We did some foiling gybes, some good tacks, lined up with the other boats and found our speed was okay, so it was actually a very good session.”