Interview - Hannah Diamond
High impact
I
t was a jaw-dropping impact that saw fans around the world recoil from their screens, as the bow of Team Great Britain sliced dramatically down through the starboard hull of Team Japan. As the Japanese boat abruptly stopped in its tracks, crew members that had been flung across the boat recovered to their feet – thankfully uninjured to question what had just happened. The incident, just seconds before the start of race three, was quickly dubbed by the media as the ‘craziest crash’ in SailGP’s history; almost as quickly, GBR’s skipper Ben Ainslie put his hand up and offered his boat to rival skipper Nathan Outteridge so the Japanese team could compete on day two of the event. For the Brits that was them out of the event and out of the running for the overall season title. For those on board with Ainslie, it was a surreal moment; while anticipation of what was about to unfold only served to heighten
66
APRIL 2022 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting
the drama for those watching, the crew were, by admission, oblivious to the impending collision as they focused their attention forwards and on the American boat to leeward. Only afterwards, a realisation of what had happened brought the magnitude of the impact home. “It happened in a split second,” says Team Great Britain’s Hannah Diamond, who was racing for the first time in SailGP during the Sydney event as part of the series’ Women’s Performance Programme, introduced last summer to fast track elite female sailors. “We’ve replayed it in our minds thousands of times to think what we could have done and at what point could we have avoided it,” she explains. “It didn’t feel that scary until afterwards because the moment that we realised that there was an issue was the same moment that the impact happened. “Things just change so quickly on those boats. In the pre-start when
ABOVE
Competing for the first time with Ainslie and the British team as part of the SailGP Women's Pathway Programme
you’re jostling for position, there are certain areas in the boat which are really hard to see through; you always try to have someone checking that. When you’re racing it’s easier because everyone’s got a direction they’re heading towards, even if you are on different tacks or gybes; but in the pre-start, it’s a lot more difficult because boats are trying to accelerate and decelerate, avoid other boats, and they can be moving in any direction. We just weren’t able to see the Japanese boat until it was too late.” You can see Hannah is still processing the incident when we speak, even if a return flight from down under and the Christmas break mean a fair bit of time has passed. It’s left her with an overwhelming realisation of just what it takes to handle these boats, as she describes being on board as “a big responsibility” and expresses her amazement and relief that no-one was injured. “At the time, it didn’t seem like a
PHOTOS BOB MARTIN, SALTY DINGO/SAILGP; RICHARD LANGDON/RYA;
From being on board for that crash at the Sydney SailGP to opening doors for female pro sailors, HANNAH DIAMOND chats to Georgie Corlett-Pitt
