J Class Crash

This is a mega bad crash. Notice the sailor thrown off the stern and the backstay being broke off...

The man thrown off sustained a couple broke ribs and survived. No one else was hurt. With the broken backstay one might think the mast may have come down, but it did not.

What should the skippers had done? First off the skipper of the boat that ran into the other boat, should have turned to starboard, the skipper of the boat who was crashed into should have turned slightly downwind versus turning up wind, which actually swung the stern even more into the path of the on coming boat. Also the skipper of the boat where the video was filmed from should have tacked away as quickly as safely possible. Understand this is not such an easy task on such big boats. Plus this was a race and all boats were getting very close to each other and following the rules of starboard over port tack boats, etc. These are J Class yachts of 80+ LWL that were used in the Americas Cup in the 1930's. The boats in this video are new versions of those 1930's J Boats.