SAN FRANCISCO—On Thursday, May 9, 2013, in the early afternoon during the American Cup in the San Francisco Bay, the crew was training on an AC72 catamaran, a high-performance 72-foot vessel with a rigid wing sail. Winds were approximately 23 miles per hour with choppy, four-foot waves.
Between 12:30 p.m. and 1 p.m., while travelling at roughly 34 mph (30 knots), the yacht attempted a ‘bear-away’ maneuver (turning downwind), causing the port hull to dig into the water and failed structurally. This capsized the boat, and the platform inverted.
At 1:06 p.m., San Francisco Police Department received an emergency call. Every crew member except for Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson, Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) was counted. Simpson was trapped underneath the shipwreck for approximately 10 minutes.
By 1:21 p.m., rescuers located Simpson’s unconscious form, transporting him to a support boat and nearby harbor. Although they tried for 20 minutes to revive him, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
A foundation was created two months after he died in July 2013 by his widow, Leah Simpson, fellow sailor, Iain Percy and Sir Ben Ainslie. The Andrew Simpson Foundation: The Sailing Charity runs numerous nonprofit sailing centers in Portsmouth, Portland, Reading and Birmingham and organizes “Bart’s Bash,” which is an annual, global, sailing event. By 2025/2026, it will be celebrating over a decade of being a foundation, planning on opening more new centers.
According to an October 2019 autopsy, the 2008 Beijing Olympic medalist died from “blunt trauma with drowning,” including multiple blows to his head and body. His safety helmet was found crushed. The tragedy led to 37 safety protocols set in place for the America Cup, including requirements for sailors to wear body armor and carry personal oxygen supplies.
