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America\'s Cup champion Jimmy Spithill, left, of Oracle Racing looks over the remains of the team\'s capsized boat after it was lifted out of the water onto a pier at the team\'s headquarters in San Francisco, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012. The America\'s Cup champion is assessing the damage to the 72-foot (22-meter) catamaran, which capsized on San Francisco Bay and was swept by a strong current more than 4 miles (6 kilometers) past the Golden Gate Bridge on Tuesday before rescue boats could control it. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

America’s Cup champ Oracle Racing to be stuck ashore until new year due to capsize damage

America’s Cup champion Oracle Racing will be sidelined from testing its 72-foot catamaran until early next year because of severe wing sail damage sustained when the yacht capsized Tuesday on San Francisco Bay.

Grant Simmer, the syndicate’s general manager, says the boat’s 131-foot wing sail was smashed into several pieces and will have to be rebuilt, which will take three to four months.

He says the team is due to receive a new wing sail early in the new year. That wing sail, being built in Auckland, New Zealand, was to have been used for a second AC72 catamaran. The platform for the second boat is being built in San Francisco.

No one was injured, but the boat was pulled four miles onto the Pacific Ocean by an ebb tide. Simmer said pieces of the wing sail were found eight miles beyond the Golden Gate Bridge.

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