A torn portion of the spinnaker was wrapped around the rudder and the drag had a devastating effect on Prada's boat speed.
The pilot might have survived a crash in Lakewood last month if a guard had been installed around the rudder, Mr. Gretz said.
"And the bad news for them is that when one of those spinnakers gets wrapped around the rudder, they don't come off.
Other than a leak around the rudder, the boat is in great condition, he says, though by no means for everyday sailing: the rigging is questionable, and he doesn't trust the mast.
Steve Strunsky (NYT) LAKEWOOD: CRASH THEORY Investigators are trying to determine whether a line found wrapped around a rudder caused a small plane towing a banner to crash at an airport on Monday, killing the pilot.
The Americans got the last laugh in Race 6, however, when the Italians botched a spinnaker takedown at a critical moment for the second straight race and the sail wrapped around the rudder, giving Cayard his critical opening in a wild comeback victory which completed a surge from a 3-1 deficit.
The 35-year-old Ainslie came into the Games with huge expectation on his shoulders but for most of the week it looked like it was also wrapped around his rudder like an anchor.
There is a tiny string, found anywhere around the rudder and tiller, that you have to pull on to bring down the rudder.
An industrial-looking image that Mr. Fullerton took around 1898 showing two men with an iron rudder from a tugboat is compared to "Railroad Yard," a 1935 photograph by Berenice Abbott.
Born in 1932 in this region, Joseph Kibwetere came up through the local Catholic school and, contemporaries say, clung to his faith as the rudder that would lead him and those around him down the righteous path.
