The decision in the final hearing in Great Britain on the death of America’s Cup and Olympic sailor Andrew “Bart” Simpson was that his death a year ago was accidental.
“Mr. Simpson was trapped underneath the vessel for approximately 10 minutes before being pulled from the water. He sustained injuries, predominantly to his head and neck,” said Richard Middleton, the assistant coroner for Dorset, who recorded Simpson’s death as accidental at a brief inquest in Bournemouth on Wednesday. “Mr. Simpson died as a result of an accident.”
Simpson, 36, a hugely popular member of the British sailing team, was training for the America’s Cup in San Francisco Bay when the hull of the high-performance catamaran dug into the choppy water, causing it to capsize, on May 9, 2013.
Click here for the full report by Britain’s The Guardian newspaper.
In related news, on the anniversary of his death, the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation officially opened the Andrew Simpson Sailing Centre at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy in England with an emotional ceremony that Simpson’s family and friends attended.
The ribbon was cut by Andrew’s sons Hamish and Freddie.
“It was a tough decision to launch the center on the 9th May, being a year today that we lost the great man, but we felt that it was another great opportunity to celebrate him. Not a time to reflect and be sad, but a chance to continue the great things that he did in his life,” Iain Percy said at the ribbon cutting.
