Andrew Simpson death in San Francisco raises doubts over safety of America's Cup catamarans The guys on the chase boats are saying it just folded up, which raises pretty serious questions about the design and engineering and judgements used in the production of this boat. An investigation will uncover the full facts to see if there was a design flaw or if this was a tragic accident. But everyone understandably is devastated. The 34th America's Cup, which is due to take place this year, is funded by some of the richest billionaires in the world with Larry Ellison, whose Oracle Team USA won the last Cup in 2010, set on revolutionising the event. His chief executive Russell Coutts says the event should "meet the expectations of the Facebook generation, not the Flintstone generation." New high-performance multihulls, capable of speeds of around 40 knots - twice as fast as the High Speed Red Jet ferry to the Isle of Wight - replaced the more traditional monohulls and promised fast and furious action, an adrenalin-fuelled class but one which has come at a cost. Oracle had a huge crash last autumn, which took months to repair costing millions of pounds. "When Oracle crashed, I said: "That will not be the only one; this will happen again and now it's happened again," said Max Sirena, skipper of Luna Rossa. These are dangerous boats. The boat is basically too powerful. At the same time, this is our sport. This is a risk we take. The Artemis boat was designed by Argentinian designer Juan Kouyoumdjian, who is well known for pro­ducing a string of fast race boats, including two Volvo Ocean Race winners. His design team is also associated with boats that have suffered catastrophic keel failure such as George David's Rambler 100 which capsized on the Rolex Fastnet Race two years ago. Admired in some quarters and reviled in others, Juan K is famous for pushing the boundaries, and it is these technological developments for which the America's Cup is renowned. "Accidents can happen and at the moment they do not know anything about the accident apart from the fact that it capsized," said Eddie Warden Owen, a former America's Cup helmsman and chief executive of the Royal Ocean Racing Club. Yacht racing is a dangerous sport which is part of its appeal and since it started the America's Cup has been all about breaking new ground. In 1992, when we had these big overpowered rigs on the monohulls, it was scary for a time but no one got injured. This is only the second America's Cup fatality in 163 years of competition, with Spanish Challenge sailor Martin Wizner struck on the head by a broken turning block in 1999. Many of the British America's Cup sailors based in San Francisco, including Ben Ainslie and Iain Percy have returned home to Britain. With only seven weeks until the Cup starts in July with the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series, time is running out to make repairs to Artemis and no one is sure whether Percy, a childhood friend of Simpson's, and the sailing director of Artemis will want to continue. Some within the sailing community are questioning whether they will have the appetite to get back on that boat again after all the problems. Others are wondering whether anyone will want to race AC72s in San Francisco where the breeze, complicated tides and big sea states, render the margins for error unrealistically small and the risks high. Two of the four boats due to take part in the America's Cup that have been training in San Francisco have both suffered catastrophic failure after defenders Oracle capsized back in October and had to be rebuilt. The other two, Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand, have been training without incident in New Zealand raising questions about whether they are prepared to risk their multi-million dollar catamarans in conditions that could potentially destroy them. The sailing community was yesterday struggling to come to terms with the loss of the hugely popular Simpson, whose wife Leah and two sons aged three and six months flew back to Britain on Fridays. Simpson's devastated parents Keith and Pamela were waiting on more information as to how the accident happened. "I couldn't be more proud of him and everything he achieved," Keith said. He was a wonderful son and father. It's difficult if you can't get out [when it capsized] you just don't know. They even have oxygen bags on their back for going under. So I don't know if he was conscious or not. Pamela said: "Our daughter-in-law [Leah] is in pieces. She's flying back [from] America. She added: "He had so much potential. It's such a pity. Marit Bouwmeester, the Dutch Laser Radial sailor and girlfriend of quadruple Olympic gold medallist Ainslie, who rose through the ranks with Simpson in the British sailing team, tweeted: "What shocking news! RIP Bart, sailing has lost a true legend and the world has lost a great man.