Former Team USA CEO and skipper Jimmy Spithill will take the wheel of Team Australia's “Flying Roo” foiling catamaran in SailGP's Dubai regatta on Dec. 9-10 while friend and countryman Tom Slingsby is on paternity leave. Slingsby's wife, Helena, is expecting the couple's first child. Spithill, a two-time America's Cup champion, is available to fill in for Slingsby after leaving Team USA prior to its sale to a private American group on Wednesday.
Jimmy Spithill barely made it into the podium race and then brilliantly skippered Team USA to victory in the Spain Sail Grand Prix Cádiz on Sunday, three weeks after crewman Hans Henken was seriously injured. Spithill dedicated Team USA's first victory of SailGP's fourth season to Henken, the flight controller who was knocked unconscious when the team's 50-foot catamaran crashed hard off its foils on the first day of the regatta at Taranto, Italy. Henken was hospitalized for two nights with unspecified injuries and now is back in the United States recovering.
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