America's Cup To Go Ahead Despite Andrew Simpson Death

The organisers of the America's Cup have confirmed the 2013 event will go ahead despite the death of south coast Olympian Andrew Simpson.

The 36-year-old sailor, who lived in Sherborne in Dorset, died after being trapped under water when his Artemis yacht capsized and broke up last Thursday. He was married with two young children.

An investigation has already been launched into the training accident ahead of the 34th America's Cup, which is set to begin on 7th September in San Francisco Bay.

Tom Ehman, the vice-commodore of the Golden Gate Yacht Club (the America's Cup Trustee), said:

"The America's Cup will go ahead this summer.

"We will see the world's best sailors racing at the highest level on one of the most iconic race tracks in sport."

The race will be between defending champions Oracle and the winner of the challenger series with Sweden-based Artemis, Team New Zealand and Italy's Luna Rossa.

America's Cup bosses met with representatives from the four teams today to announce they had appointed a panel to look into safety at the race, with San Francisco police investigating the circumstances surrounding Simpson's death.

The committee will look into training and racing of the AC72 yachts for the 2013 version of the race.

A statement on the official America's Cup website read:

'The review committee will make its recommendations following the loss of Artemis Racing crew member Andrew 'Bart' Simpson (GBR) in a training accident on San Francisco Bay on Thursday of last week.

'Members of the committee have strong backgrounds in the sport at its highest levels as well as involvement in other reviews where an incident at sea has claimed the life of a competitor.'