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A Friday night rum race on Auckland’s Harbour ended with a night in hospital for a member of one of New Zealand’s most famous sailing families.

Jasmine Whiting, who is married to former America’s Cup sailor Carl (Tiny) Whiting and is the daughter-in-law of well-known sailor Penny Whiting, suffered a suborbital fracture under her left eye during a fall on the couple’s boat.

Jasmine joked she couldn’t even make up a great story to explain the injury as there were too many witnesses to the fall onboard the Davidson 55 Emotional Rescue.

“I just plain slipped over and landed straight on my face – all while the sun was still up.”

The couple, who have the sailing school Whiting Sailing, had just returned to the dock after a successful rum race with the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron on their boat when Jasmine fell.

“We were getting ready for prizegiving and for me, it was really exciting because we came first and it was my 30th birthday weekend.

“I was standing on the side deck and stupidly caught my toe on one of the dock lines and fell forward.”

All Jasmine had to grab onto was the steering wheel which swung down and propelled her face-first onto the emergency steering rudder stock.

“It’s basically a big pyramid-shaped mound of steel and I went face-first into that with the weight of my body. I don’t remember much after that until I was nearly at the hospital.”

Jasmine spent the night in hospital under observation until a CT scan early the next morning revealed the fracture.

“They thought I had a concussion and a few cuts until the CT scan showed I had done a good amount of damage.

Jasmine was moved to Greenlane Hospital to see an ophthalmologist who checked her retina wasn’t damaged. She was cleared to go home in time to celebrate mother-in-law Penny’s birthday.

“Penny’s birthday was the day after I injured myself and then mine was on the 31st so we always do a shared celebration,” Jasmine said.

Despite her injury and a concussion, Jasmine pushed ahead with 30th birthday celebrations at Onetangi, Waiheke Island.

“I thought I am going to be laid up at home for my birthday I may as well do it on the beach somewhere, Jasmine said.

“So we still sailed out and spent the weekend on the boat which was awesome. We all brought pirate eye patches along but we managed to get away with big sunglasses.”

Jasmine is booked for surgery today where doctors will go in through the eye socket and secure a titanium mesh plate to repair the fracture.

“I know they lift the eye and go in through the eyelid, no external incisions, and no stitches. It is pretty amazing.”

“They have a scale model and they showed us exactly how they will place the plate.”

Jasmine is expecting a bit of recovery time with blurred vision, bruising, and the after-effects of the concussion.

“I will have to get back to normal pretty quickly because our life is busy with seven kids between us.”

That includes 18-month-old D’Arcy, named after Penny’s father, celebrated sailor D’Arcy Whiting.

“I will still have quite blurry vision for a while and another round of bruising because they are going into the area that was injured.”

“All going well I should be back to good vision and back to rum racing in a few weeks.”

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