The pilot who crashed his powerboat in St George’s on Sunday says he is grateful to have walked away from his ordeal with only minor injuries.

Jevone Morrissey and co-pilot Jordan Place’s BV class boat suffered a mechanical breakdown, which forced them to veer off course and crash into one of the old railway bridge pylons stretching between Coney and St George’s islands.

“As we started to make our approach to the pylons we experienced a hydraulic malfunction with one of the trim tabs,” Morrissey told The Royal Gazette.

“Having this malfunction caused the boat to veer off, sending us directly into the pylon. We both received non-life threatening injuries and we are glad we were able to walk away from this.

“The boat received damage to the bow, as everybody has seen in the video that's been going around, and we are just grateful we were able to walk away.”

Morrissey offered his thanks and appreciation to all those who came to the pair’s rescue after the incident which occurred in the first of two scheduled races and brought an early end to the Bermuda Power Boat Association’s race day.

“I want to give many thanks and appreciation to any, and everybody, that helped me and my co-pilot yesterday,” he said.

BPBA commodore Janae Nesbitt is also thankful that her members have emerged from the mishap relatively unscathed.

“We are just grateful that both drivers are doing well and they are on the road to recovery,” she said.

“They are home resting with no major injuries or anything like that but are just a bit banged up and bruised. We are just grateful that it was not as serious as it initially appeared.”

Nesbitt also praised those involved in the swift response.

“I just want to say thank you to everybody who was on scene and was there to assist, especially our crash boat that was first to arrive within seconds of the incident,” she said.

“The coastguard, who as soon as I made the call was right there, Harbour Radio and pretty much all the agencies who came out to assist during the time of need because obviously without them without them this would not be possible.

“I definitely have to big up my crash boats because without them the response yesterday would have never been what it was.

“I definitely have to say thank you again to them because we appreciate them and we had the right guys in the right places at the right time so were able to provide a quick response. I have to give them their props.”

The commodore said she plans to convene a meeting this week to look into the circumstances surrounding the incident.

“We are going to have a committee meeting this week, debrief and we'll go from there,” she said.

Morrissey is looking forward to making a full recovery and getting back to racing at the earliest opportunity.

“Once health has been restored and we get back on our feet, we will pick things up and continue on,” Morrissey said.