The 12-strong SailGP F50 catamaran fleet will return to action this weekend in New York after a long period of downtime after the last event in San Francisco. Back then, during the pre-start of the final race of the fleet racing, the rig on Tom Slingsby’s Australian boat came crashing down in spectacular fashion.
A full examination of the wings across the rest of the fleet revealed serious issues – specifically, a potential defect in the bonding of the core material in the shear web which could compromise the towering rig’s structural integrity.
Agonisingly, the repair schedule for all of this – which SailGP managing director Andrew Thompson described as the “almost re-manufacture of 12 wing sails in the last month or so” – necessitated the cancellation of the Brazilian stage of the tour, which was scheduled for early May in Rio de Janeiro.
Now, after an 11-week pause, the SailGP teams are fired up and ready to do battle once again. Whether there will be any ring rustiness from the sailors remains to be seen, but all will be glad to be back racing. Hats off to the SailGP organisers for coordinating such a complicated logistics and repair process, that reportedly involved diverting ships in transit, and required the coordinated efforts of both the SailGP Technology organisation in the UK and technical staff at the American Magic facility in Pensacola, Florida.
Perhaps the most tentative crew to sheet-on will be the Australians who narrowly avoided injury when their mast came crashing down along the length of the boat.
“In the moment we were just happy that everyone was OK – it could have gone a lot worse for us,” Slingsby said at the opening press conference, shortly after the announcement of the team’s takeover by Hollywood stars Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, and a title sponsorship deal with Australian underwear company Bonds.
“I have been really impressed by the way SailGP has conducted the investigation into what went wrong. I was involved with a lot of the calls with the designers discussing what went wrong, what load cases happened. I am very comfortable that the changes they have made – not only to our boat but across the fleet – are the right ones, and that the wings will be a lot safer now.”
Expect business as usual from the battle-hardened Aussies this weekend and for them to come out all guns blazing from the get-go.
Nicolai Sehested’s Rockwool Denmark crew have had a longer absence from racing than the rest having destroyed a foil wing during a too-tight mark rounding in the Los Angeles event back in March this year. That also forced them out of the subsequent event in San Francisco meaning the Danes have not raced for 12 weeks.
With their grand final hopes already in tatters, the Rockwool crew will be racing for pride for the rest of this season. We could see a bolder, less conservative, strategy from Sehested & Co. as the team looks to salvage something from Season 5 in the form of race and event wins. The only way is up for Denmark’s finest, who have brought in Kahena Kunze on loan from the Brazilians for the rest of the season, to stand-in for the pregnant Anne-Marie Rindom.
Lower-ranked teams – like Martine Grael’s Mubadala Brazil, Eric Heil’s Germany Deutsche Bank, Sébastien Schneiter’s Switzerland, and Taylor Canfield’s United States – will doubtless be looking for a good result in New York to act as a springboard for the rest of their seasons.
Meanwhile, at the top end of the leaderboard the three current podium teams – Slingsby’s Australia, Dylan Fletcher’s Emirates GBR, and Diego Botin’s Spain, who are all separated by just three points – will be aiming to defend their top three positions against the chasing pack.
In prime spot to attack the podium is Peter Burling’s Black Foils New Zealand crew which sits in fourth place, just one point behind the Spanish. Hot on the Kiwis’ heels however is Giles Scott’s Canadian NorthStar team who sit in fifth – one point adrift. After a shaky start to Season 5 Scott appears to have steadied the ship and the Canadians have been on a charge, after clocking up a 2-1-2 scoreline over the last three events in Sydney, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“We’re all on that upward trajectory and we’re all working super hard behind the scenes to make sure we’re taking whatever gains we can,” Scott said at the New York press conference. “It’s close at the top and hopefully we can keep attacking that.”
Also not to be discounted are Quentin Delapierre’s France who sit in sixth – a further six points back. The French looked impressive at times in San Francisco and have proved themselves well capable of winning races when it all clicks aboard the French boat. Finding consistency will be the key for Delapierre’s crew if they are to close the gap on the top of the table.
Conditions in New York could be light over the weekend and with a tighter course than in San Francisco – that could also involve negotiating Governors Island – and 12 boats on the start line for the first time, there will be a premium on good starts, slick boat handling, and strategic fleet management. Let’s pray for decent breezes to make sure we see foiling racing rather than a displacement drift-a-thon.
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