Australia's third event victory in four Finals, sealed with a commanding performance in the winner-takes-all Final on Bermuda's Great Sound, extends their championship lead to 10 points. Back-to-back wins. Ruthless execution. A skipper who sounds like a man who knows exactly what he has.
"The team was unbelievably well together — we were jelling," said Slingsby. "We have a really good dynamic going, and I'm looking forward to seeing where that takes us in New York."
But Slingsby's squad know all too well that the Spanish are not going away.
Diego Botín's Los Gallos entered Championship Sunday in Bermuda level on points with the Flying Roos, and spent the weekend reminding the fleet why they are reigning Season 4 champions. Race 5 was a masterclass — wire-to-wire, cold and authoritative, their 20th SailGP race win — delivered in the kind of lighter breeze that exposed the rest of the fleet while Spain simply sailed away.
Four Finals appearances in 2026. Zero event victories. That is not a pace problem or a consistency problem. It is a conversion problem, and Botín knows it. A momentary foiling error in the Bermuda event final forced Spain into an aggressive split-tack gamble that Australia never needed to respond to.
"It obviously hurts not to have converted any of the four finals we've made," Botín said. "But the overall feeling within the team is very positive. We're sailing well, we're consistently putting ourselves in contention, and I'm confident the wins will come."
The weekend's other headline belonged to Erik Heil's Germany by Deutsche Bank, who muscled their way into the Final through Race 7 — a tense last-chance shootout — for their first event final appearance of the season. Although never really in contention during the three-way shootout, the German's third place in Bermuda moves them up to sixth for the season.
Other performances worth of note included the British, who – although clearly not firing on all cylinders yet after their disastrous last place in Rio – were much improved. A fourth place overall in Bermuda sees them hang on to their second place in the Season 6 standings, albeit with a 10 point deficit to the Australians and a single pint lead over the Spanish.
Despite a strong opening day performance in Bermuda that saw them win the opening race and chalk up a 4,3,3 scoreline for the rest of the day, Taylor Canfield's American crew struggled on the Sunday and had to be content with a fifth place finish for the weekend – a score that dropped them from third to fourth in the season leaderboard.
Also worthy of a mention are the Swiss, whose 10,8,4,6, Saturday scoreline and 7,2,6 on Sunday, was good enough to place them fifth overall for the weekend, and lift them out of last place in the Season 6 rankings up to eleventh.
The championship moves to New York next, and for the first time in 2026 the contours of the title race are coming into sharp focus. Australia are dominant and accelerating. Spain are consistent, dangerous and overdue an event victory.
Ten points is a gap. It is not a gulf. And with Botín's crew showing no signs of blinking, Slingsby's Flying Roos will know that every remaining event matters.
If this battle goes the distance, the second half of Season 6 could be well worth watching.
Season 6 Leaderboard after five events
