SailGP is not like most traditional sailboat regattas. In fact, ‘regatta’ is a word you hardly ever hear used in the SailGP world. ‘Event’ is the preferred description of the 12 two-day racing sessions that make up the global circuit’s fifth season.
According to Russell Coutts – the Olympic gold medallist and five-time America’s Cup winner who co-founded it with American tech billionaire Larry Ellison – SailGP’s target audience is what he broadly terms as ‘racing fans’. Being honest, I’m not 100 percent sure what the term means, but based on my – wholly unscientific – survey, the grandstand crowd on the second day of the San Francisco event was an even blend of local sailboat racers and non-sailors drawn in by the glitz, glamour, and promise of high adrenaline action.
One key element of SailGP events is the way the scoring creates jeopardy on the second day of racing. Unlike most traditional top flight regattas – like a national or world championship where the overall winner is the crew with the best total score over the entire race series – in SailGP, the top three teams at the end of seven fleet races qualify for a final winner-takes-all final race to decide the event winner. It’s a format that has seen some teams stage a storming comeback from a mid-fleet position, and others give away a solid day one lead after crumbling under the pressure.
The opening race of today’s final day in San Francisco saw Gilles Scott’s Canadian team clock up a fourth place to edge a little closer to securing a berth in the final. However, a tenth in the next race put them under pressure to perform in the seventh and final fleet race.
Meanwhile, the other top two teams were both sailing well – Australia (5,2) and Spain (3,1) – as was France, who won the first race of the day, only to be given a 20-second penalty that dropped them to second for impeding Dylan Fletcher’s British team after the finish.
Going into the final fleet race the San Francisco bay fog closed in around the racing area, heightening the tension and adding to the atmosphere. Spain and Canada were tied on points at the top. Australia were in third, with France still a major threat in fourth. Everyone knew that there was plenty that could happen to shake up the leaderboard but what no-one expected was for Australia’s rig to come tumbling down in the final seconds to the start.
Happily, Slingsby and his crew were able to scramble to cover and everyone avoided injury.
While the salvage operation began to get the AUS boat back to shore, back on the racecourse Peter Burling’s New Zealand crew showed the scintillating form that everyone knows they are capable of to take the win, ahead of the hard charging Spanish in second and the fired-up French in third.
With Australia unable to race, Quentin Delapierre’s fourth placed France crew were into the final. It’s worth noting here that the French team principal Bruno Dubois offered the Australians the option to use their boat in the final. Classy move.
The final saw the Spanish reprise their Season 4 Grand Final-winning performance from last year here in San Francisco to out gun the Canadian and French. France won the start and extended on the first downwind leg after locking into their own private band of breeze that saw them round the left-hand leeward gate (looking upwind) more than 100 metres ahead.
Spain rounded third but split away from the other two on the following upwind leg, heading out to the middle of the bay where they found a dream shift and extra pressure that – despite dealing with extra adverse tide – saw them streak into a lead they never looked like relinquishing. It was a performance that will have re-energised the Spanish crew’s season and has put them back in the running for the season overall.
Canada hung on to finish second – their third podium in as many events – with France trailing in third.
Despite missing out on today’s final Australia moves to the top of the table, one point ahead of Great Britain, and a further two points ahead of Spain. Behind them, New Zealand remains in fourth and Canada in fifth.
The big question now is whether the Australian F50 can be repaired in time for SailGP’s next event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on May 3-4 – six weeks from now.
Aside from needing to replace the rig which is a total loss there are questions about the structural integrity of the boat.
“The hull received quite a bit of damage,” a shocked looking Tom Slingsby told me afterwards. “We've really got to check the back beam where the wing fell. And that's a really important part of the boat, and if that is cracked that’s a major problem that will take a long time to fix.
“Other than that, I think everything else is okay. I think the foils are fine. I think the front element is fine. We have a bit of cosmetic damage all around the boat, but the big check will be the back beam.”
Fingers crossed that the SailGP tech team can work their magic and have Slingsby and Co. on the startline in Brazil.
