SailGP’s fleet of foiling F50 catamarans will return to racing action this week after a long hiatus for fleetwide rig repairs. Those repairs saw May’s Rio de Janeiro, Brazil event called off, making this weekend’s regatta, to be staged off the southern tip of New York’s Manhattan island, the event six of the circuit’s fifth season.
Diego Botín's Spanish team will start the event in third place in the overall standings – just two points behind Dylan Fletcher's British Emirates GBR SailGP Team and three points off the leaders – Tom Slingsby’s Australia SailGP Team.
The Spanish team were victorious overall in the previous season of the international high-performance sailing tour, and recently won best team and best promotional project (for their Foiling Base Cádiz setup) at the eighth edition of the Foiling Awards, held at the Palazzo della Borsa in Genoa, Italy. Meanwhile their coach Simone Salvà was also honoured at the Foiling Awards as Coach of the Year.
The young Spanish team is built around helmsman Botín (31) and wing trimmer Florián Trittel (31) – the pair who raced to gold together in the 49er class at Paris 2024 – and also includes flight controller Joel Rodríguez (27); grinders Joan Cardona (27), Portugal’s Bernardo Freitas (35), and Matthew Barber (ESP/GBR). Nicole van der Velden (30) is the team’s strategist.
This season so far the Spanish team – known as 'Los Gallos' (The Roosters) – has struggled for consistency.
The Spanish finished fourth in Dubai in the first event of the season, followed by a second place in Auckland, New Zealand, a seventh in Sydney, Australia, a fifth in Los Angeles – before pulling off a stunning victory at the last event in San Francisco at the end of March.
Reflecting on that victory, Botín said that it was the first time this season that the team managed to put everything together in a full weekend.
"Until San Francisco, we hadn't had a full weekend where we performed in every race. This win has given us a lot of confidence for the rest of the season. At the beginning of the season, the feeling in the team was that we had strong points, but we weren't managing to consolidate things. We were just behind the top teams, who had a lead over us in the season points standings.
“We needed a good performance [in San Francisco] to get our feelings back on track. We knew it was an important moment for us to do well in San Francisco."
Commenting on the super high standard of the 12-boat fleet competing in SailGP Season 5, Botín said: “All the teams are benefiting from the experience of several seasons on the water and from the 'data exchange’ [SailGP shares the live performance data from all the teams]. We're all constantly improving."
Pundits agree that the racing so far has been even more entertaining than in previous seasons – predominantly because it is virtually impossible to predict a sure-fire winner at any event. So far there have been different winners at all five events.
A key factor in all that is the changes to the format of the weekend events. Previously, a typical SailGP event included five fleet races: three on the first day and two on the second, followed by the final with a single winner. This season, the goal is to hold as many fleet races as possible – usually seven: four on the first day and three on the second, followed by the final.
"This way, the best teams have a better chance of reaching the final thanks to the laws of probability," Botín noted. "There's more action, more starts, and a fleet of twelve boats."
Added to the high level of competition is the fact that the boats have been souped-up for Season 5 with new faster t-shaped foils.
Looking ahead to this weekend’s New York event, Botín said the Spanish crew would need to be on top of their game to hang on to their podium position. The Spain sailors will be looking to improve on their result in New York in Season 4, when they finished seventh in the then 10-boat fleet.
"We must remain alert for New York and the second half of the season,” he said. “This season has already been marred by dramatic incidents, capsizes, and collisions – leading to devastating penalties for many teams."
"There's a fine line between avoiding incidents and not being aggressive enough," Botín concluded.
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