Giles Scott on NorthStar's path forward

Image © Ricardo Pinto for SailGP

Giles Scott’s first season as skipper of the NorthStar SailGP team saw the Canadian-flagged syndicate close out 2025 in sixth place overall. Not a disastrous result, for sure, but the British double Olympic medallist says the team set its sights on becoming a top tier contender on the international circuit in the long term.

There’s no denying the Canadian team had its fair share of highs and lows in Season 5. After starting with a sixth in the opening event in Dubai, a pre-race high-speed nosedive on the second day in Auckland saw Canadian flight controller Billy Gooderham hospitalised and prevented the team from any racing on the Sunday.

However, this crushing disappointment was soon forgotten after the NorthStar crew bounced back with a string of event final appearances, including a second place in Sydney, an overall victory in Los Angeles, and another second place in San Francisco. I was there for the third of those regattas and I can vouch first-hand for the fact that the Canadian crew looked for all the world like Season 5 title contenders at that event.

A disappointing seventh in New York followed the San Francisco win, and when the circuit made its way across the Atlantic for the European stage of the season it quickly became apparent that the sparkle had gone out of the Canadian campaign. After a pair of eighths in Portsmouth and Sassnitz, a tenth in Saint-Tropez, a ninth in Geneva, and a tenth in Cádiz, the team finally rallied for the final event of the year in Abu Dhabi to finish fourth.

Reflecting on his team’s Season 5 performance, Scott told me he believed that sixth overall was “a fair result, given our form over the year”.

“When I look back on the season we were a yo-yo team, ultimately,” he said. “We were either all good and flying, or we were struggling. I think sixth is where we deserve to be, given how we were racing.”