Diego Botín’s Spain SailGP Team emerged victorious from a rollercoaster weekend on New York’s Hudson River, taking the win at the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix and surging to the top of the overall championship standings.
In front of packed grandstands and a buzzing spectator fleet, Botín and his crew had to dig deep in a range of weather conditions across the two-day event, eventually seeing off Peter Burling’s New Zealand Black Foils and Quentin Delapierre’s France in the three-boat, winner-takes-all final.
“We had a very emotional, up and down day – a good first race, then we struggled through the next two,” Botín reflected afterwards. “But that gave us a bit of momentum. It pushed us in the final and we are so happy to win. In the final, you must go all in and we found our groove. America is a special place for us and it's amazing to win here again.”
Spain’s win in New York backed up their previous victory in San Francisco, marking a second consecutive U.S. triumph and vaulting the team past Tom Slingsby’s Australian BONDS Flying Roos in the season leaderboard. New Zealand’s Black Foils also climbed the overall table, nudging Emirates GBR out of the top three.
Saturday’s racing saw a condensed three-person crew configuration as teams battled light breeze and strong river currents on a difficult New York racecourse. Botín’s Spanish crew came out firing with a wire-to-wire win in race one, before a hard-charging performance from the Australians gave them a victory in race two.
“It was so hectic out there!” Botín said after the opening race. “The first race suddenly we were up – we didn’t know where we were within the fleet but we got a good start and then we managed to give it our all. Managing priorities on the boat in these kinds of conditions and in different formations onboard – that's the toughest thing. You cannot stop fighting until the end.”
In the third race, Peter Burling’s Black Foils put on a masterclass in pace and positioning, becoming the first SailGP team ever to lap the fleet — a rare sight in any form of high-performance fleet racing. Foiling cleanly throughout the race and at times flying three times faster than boats stuck in displacement mode, the Kiwis won by a huge margin to close out the first day in fourth.
Filling the podium places after the first day were Spain in first, Quentin Delapierre’s France in second, and Nicolai Sehested’s Rockwool Denmark in third.
Sunday’s conditions could not have been more different, with stronger, shiftier winds, and a bumpy sea state making life extra difficult for the 12 F50 crews racing on the out-of-range light wind L-foils more suited to the previous day’s light winds.
The opening race of the day saw Martine Grael’s Mubadala Brazil SailGP Team notch up their first-ever SailGP race win – a result that many had been predicting was imminent from the Brazil team after making steady gains over the first five events of their first season.
“Well, that was amazing – I've been saying this quite a lot this week – we've been ticking lots of boxes,” Grael said. “This [fleet race win] is the first of a lot of things this week. I think it's good to know that we are working in the right way. Our eyes are broadening a little bit, we are getting more corner vision and being able to see more on the race course. I know it’s working the right way.”
Unfortunately, an eleventh place finish in the final fleet race denied Brazil their first-ever appearance in an event final. Despite winning two races over the weekend, Slingsby’s Australian crew saw their chances fade after an uncharacteristically inconsistent performance in the other races.
For Taylor Canfield and the United States SailGP Team, support from the home crowd was a silver lining on what proved to be a tough event.
“We could hear them cheering for us as we came by, and that's super cool,” Canfield said. “I'm so proud to represent our country and we're lucky to have this third (US) event. We made gains this week, so we’ve got to keep our eye on that prize. We just keep chipping away at it and it'll come – it's within reach.”
The deciding three-boat final brought together Spain, New Zealand, and France for a tense showdown on the Hudson. With the shifty breeze becoming increasingly gusty and strong current still in play, nothing was certain until the final leg. Botín and his Spanish crew nailed the start and quickly found their rhythm, keeping the boat consistently foiling through the patchy pressure zones. A late start saw France struggling to get into the fight, leaving New Zealand and the Spanish to slug it out.
There was nothing in it at the first windward gate, before an unexpected move by Spain saw them split away to the right-hand mark. At first it looked like the Spanish had handed the lead to the Kiwis who bore away at speed around the left mark. However, Botín’s crew found more wind on their side of the course and extended their lead at the next leeward gate.
From there the Spaniards kept it clean on the final upwind. They led comfortably around the final mark before powering to victory by a significant margin.
“In the final, you must go all in,” Botín said. “And today, we did.”
Having delivered back-to-back wins in the last two events Spain now top the overall SailGP Season 5 championship leaderboard — an impressive run of form heading into the second half of the season.
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