SailGP Emirates GBR Sailing Team Claim Hard-Fought Victory While Team USA Pulls Out in Sydney
Thousands of SailGP fans crowded the waterways and land-based vantage points as the recently expanded fleet of 12 international foiling catamarans fought it out tooth and nail much to the delight of race organizers and fans alike. Your faithful SpinSheet reporter was on hand in Sydney to feel all the action on a fluky weekend on Sydney’s iconic harbor.
This was Craig Ligibel’s 4th Sydney Sail GP event. He was present at the first contest in 2019 when the fleet only numbered five boats. Australia won that event by a wide margin. Aussie driver Tom Slingsby proved to be almost unbeatable during the series’ first several years. Now, the fleet has caught up to him with a total of 12 international boats vying for the $2+ million winner take all season-end first place prize as well as shares of an in-season prize pool totaling in excess of $9 million.
The GBR team won this Sydney event with consistent finishes in all seven fleet races including two-first place finishes and a nail-biting victory in the three-boat final featuring Australia and Canada. Crowd favorite Team Australia incurred a pre-start penalty which put the Aussie boat behind the 8-ball from the start of the race. That penalty proved too much to overcome.
Capsize!
But all the action was not confined to the three leading contenders. There was the little matter of Team USA capsizing while being towed to the racecourse on Practice Day 1.
League co-founder and SailGP CEO Russell Coutts unleased some uncharacteristic fireworks directed at the US team with what could be construed as an ultimatum to improve the quality of their on-water performance. In his prerace summary, the stone-faced Coutts said he was “incredibly disappointed” in the US team’s performance in Auckland and suggested they might have to look at making changes if Sydney didn’t go any better.
“They can’t blame their newness in the boats anymore—they’ve had a lot more time than teams like Red Bull Italy and Mubadala Brazil, which beat them in Auckland,” Coutts said.
“We have seen them on the podium twice, but both times it was in non-foiling conditions and with a four-person crew configuration. There’s clearly a massive gap between them and the top teams in foiling conditions and it’s looking like we’ll have foiling conditions this weekend ... and we have Los Angeles and San Francisco coming up next.
“If this weekend doesn’t produce a better result, they’ll need to put their egos aside and start thinking of bringing some of the incredible, young US talent into their line-up—great young sailors like Harry Melges, Riley Gibbs or Richard Didham who all performed with distinction in the recent Moth World Championships in Auckland.”
The US boat’s capsize as it was being towed onto the racecourse for practice brought home Coutts point in dramatic fashion. The wing was damaged by a crew error and was not able to be repaired in time to compete. The top of the vessel’s wing sail was damaged and with such a short timeframe before racing, the team were unable to get the boat back in race shape.
“The incident that occurred on our way to practice racing yesterday has left the team in a very difficult position,” US SailGP Team chief executive and strategist Mike Buckley said.
“Our shore team and the league’s tech team did an incredible job to recover our F50, and they’ve been working nonstop overnight to repair the damage sustained to the top of our wing.
“However, given the impact, we’ve not been able to return the boat to a safe, working condition today and sadly that means we won’t be out there this weekend racing.” It’s the second time in as many seasons that the US team have been forced out of an event due to capsizing their boat – they went through the same situation in Bermuda last May.
SailGP data analyst David Rey said the cause of the capsize in Sydney was very similar to the incident in Bermuda, with a crew member pushing a button to invert the wing, turning it against the wind.
Coutts stopped short of issuing an ultimatum, but it was clear the SailGP boss has put an informal deadline for the US team to improve.
What's next?
The Sydney event was the third regatta in the 2025 season. After Sydney the points standings are: GBR 27; Australia 24; Spain and New Zealand 20.
From here, the high-flying fleet will move to Los Angeles on March 16-17 and to San Francisco March 23-24. The circuit consists of a total of 14 regattas held in spectacular venues such Rio de Janeiro, Geneva and Cadiz
League principal Russell Coutts has been a vociferous cheerleader for the circuit since its inception. He told me, “This thing is just going to get bigger and better with more teams each year and more fans being exposed to the teams and their personalities.”
Six years ago the fleet debuted to an estimated crowd of 20,000. This year’s numbers were well in excess of that. Fans hugged the shoreside vantage points as well as hanging out in their own or charter boats to catch the thrilling high-speed action. Favorite vantage point was Shark Island where the well-heeled paid $300 US for transport, VIP seating and a picnic basket filled with goodies and adult beverages.
US Sail GP CEO Mike Buckley is looking forward to the next two events to be staged in US home waters. There is also another US event planned for New York in early June. The Grand Finale will be held for the first time in Abu Dhabi in late November.
The Sydney event was the second regatta featuring the new T-shaped foil design. This revolutionary new addition will result in faster speeds and better control. After nearly two years of rigorous testing, SailGP has rolled out its new high-speed titanium ‘T-foils,’ across the league’s international F50 fleet.
To date, T-Foils have been trialed under limited conditions – primarily by the Canada SailGP Team, who performed a series of tests over the development period in SailGP’s fourth season. In training, Canada – led by former driver Phil Robertson – recorded a top speed of 101.98 km/h – surpassing the league’s current speed record (in racing) of 99.94 km/h, achieved by the France SailGP Team in Saint-Tropez in Season 3.
The T-Foils will replace the existing ‘L-Foils,’ that have been used since SailGP’s inception in 2019. Constructed from machined titanium and carbon, the high-speed T-Foils have thinner sections than the current L-Foils, reducing drag at high speeds.
Find tickets for the upcoming US leg of Sail GP at SailGP.com.
By Craig Ligibel
