SailGP’s First Race of Season Four Set for Chicago June 16-17
After a disappointing Season Three which saw the SailGP USA team placing seventh out of nine boats in the year’s overall standings, Team CEO and boat driver Jimmy Spithill is approaching the new season with the same competitive drive that has been his hallmark over his remarkable sailboat racing career.
“We know what we have to do this coming season to finish higher in the standings. We weren’t good enough last season and didn't deserve to be in the San Francisco Final. We had an up and down season and a lot more rotation in the roster. We weren’t consistent enough. We won an event and had a couple of finals, but we had some bad results, too, and you can’t do that if you want to be in the Grand Final.”
For Team USA, Spithill says the next few events that kick off the US leg of Season Four will be key. Chicago will be the opening race for the season from June 16-17, followed by the race in Los Angeles July 22-23. The final two races of the season will be in New York from June 22-23 with San Francisco hosting the season finale July 13-14.
“We’ll have a lot of fans, friends and family coming to see us so we’d like nothing more than to put in a good performance,” Says Spithill.
The US skipper says that his goal for Season Four is to be “sitting in the top three by San Francisco (which is how the team finished Season Two) next year. We are focused on starting off strong in Chicago and make a good show of it.
“It’s always the little things that make a big difference. Our team is pretty well set for next year. The drive to win is there. We just need to do a better job of executing.”
Spithill is mindful that the fleet of F-50s gets stronger every year. Australia has won the past three season efforts, followed this year by New Zealand and Great Britain.
The Unites States managed one regatta win—Saint Tropez—to go along with a number of middle-of-pack finishes, including an eighth place finish in the inaugural Chicago event staged at Navy Pier. The US Team finished second in the weather-shortened event in Sydney last February.
Spithill took the opportunity of the last few races of the 2022-23 Season to experiment with some different crew combinations including the return of Rome Kirby as Grinder/tactician. The female strategist role is a revolving one depending on the availability of the athletes. For the Chicago event, the roster includes Paul Campbell- James as wing trimmer, Cam Farrah as designated female athlete/strategist (with CJ Perez as backup), Hans Henken as flight controller with Cooper Dressler, Mac Agnese, and Alex Sinclair sharing grinder duties.
Spithill was hopeful some of the tweaks he was making with personnel will pay dividends in the months ahead. In speaking about the recent San Francisco Event, he was pleased to see the close racing from the Aussies, New Zealand and Great Britain in the Grand Final.
“Today was about as good as it gets for our sport. Clearly we wanted to do well here,” Spithill said. “We are overdue for a good result at home, and have yet to do that, so I’m hoping that Chicago is the one. With four U.S. events in Season 4 we absolutely want to be up on the podium.”
One indication of the competitive spirit that drives Spithill to be the best is the fact that his SailGP team was the most penalized team in SailGP’s third season.
“I go hard in everything I do,” Spithill told SpinSheet at a press conference in Sydney last February. “We take chances. We push the envelope. Sometimes that results in a penalty. I’ll never back off when I think I can see an advantage.”
On the water the F50s went faster than ever, with a new top speed of 99.94 km/h recorded by the France SailGP Team at the Range Rover France Sail Grand Prix in Saint-Tropez.
SailGP Season 4 is just around the corner, starting with the Rolex United States Sail Grand Prix | Chicago at Navy Pier on June 16-17, the first of 12 events that will see new events in Los Angeles, Canada and the Middle East, alongside the return of Italy and New York to the calendar, and fan favorite locations such as Sydney, San Francisco and Saint-Tropez. Find ticketing and viewing information at SailGP.com.
From a personnel standpoint, it will be interesting to see how the SailGP teams that have a number of America’s Cup crew and skippers (Spithill for Italy; Peter Burling for New Zealand; Tom Slingsby for the United States and Sir Ben Ainslie for Great Britain) juggle the rigors of a 12-event SailGP season with the training sessions preparation for the October, 2024 America’s Cup will demand. In an interview with Tom Slingsby last year, the Aussie skipper told SpinSheet that he and American Magic CEO Terry Hutchinson have a good working relationship and that adjusting practice sessions around SailGP matches “would be difficult...but not something that we can’t overcome.”
By Craig Ligibel
