WIZARDS IN OZ

After Ainslie’s spectacular series debut, ROB KOTHE speaks to SailGP skippers on the lessons learned in Sydney, and finds out what’s next from Russell Coutts

- ROB KOTHE

SailGP first blasted onto the sailing scene in February 2019 with six F50 foiling catamarans (an upgraded version of the AC50s sailed in the 2017 America’s Cup) – the fastest one-design boats in the world. As fans will know, the fleet raced in iconic venues around the globe, under a nationality rule, in a series funded by Larry Ellison and run by Sir Russell Coutts. They certainly had our attention.

SERIES RECAP

In season one, two teams stacked with Bermuda veterans – Tom Slingsby and his Australian Team and Nathan Outteridge with Team Japan – dominated the circuit. Still, the new teams from China, Great Britain, France and the USA improved rapidly. Shared telemetry from all the boats, meant they could quickly learn to tack like Tom and gybe like Nathan, and dry laps soon became the norm.

After racing in Sydney, San Francisco, New York and Cowes, the two leading teams faced each other in a grand final in Marseille. In the 10-minute winner-takes-all $1 million match race, Team Japan led for much of the time, but late in proceedings they failed to cover; Team Australia SailGP found pressure on the opposite side of the course, narrowly beating the Japan team to the mark and sailing to victory.

It had been an excellent first season for the fledging circuit. In late January, Coutts announced that entertainment and event management giant Endeavour had taken a stake in the year-old organisation, valuing it at S$200m. The new stakeholder would be putting its shoulder to the promotional and content distribution wheel.