High speed shrinks Sydney Harbor

Sydney, Australia (February 7, 2019) – As the inaugural SailGP season nears its first event, Sydney Harbor witnessed the SailGP F50s of Australia, China, Great Britain, France, Japan and the United States lined up for the first time prior to the competition on February 15 and 16.

The teams hit the water in their identical, 2,400kg supercharged catamarans as part of the first official Sydney SailGP rehearsal. The spectacle included a practice start, before the teams completed laps of the race track.

The F50s are the fastest and most technologically advanced class of race boat in the world, anticipated to reach speeds of 50+ knots. Based on the America’s Cup Class from the 35th Match in 2017, refinements made in Whangarei, New Zealand are now getting in anger by the teams set to compete in the 2019 5-event season.

Australia’s boat is emblazoned with a giant kangaroo, Australia flag, and green and gold paint, while other livery highlights included the fire-breathing dragon of China’s F50 and patriotic stars and stripes of the the U.S. boat.

“We’ve been working on bringing SailGP to life for a long time, so to see it all coming together like this, on one of the most iconic harbours in the world, is pretty special,” said Australian skipper and Olympic gold medallist Tom Slingsby.

“Sydney Harbour feels tiny when you’re sailing just one of these boats, so with six all lined up and racing together, it’s going to be a spectacle, that’s for sure. We’ll be fighting hard to give our home crowd the result we know this Australian team is capable of.”

SailGP details – Sydney details – Team rosters – Schedule

ABOUT SAILGP:
Established in 2018 and headquartered in London and San Francisco, SailGP seeks to be an annual, global sports league featuring fan-centric, inshore racing in some of the iconic harbors around the globe and culminates with a $1 million winner-takes-all match race. Rival national teams from Australia, China, France, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States battle it out in identical wing-powered, foiling F50 catamarans, engineered to exceed 50 knots.

2019 Schedule
Sydney, Australia (February 15-16)
San Francisco, USA (May 4-5)
New York, USA (June 21-22)
Cowes, UK (August 10-11)
Marseille, France (September 20-22)