Expanding social impact commitment

As the second season of SailGP moves the F50 catamarans from the opening event in Bermuda to Taranto in Italy on June 5-6, the United States SailGP Team will be expanding its commitment to social purpose, building upon SailGP’s existing gender equity and sustainability commitments to focus on advancing diversity and inclusivity in American sailing.

As part of this commitment, the U.S. SailGP Team recognizes the high barrier to entry that currently exists for professional sailing and aims to challenge the status quo by advocating for expanded gender, racial and socioeconomic diversity in the sport through new purpose-led initiatives.

The team’s effort is part of the global sports league’s broader Race for the Future purpose-led agenda, which aims to use the league’s platform as the sport’s pinnacle league to drive meaningful change towards a better sport and a better planet.

“We feel that, as a team, representing the USA goes beyond just winning on the water, it means leading off the water as well,” said U.S. SailGP Team helm and CEO Jimmy Spithill. “We believe that the conversation around advancing diversity and inclusion in our sport is one of the most important in which we can participate and we are committed to taking an authentic, long-term approach in how we contribute to the solution.”

Prior to the Italian event, the U.S. SailGP Team will kick-off this effort on June 3 when it introduces a new, breakthrough development initiative for American athletes designed to be a catalyst for advancing greater diversity and inclusion in high-performance sailing while also engaging with communities that have historically seen low representation and exposure to the sport.

“We designed this initiative to create more opportunities and accessible entry points into the sport and we hope that our efforts will inspire further change to make competitive sailing accessible for underrepresented groups,” said Spithill. “We’d like to invite the American sailing community to join us in our mission and we look forward to sharing more in the coming weeks.”

SailGP information – Taranto details – Facebook

Format for SailGP events:
• Each event runs across two days.
• There are three races on each day, totaling six races at each event.
• The opening five fleet races involve every team.
• The final match race pits the three highest ranking teams against each other to be crowned event champion.
• The season ends with the Grand Final, which includes the Championship Final Race – a winner-takes-all match race for the $1m prize.

SailGP Season 2 Schedule*
April 24-25, 2021 – Bermuda Grand Prix
June 5-6, 2021 – Italy Grand Prix – Taranto
July 17-18, 2021 – Great Britain Grand Prix – Plymouth
August 20-21, 2021 – ROCKWOOL Denmark Grand Prix – Aarhus
September 11-12, 2021 – France Grand Prix – Saint-Tropez
October 9-10, 2021 – Spain Grand Prix – Andalusia
January 29-30, 2022 – New Zealand Grand Prix – Christchurch
March 26-27, 2022 – United States Grand Prix – San Francisco (Season 2 Grand Final)
*Subject to change

2021-22 Teams, Helm
Australia, Tom Slingsby
Denmark, Nicolai Sehested
France, Billy Besson
Great Britain, Ben Ainslie (alternate – Paul Goodison)
Japan, Nathan Outteridge
New Zealand, Peter Burling (alternate – Arnaud Psarofaghis)
Spain, Jordi Xammar (alternate – Phil Robertson)
United States, Jimmy Spithill

Established in 2018, SailGP seeks to be an annual, global sports league featuring fan-centric inshore racing in some of the iconic harbors around the globe. Rival national teams compete in identical F50 catamarans with the season culminating with a $1 million winner-takes-all match race.