SailGP: New and improved for Season 3

Published on May 7th, 2022

After the Australian team dominated the first two seasons of the SailGP, the field gets reset again as the third season of the global sports league commences on May 14-15 in Bermuda.

SailGP Season 3 features an expanded calendar that spans 2022-23 and combines previous SailGP venues such as Bermuda, Plymouth, Saint-Tropez, Cádiz and San Francisco with new destinations including Chicago, Copenhagen, Dubai, Singapore, and New Zealand. One final venue is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, to make up an 11-event season.

Not only is the season busier but so is the race course, with two new franchise teams – Canada and Switzerland – boosting the program to ten crews. Phil Robertson – a SailGP driver known for his aggressive tactics who finished third in Season 1 – will start Season 3 in new team colors, as driver of the Canada team. At the other end of the spectrum will be the youngest driver in SailGP with Sébastien Schneiter – age 26 – at the wheel of the newly formed Switzerland team.

They will join established names and highly decorated athletes including Tom Slingsby (AUS), Sir Ben Ainslie (GBR), Jimmy Spithill (USA), Peter Burling (NZL), Quentin Delapierre (FRA), Jordi Xammar (ESP) and Nicolai Sehested (DEN).

One of the casualties from the new teams joining the league is Nathan Outteridge’s Japan team. Runner-up in both Season 1 and 2, Outteridge finds himself without a boat for the start of the season with only nine boats available, due to a series of external factors that has meant the tenth boat cannot be completed in time.

In order for Canada to enter the league, the Japan SailGP Team will sit out the first events of the season. SailGP is working hard to get boat 10 completed and it is expected to be ready to race from the fourth event in Copenhagen allowing for shipping, structural testing and sea trials. The difficult decision – after much deliberation – was made based on logistical and commercial considerations.

For the second season running, each of the teams will include female athletes as part of SailGP’s Women’s Pathway, which aims to fast-track the training and development of female athletes with the goal of creating an inclusive sporting championship that has gender equity. In a bid to accelerate the program, for Season 3, each team will have three female athletes join throughout the season to gain vital training and racing experience on the F50.

In Season 3 the stakes will be higher for the SailGP Championship. Increased prize money will be awarded to the top three teams at each event as a bonus. For teams that shine in the Impact League, which tracks a team’s inclusivity and pollution, they will also win prize money on behalf of their purpose partners to help them further increase their impact.

The league will ensure that it continues to have a positive impact wherever it races, working with host cities on a minimum of one local impact project focusing on clean energy and blue carbon restoration. Through the SailGP community outreach program Inspire and through its three pillars – Learning, Careers and Racing – it has engaged over 8,000 young people around the globe, well on its way to reaching its target of 10,000 young people by 2025.

New teams will have to get to grips quickly with the high-speed, hydro-foiling F50’s. True to its ethos of innovation, all F50s have been fitted with upgrades for Season 3 – designed to increase speed and stability around the race course, which will likely see the F50 beat its current top racing speed of 98.3 kph (53.08 knots).

Upgraded control systems with new steering wheels, foils, and rudders will be tested and installed on all boats during the season. Built by SailGP Technologies in New Zealand, the new hydrofoil has been designed as a T foil with the horizontal wing machined in titanium, allowing the foil to be thinner than the ones currently used in SailGP’s F50s.

This delays the onset of cavitation – where at high speeds, very low pressure is created on the suction side of the foil, where the water literally vaporizes or boils around the foil, causing a big loss in performance with more drag and instability.

“The vision, when we set up the league, was to create an annual championship with a global calendar of events where the very best professional sailing athletes compete against each other on an equal footing, thereby growing their fan base and building brand equity and commercial sustainability in the teams for each competing nation,” notes SailGP CEO Sir Russell Coutts.

“By achieving that, it creates a consistent pathway for future talented young athletes to aspire to be part of. We also wanted to have a positive impact in the cities where we race and lead by example in the preservation of our environment, especially in creating and utilizing clean energy solutions.

“As we embark on an expanded calendar for Season 3 – that sees racing take place in some of the most iconic cities around the world and includes the addition of two new franchise teams – I am really excited about the future of SailGP. Personally I can’t wait to see how this next season unfolds and which of our teams will be victorious in both our Season Championship and our Impact League.”

2022-23 SailGP Season 3 Schedule*
May 14-15, 2022 – Bermuda Sail Grand Prix presented by Hamilton Princess
June 18-19, 2022 – United States Sail Grand Prix | Chicago at Navy Pier
July 30-31, 2022 – Great Britain Sail Grand Prix | Plymouth
August 18-19, 2022 – ROCKWOOL Denmark Sail Grand Prix | Copenhagen
September 9-10, 2022 – France Sail Grand Prix | Saint-Tropez
September 23-24, 2022 – Spain Sail Grand Prix | Andalucía – Cádiz
November 11-12, 2022 – Dubai Sail Grand Prix presented by P&O Marinas
January 14-15, 2023 – Singapore Sail Grand Prix
March 17-18, 2023 – New Zealand Sail Grand Prix | Christchurch
May 6-7, 2023 – United States Sail Grand Prix | San Francisco (Season 3 Grand Final)
*One further event is expected to be announced to complete SailGP Season 3.

2022-23 Teams, Helm
Australia, Tom Slingsby
Canada, Phil Robertson
Denmark, Nicolai Sehested
France, Quentin Delapierre
Great Britain, Ben Ainslie
Japan, Nathan Outteridge
New Zealand, Peter Burling
Spain, Jordi Xammar
Switzerland, Sébastien Schneiter
United States, Jimmy Spithill


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Format for 2021-22 SailGP events:
• Teams compete in identical F50 catamarans.
• 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 earn prize money and 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.


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 for event prize money as the season culminates with a $1 million winner-takes-all match race.

Source: SailGP

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