Spain wins SailGP Los Angeles

In just his fifth event at the helm of an F50, Spanish driver Diego Botin led his Spain SailGP Team to a stunning victory at the Oracle Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix on July 22-23 in Los Angeles, CA. In his first-ever event final, Botin delivered a perfect start and was never caught to defeat Nicolai Sehested’s ROCKWOOL Denmark and defending SailGP champions Tom Slingsby’s Australia.

Spain had squeaked into the final after finishing ninth in the final qualifier race, barely beating the time limit to edge out Phil Robertson’s Canada for the final spot by one point.

The venue, known as Hurricane Gulch, failed to live up to its branding as lighter winds prevailed, particularly on the second day with the F50s doing more floating than foiling. The course, located in the northern end of the Port of Los Angeles, was the smallest offered for a SailGP event.

“This is amazing, we have been through some quite hard times as a team lately, and we really didn’t expect this to happen, we are behind the other teams in some areas, but we got in a good position,” said Botin. “It’s such a small course anything can happen and we managed to pull the win off, it’s a huge motivation for the team and we are just so proud of ourselves.”

The Spanish team had struggled during Season 3, prompting SailGP CEO Russell Coutts to negotiate a change in leadership, with Botin taking over from Jordi Xammar late in the season. After finishing last or second to last in his first three events, Spain started Season 4 with a fifth in Chicago and now scored the victory in Los Angeles.

In his fourth event final, Sehested won the start but in the light winds struggled to get on the foils – despite the 29 meter wingsail – and couldn’t hold on at the first mark. Denmark ended up battling with Australia and allowing Spain a healthy lead. But in the light airs and the remaining minutes the fleet compressed and it looked like Denmark might snatch back the lead however Spain managed to hold on and Denmark had to settle for second in what’s been a bright start to Season 4 for the Danish team.

Sehested said: “It was a frustrating final, I think we ended up spending too much time racing Australia and didn’t ever manage to catch up to Spain as a result. But you know, Diego sailed well, he deserved the win, congratulations to them all, it’s great for the competition.”

Slingsby remarked the joy of the Spanish team took him back to his first season in SailGP and he wasn’t surprised they performed so well.

“I’m just really excited for them actually, they’re just a great group of people,” noted Slingsby. “I remember our first win and there’s just so much elation around that but I saw them training and I said to our coach ‘watch out for them this week, they are looking good’. They are sailing well, they are getting better and better and it’s exciting to see another contender up there.”

It was a brighter second day for the home team as Jimmy Spithill led the United States to fifth and second place to end the event in a respectable fifth place. Canada just missed out on the final but with seven championship points from Los Angeles has made a good start to Season 4 and sit in fourth in the overall standings.

Emirates Great Britain endured a torrid second day on the waters of Los Angeles, starting in contention for the final but logging a ninth and an eighth in the two fleet races on day two to drop to sixth in the event standings.

Winners in Chicago, Peter Burling’s New Zealand never hit its stride in LA to finish the event in seventh, one ahead of a disappointing France with Quentin Delapierre’s team showing little of the form that nearly took them to last season’s Grand Final.

Erik Heil’s Germany made contact with the Swiss F50 on day two, receiving a 4-point penalty that erased all of its season points.

Season 4 of SailGP now heads to Europe for the remainder of the Northern Hemisphere summer, kicking off with the France Sail Grand Prix in Saint-Tropez on September 9 and 10.

SailGP information – Los Angeles details – YouTube – How to watch

Final Results – Los Angeles
1. Spain (Diego Botin), 6-3-2-1-9-(1)
2. Denmark (Nicolai Sehested), 3-1-5-4-3-(2)
3. Australia (Tom Slingsby), 1-2-4-2-1-(3)
4. Canada (Phil Robertson), 5-7-3-3-4
5. United States (Jimmy Spithill), 7-4-8-5-2
6. Great Britain (Ben Ainslie), 2-6-1-9-8
7. New Zealand (Peter Burling), 4-5-10-7-6
8. France (Quintin Delapierre), 8-9-6-8-7
9. Switzerland (Sebastien Schneiter), 10-10-7-6-
10. Germany (Erik Heil), 9-8-9-10-5-10

Season Standings (after two of 12 events; results and total points)
1. Australia (Tom Slingsby), 2-3; 17 points
2. Spain (Diego Botin), 5-1; 16
3. Denmark (Nicolai Sehested), 4-2; 16
4. Canada (Phil Robertson), 3-4; 15
5. New Zealand (Peter Burling), 1-7; 14
6. Great Britain (Ben Ainslie), 7-6; 9
7. United States (Jimmy Spithill), 9-5; 8
8. France (Quintin Delapierre), 6-8; 8
9. Switzerland (Sebastien Schneiter), 8-9; 5
10. Germany (Erik Heil), 10-10; 0

Season 4 – 2023
June 16-17 – Rolex United States Sail Grand Prix | Chicago at Navy Pier
July 22-23 – United States Sail Grand Prix | Los Angeles
September 9-10 – France Sail Grand Prix | Saint-Tropez
September 23-24 – Italy Sail Grand Prix | Taranto
October 14-15 – Spain Sail Grand Prix | Andalucía- Cádiz

Season 4 – 2024
January 13-14 – UAE Sail Grand Prix | Venue to be announced
February 24-25 – KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix | Sydney
March 23-24 – ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix | Auckland
May 4-5 – Bermuda Sail Grand Prix
June 1-2 – Canada Sail Grand Prix | Venue to be announced
June 22-23 – United States Sail Grand Prix | New York
July 13-14 – SailGP Season 4 Grand Final | San Francisco

Format for Season 4:
• Teams compete in identical F50 catamarans.
• Each event runs across two days.
• Up to seven qualifying fleet races of approximately 15 minutes may be scheduled for each regatta.
• The top three teams from qualifying advance to a final race to be crowned event champion and earn the largest share of the $300.000.00 USD event prize money purse that’s divided among the top three teams.
• The season ends with the Grand Final, which includes the Championship Final Race for the top three teams in the season standing with the winner claiming the $1m USD prize.

For competition documents, click here.

Established in 2018, SailGP seeks to be an annual, global sports league featuring fan-centric inshore racing among national teams in some of the iconic harbors around the globe.