Spain wins SailGP Season 4

Spain defeated league heavyweights Australia and New Zealand at the 2024 SailGP Grand Final held July 13-14 in San Francisco, CA. After narrowly advancing to the three-boat winner-takes-all Grand Final race, Spanish skipper Diego Botin dominated when it counted to claim the end of season, $2Million dollar race.

“Beating the Kiwis and Aussies in the Grand Final here in San Francisco – it’s amazing,” shared Botin. “We’re over the moon. It’s been a big grind and we’ve been through a lot in this League – last season we were last in the scores, and look – this season we win! I think we have an amazing team; let’s see if we can keep it together and keep the ball rolling.”

With Australia hot on Spain’s heels for the duration of the Grand Final race, it was all down to moments before the final maneuver where Australia lost critical momentum – citing technical error once again. In a drag race to the finish, Botin soared into the win, delighting cheering Spanish fans, with plenty to celebrate on this super Sunday of sport.

Slingsby acknowledged how it can all come down to sheer bad luck: “It was a normal tack, but somehow the board came off the lock. We’ve done thousands of tacks this week and it hasn’t happened at all, then today it happened in the final $2Million dollar race. What do you do? It’s just unlucky.”

In the last Season 4 event, Australia was the only team to secure multiple wins in the 10-boat fleet, securing three victories out of five total fleet races, carrying massive momentum in the 3-boat final. Equally, the Kiwi team was the season leader, and while the two Southern Hemisphere teams squared up on the start line, it was the Spanish to windward that took charge for the wire-to-wire win.

But it was nearly not to be as Spain and France were locked together to qualify for the third slot into the Grand Final, and France had demonstrated an edge in the strong winds. With two remaining races on the last day, France looked to be in charge before they fouled, and nearly collided with, Denmark at the Race 4 weather mark before the finish. The incident left the French with a broken rudder and an 12 event point penalty (eight season points), eliminating them from contention.

“At the last tack I just didn’t see the Danish and we crashed with them,” noted French driver Quentin Delapierre. “We didn’t finish the job and that’s really painful for everybody on board right now. But I’m incredibly proud of what the team achieved, and I think the overall ranking will not show what we’ve done this season.”

Despite being the on-form team throughout the season, New Zealand’s third-place position proved what makes the winner-takes-all Grand Final as cut-throat as it gets. “We’re all feeling the pain at the moment, but we’re really proud of the way the team has gone about their business,” reports Driver Peter Burling. “We’ll go back, reflect on that and come out swinging next season.”

Looking ahead to the 2024-25 Season, SailGP has confirmed that, for the first time ever, the 11 teams for Season 5 will get vital training at two pre-season training camps in Bermuda and Dubai, beginning in August and October, respectively. This will prove vital for Germany, Switzerland, and USA that are struggling to keep up, and for the two new teams entering the new season.

SailGP information – San Francisco details – YouTube – How to watch

San Francisco Results
1. Australia (Tom Slingsby), 5-1-8-1-1
2. Denmark (Nicolai Sehested), 2-8-1-4-2
3. Great Britain (Giles Scott), 6-2-2-5-5
4. New Zealand (Peter Burling), 4-4-4-3-7
5. Canada (Phil Robertson), 3-5-6-2-3
6. Spain (Diego Botin), 7-7-5-6-4
7. France (Quintin Delapierre), 1-3-3-9-10
8. Germany (Erik Heil), 8-9-7-8-9
9. United States (Taylor Canfield), 9-10-10-7-6
10. Switzerland (Nathan Outteridge), 10-6-9-10-8

For scoring details, click here.

Season 4 Final Standings (13 events; results and total points)
1. Spain (Diego Botin), 5-1-3-6-6-10-2-5-4-1-4-7-6-(1)
2. Australia (Tom Slingsby), 2-3-2-2-3-2-7-1-10-3-7-4-1-(2)
3. New Zealand (Peter Burling), 1-7-8-DNC/6-4-1-1-3-1-2-5-1-4-(3)
4. Denmark (Nicolai Sehested), 4-2-4-7-2-6-9-2-9-5-3-8-2
5. Great Britain (Ben Ainslie/Giles Scott), 7-6-1-1-8-5-8-7-7-8-1-3-3
6. Canada (Phil Robertson), 3-4-10-5-5-3-6-10-3-4-6-2-5
7. France (Quintin Delapierre), 6-8-6-4-7-4-4-4-2-9-2-5-7
8. United States (Jimmy Spithill/Taylor Canfield), 9-5-5-3-1-8-3-9-8-10-10-10-9
9. Germany (Erik Heil), 10-10-7-8-9-10-9-5-6-5-6-8-9-8
10. Switzerland (Sebastien Schneiter/Nathan Outteridge), 8-9-9-9-7-10-8-6-7-9-6-10

For scoring details, click here.

SailGP resumes with Season 5 on November 23-24 in Dubai, UAE. For details, click here.

Season 4 – 2023
June 16-17 – 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
December 9-10 – Dubai Sail Grand Prix | Dubai*

Season 4 – 2024
January 13-14 – Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix | Abu Dhabi
February 24-25 – Australia Sail Grand Prix | Sydney
March 23-24 – New Zealand Sail Grand Prix | Auckland
March 23-24 – New Zealand Sail Grand Prix | Christchurch
May 4-5 – Bermuda Sail Grand Prix
June 1-2 – Canada Sail Grand Prix | Halifax
June 22-23 – United States Sail Grand Prix | New York
July 13-14 – SailGP Season 4 Grand Final | San Francisco
* Added October 3, 2023

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 (increases to $400k for Abu Dhabi with the winning team now earning $200k at each event).
• 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 $2 million USD prize.
• The top team on points ahead of the three-boat Championship Final will be awarded $350,000.00.

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.

Source: SailGP