SailGP: How fast is too fast?

Published on July 18th, 2024

by Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt Sailing News
Through the four seasons of SailGP, the league has continued to improve their F50s, with a continuing emphasis on increasing speed. But how fast is too fast? High speed racing adds to the glamour and challenge, but also to the venue logistics.

More speed requires bigger courses, which may impact the league’s goal to host events in “iconic harbors around the globe.” Additionally, bigger courses further reduces the reality of live spectating. Forget the grandstands, as the broadcast becomes the only way to watch the racing (okay, that’s how it is now).

But what do I know, as the league intends to replace the current L-Foils with new T-Foils, and while they are designed to improve performance and control at high speeds, they are faster too. While testing in San Francisco, a new top speed of 101.98 km/h (55.1 knots) was achieved, breaking the previous record of 99.94 km/h.

“In terms of performance the T-Foils continued to show remarkable performance versus the benchmark of the HSB (current foils),” said SailGP’s director of performance engineering, Alex Reid. “With the sea state and the potential for higher winds, there is clearly more performance to come.”

Posting about the record on social media, test driver Phil Robertson said the F50 was “a lot easier to control and fly” and the T-Foils would result in the fleet “racing at higher speeds in the future…hopefully we get racecourses big enough to really light them up on race days.”

SailGP informationYouTubeHow to watch

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

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