SailGP: We’re talking about practice

The SailGP league is holding a three-week training session in Bermuda, providing teams from Brazil, Denmark, Germany, and USA an opportunity to prepare for Season 5 which begins in November.

Light winds have interfered with the session beginning August 25, and the United States SailGP Team was the first of four teams to hit the water. The team is using a league-provided F50 and primarily using the newly designed T-Foils slated to roll out league wide for the 2024-25 season.

“This training camp is an opportunity for us to improve,” said Mike Buckley, U.S. SailGP Team co-owner, CEO, and athlete. “Last season we only had ten days of open training and most were in light conditions. Bermuda will allow us to double our time on the water and test things that we wouldn’t on a race day.”

Head Coach Evan Aras adds, “This camp presents an opportunity to kick off efforts to build a scalable process for athlete development and evaluation, which will be a critical step towards ensuring the long-term goals of our team. Every great sports team has a functional development system and we don’t want to be any different.”

Beyond Taylor Canfield, Anna Weis, Mike Buckley, Mac Agnese, Jeremey Wilmot, and Peter Kinney that remain on the roster for the 2024-25 season, additional American athletes – Hans Henken, Scott Ewing, Malcolm Lamphere, Leo Boucher, Stephan Baker, Justin Callahan, and Tommy Sitzmann – are getting time in the F50.

Editor’s note: This training camp is a new initiative by the league to boost the standard for the teams, which was desperately needed by the USA team which changed ownership and crew during Season 4. And while it is a good plan to extend skills across a larger pool, the team did not respond to our inquiry as to why only one female was included.

SailGP information – YouTube – Facebook

Season 5 Schedule
2024
November 23-24 – Dubai, UAE

2025
January 18-19 – Auckland, New Zealand
February 8-9 – Sydney, Australia
March 15-16 – Los Angeles, USA
March 22-26 – San Francisco, USA
May 3-4 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
June 7-8 – New York City, USA
July 19-20 – Great Britain *
August 16-17 – Germany *
September 6-7 – Taranto, Italy
September 20-21 – Geneva, Switzerland
October 4-5 – Andalucía – Cádiz, Spain
November 7-8 – Middle East *
November 29-30 – Grand Final – Abu Dhabi, UAE
* Venue to be announced

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.