Martine Grael to lead Brazil SailGP Team

When the fifth season of SailGP gets underway, the 2024-25 schedule will include the 2016 Olympic venue of Rio de Janeiro and a Brazilian team led by the league’s first female driver – two-time Olympic gold medalist Martine Grael.

“Martine is an incredible talent and has shown she can win at the highest levels of elite sailing,” said SailGP CEO Sir Russell Coutts. “Brazil has a highly-engaged fan base that loves racing. We know the people of Rio will add their special Brazilian flair to the event.”

League teams are required to have at least one female among their crew, with 37 women to date having raced onboard F50s. Grael and the Brazilian team will join a confirmed line-up of 11 national teams (one still yet to be announced) on the startline in November, with her first experience behind the wheel of an F50 this month at a training camp for select teams in Bermuda.

The full Brazil team has yet to be revealed, and there is curiosity if her Olympic teammate Kahena Kunze will be included. Grael and Kunze won gold at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, finishing eighth at Paris 2024. Kunze has been the strategist for the Germany SailGP Team during Season 4.

Brazilian sports and entertainment firm IMM will organize the Enel Rio Sail Grand Prix, together with Brazilian sailing confederation, CBVela. Owned by ex-Brazilian Olympic sailor, Alan Adler (President), IMM’s portfolio includes some of Brazil’s most iconic events, including the Rio Open, Cirque Du Soleil and São Paulo Fashion Week. The firm will also operate the Mubadala Brazil SailGP Team.

Adler is also CEO of Brazil Motor Sports, promoter of the São Paulo Grand Prix Formula 1 race.

“It has always been our dream to have the Brazilian team participating in a stage close to the fans, who are passionate about high-level sports,” noted Adler. “It will be a high-level competition with Guanabara Bay as the natural stage, with the beauty of Sugarloaf Mountain and Christ the Redeemer. The perfect stage for this open-air spectacle.”

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.

Source: SailGP