SailGP: Preview of Season 5

Sailing World’s Dave Reed takes a look at the new squads, new looks and a new season for the teams of SailGP, which steps off in Dubai for the long year ahead.

SailGP Season 4 is so yesterday, and today the professional sailing series is in full noise in Abu Dhabi with the first of 14 events getting underway November 23, following a flurry of off-season crew shuffles, team reboots and big-time announcements for the league created by Russell Coutts and Larry Ellison.

With a new season comes new expectations, so let’s get to it, starting with the US team, poised to make a move from the basement of the Season 4 rankings. The upstart US SailGP Team, which league broadcast commentators confidently put at the bottom of their pre-season prognostications, certainly has something to prove.

With the benefit of an off-season training block in Bermuda over the summer and the addition of experienced flight controller and Olympic medalist Hans Henken to the team’s starting roster this week, they’re in a much better place and poised for the long season ahead which finishes in Abu Dhabi next November.

Helmsman Taylor Canfield, team strategist and CEO Mike Buckley, wing trimmer Jeremy Wilmot, flight controllers Henken and Mac Agnese, and grinders Anna Weiss (also the designated jib trimmer), and Peter Kinney round out the All-American starting lineup, which will be out for points on its rebranded F50.

The Season 4 champions of Spain SailGP Team return largely intact with Rolex Yachtsmen of the Year and Olympic gold medalists Diego Botin and Florian Trittel, as well as Joel Rodriguez, the team’s flight controller. With this threesome locked into their normal positions and a solid grinding squad to pull from, there’s good reason to expect a strong showing from the defending champions.

Australia SailGP Team helmsman Tom Slingsby is now free of his America’s Cup distractions and will no doubt return to form, but he’s lost his longtime wingman Kyle Langford and the chemistry the two of them have perfected over the years. Smoothing the transition, however, is Chris Draper, who’s moved fluidly between various teams over the past few years as a reliable and experienced hand on the controls.

Slingsby has retained the rest of the Aussie line-up, including veteran flight controller Jason Waterhouse, grinders Kinley Fowler and Sam Newton, reserve grinder Ed Powys, strategist Natasha Bryant and reserve strategist Nina Curtis. Confidence is high that the Aussies will find their way to Dubai’s three-boat finale and will continue to be contenders for the season purse once again.

The Canadian squad was hot and on the chopping block at the end of Season 4, but with a new helmsman in British Olympian and Giles Scott (and the dismissal of the league’s most entertaining helmsman Phil Robertson) and a rebrand as the Northstar SailGP Team, the Canucks are a true wildcard of the league once again.

Wing trimmer Paul Campbell-James, who’s been in the league since the beginning, has seen most everything that can happen in an F50, remains with the team, as does strategist and past US Olympian Annie Haeger. – Full story

Twelve Teams for Season 5
• Australia
• Brazil
• Canada
• Denmark
• France
• Germany
• Great Britain
• Italy
• New Zealand*
• Spain*
• Switzerland
• United States
* League funded teams

SailGP information – YouTube – Facebook

Season 5 Schedule – 14 events
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 – Portsmouth, Great Britain
August 16-17 – Sassnitz, 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 5:
• Teams compete in identical F50 catamarans.
• Each event runs across two days.
• Five 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 prize purse (amount not confirmed; Season 4 had $400,000.00 USD prize purse with winning team 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 a monetary award (amount not confirmed; Season 4 had $2 million USD prize).
• The top team on points ahead of the three-boat Championship Final will get a monetary award (amount not confirmed; Season 4 had a $350,000.00 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.

Source: Sailing World