Australia wins SailGP New Zealand
Published on January 19th, 2025
The New Zealand SailGP came to a dramatic close with an Australian win on January 18-19 in Auckland, New Zealand. After topping the 7-race qualifying stage, the Flying Roo claimed a well-deserved victory in a Final between three of the league’s most dominant teams – Australia, Spain, and Great Britain.
“This win means so much to us – the team set us up so well,” noted Aussie driver Tom Slingsby. “We had an amazing last race. It felt like we were fighting the British on the first leg, then the Spanish caught us on the final, upwind leg. They had chosen to sort of concede and take a second, but they went for it and went for the win but we managed to just get around them.”
SailGP once again adopted a ‘Super Sunday’ format – four fleet races followed by a winner-takes-all Final, marking the first eight-race weekend in SailGP history. After mid-fleet results in Fleet Races 5 and 6, New Zealand put together a commanding performance to finish second in Fleet Race 7. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to secure a spot in the Final. Denmark also lost out in the battle for third despite claiming back-to-back wins in Fleet Races 6 and 7.
“It felt like each day we really progressed forward during the day and got better and better as we got more comfortable, but it wasn’t quite enough,” said New Zealand driver Peter Burling. “We’re really excited with the way the team is going – now, we just have to take the next event off the Aussies on their home turf.”
After the weekend, New Zealand slipped to second in the 2025 Season standings, while Great Britain moved into first – both are tied with 17 points. Canada did not race on Day 2 after flight controller Billy Gooderham sustained an injury in warm up, while France was not on the startline as the team awaits completion of the league’s newest F50 catamaran, Boat 12.
The league hopes to have all 12 teams for the next event on February 8-9 in Sydney, Australia.
Auckland Final Results
1. Australia, 5-1-2-2-1-2-10-(1), 64 points
2. Spain, 2-4-4-8-5-3-3-(2), 57 points
3. Great Britain, 1-2-9-4-2-4-6-(3), 57 points
4. New Zealand, 4-8-6-1-4-6-2, 46 points
5. Denmark, 6-5-5-5-8-1-1, 44 points
6. Italy, 3-3-7-7-3-9-8, 37 points
7. Switzerland, 11-10-1-3-10-10-4, 28 points
8. Germany, 8-11-11-9-6-7-5, 20 points
9. Brazil, 10-9-8-11-7-5-7, 20 points
10. Canada, 9-7-3-6-11-11-11, 19 points
11. USA, 7-6-10-10-9-8-9, 18 points
Note: France did not take part due to a wingsail issue.
SailGP information – YouTube – Facebook
Season 5 Leaderboard (after 2 of 14 events)*
1. Great Britain, 17 points
2. New Zealand, 17 points
3. Australia, 16 points
4. Spain, 16 points
5. Denmark, 10 points
6. France, 10 points
7. United States, 8 points
8. Switzerland, 6 points
9. Germany, 6 points
10. Canada, 6 points
11. Italy, 5 points
12. Brazil, 3 point
* Ten of the 12 teams are privately owned, with the league having ownership of New Zealand and Spain.
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 22-23 – 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.