Cheers, not jeers for USA SailGP Team

The United States SailGP Team has no shortage of swagger, but their racing performance has not kept pace. Their recent calamity of incorrectly pressing the wing invert button caused sufficient damage to keep them from racing. Only Germany has caused more havoc, with penalty points putting both teams at the bottom of the Season 5 leaderboard.

The sailing league is now moving to the USA for an event in Los Angeles on March 15-16, and Bill Canfield hopes the nation can get behind the home team. Yes, he is related to the team helm, but he has other reasons too:

Without stating the obvious, I’m a huge fan of SailGP – especially the American team. Taylor Canfield and Mike Buckley quickly saw the power of SailGP and on their own put together a group of US citizens to not only buy the American franchise, but also have built up US sponsorship to support their effort.

From day one, they have pledged to succeed with only American sailors and refused to waiver on this goal. Yes, there have been failures, but they do have two podium finishes from the 11 events they’ve had the team.

Previous team leader, Australian Jimmy Spithill, and his non-American team record were not very good but received little adverse publicity. I think they had one win for their efforts. Why won’t the USA press and sailing fans get behind the current SailGP USA efforts?

The USA America’s Cup challenger American Magic, saddled with both performance and design problems, faced little criticism while being further off the pace than Taylor and Mike. One sinking and a failed second campaign chewed up over 200 million dollars, and while most felt they sailed well, did they really? I believe this was Terry Hutchinson’s sixth failed Cup campaign but no criticism on this side.

Knowledgeable sailors will tell you the F50 is far more difficult to sail than AC boats. Changing crew for the US SailGP Team is not the simple solution as many suggest. If America is to succeed in sailing, our pundits, fans, and writers must get behind the efforts of our professional sailing athletes at all levels – including SailGP.

Let’s put positive thoughts, articles and chatter out there as three of the next four events are in the USA. I’m hoping to hear cheers, not jeers, for Team USA over the next six weeks.

Do you have an opinion? Send it to editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com.

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Editor’s note: The USA team finished last in Season 1 with Rome Kirby, who was replaced by Jimmy Spithill for Season 2 (3rd place) and Season 3 (7th place). Spithill had the team in 3rd place during Season 4 after five of 13 events, but was replaced by Buckley’s group with the team finishing the season in 8th out of 10 teams.

SailGP information – Los Angeles details – YouTube – Facebook

Season 5 Leaderboard (after 3 of 14 events)
1. Great Britain, 27 points
2. Australia, 24 points
3. Spain, 20 points
4. New Zealand, 20 points
5. Denmark, 17 points
6. Canada, 15 points
7. France, 15 points*
8. Switzerland, 12 points
9. Italy, 7 points
10. Brazil, 0 point**
11. United States, 0 points**
12. Germany, -6 points**
* France was awarded points for the first two events as their F50 was not available
**Teams are awarded season penalty points for incidents during practice or racing

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).
• Ten of the 12 teams are privately owned, with the league having ownership of New Zealand and Spain.
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.