Spain win at SailGP San Francisco

Diego Botin likes San Francisco. After winning the Season 4 SailGP Championship at the venue, he led his Spanish team to dominate again in 2025 when the league returned to northern California on March 22-23. After winning the 7-race qualifying stage, the Spanish beat Canada and France in the three-boat Final.

The Final followed a dramatic seventh fleet race, in which Australia suffered a dramatic wing collapse as it approached the start line. While all athletes were accounted for and unharmed, the cause of the incident is not yet known.

The wing collapse meant Australia, which was sitting in third place was unable to race in the three-boat Final. This meant France took the Aussies’ qualifying place instead.

Despite Spain winning the Final, it was France which blasted across the start line at speed, securing the all-important inside line at Mark 1. But unflappable decision making by Spain saw Botin’s squad split the course at Gate 2. This turned out to be the crucial move of the race and resulted in the Spanish stealing the lead from France on the third leg.

From there, the Spanish were clinical, keeping both teams at bay to sail the shortest distance and pick up a 100% fly time.

After a forgettable event by the season-leading British, Australia has moved into the lead as the league heads to South America for the first time for the inaugural Rio Sail Grand Prix on May 3-4.

San Francisco Results
1. Spain, 3-6-1-5-3-1-2-(1)
2. Canada, 5-1-2-1-4-10-5-(2)
3. France, 1-10-8-2-2-5-3-(3)
4. Australia, 2-3-3-4-5-2-11
5. New Zealand, 4-8-6-3-8-3-1
6. Switzerland, 7-5-7-7-1-4-7
7. Great Britain, 8-2-4-11-11-7-6
8. Italy, 6-9-5-10-7-6-9
9. Brazil, 10-7-11-6-6-9-4
10. Germany, 9-4-10-8-9-11-8
11. United States, 11-11-9-9-10-8-10
12. Denmark, 12-12-12-12-12-12-12
Note: Australia was third in fleet event, but broke wing in seventh race and could not compete in Final. Denmark disabled boat at previous event.

SailGP information – San Francisco details – Crew list – YouTube – Facebook

Season 5 Leaderboard (after 4 of 14 events)
1. Australia – Tom Slingsby, 39 points
2. Great Britain – Dylan Fletcher, 38 points
3. Spain – Diego Botin, 36 points
4. New Zealand – Peter Burling, 35 points
5. Canada – Giles Scott, 34 points
6. France – Quintin Delapierre, 28 points*
7. Switzerland – Sebastien Schneiter, 18 points
8. Italy – Ruggero Tita, 13 points
9. Denmark – Nicolai Sehested, 9 points**
10. Brazil – Martine Grael, 2 point**
11. United States – Taylor Canfield, 2 points**
12. Germany – Erik Heil, -1 points**
* France was awarded points for the first two events as their F50 was not available
**Teams receive 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 12-13 – Saint-Tropez, France
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.