Unfriendly feedback for U.S. SailGP Team

The fifth season of SailGP held consecutive events in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and it wasn’t the homecoming the United States team had hoped fo. Not only were the results underwhelming, but so was the fan support.

USA helm Taylor Canfield shared how “it’s hard when you know your fellow countrymen don’t believe in you,” which is a sentiment likely born from poor performance and an arrogant identity. The fashion photos probably aren’t helping either.

Team CEO, Co-Owner, and onboard Strategist Mike Buckley asked for questions on the team’s Facebook page after finishing last on the San Francisco race course. Here’s a sampling:

• When will Elon chuck the team in the wood chipper?
• Do you have a backup career plan?
• When will you accept that Canfield and Buckley are world class displacement sailors, but just awful in SailGP?
• Why do you keep starting on top? That makes you last to gybe and getting gassed.

And our personal favorite:
• I think maybe now is not a great time to ask fan questions. Just trying to help.

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 and could not compete.

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.