SailGP back to full strength for New York

It was an ‘Oh Sh#t’ moment for the SailGP league when the Australian team’s wing imploded during the San Francisco event. When an investigation found defects in select wingsails across the F50 fleet, the league cancelled the next event in hopes of enacting repairs in time for the New York stage on June 7-8.

With the help of the America’s Cup challenger American Magic facility in Pensacola, Florida, that happened as all 12 wingsails will receive an upgraded ‘main element 1’ – the area of the wingsail that bears the most load in racing conditions – with further upgrades scheduled throughout the season.

Changes will bolster the strength of wingsail elements, with teams working across multiple facilities to remove and upgrade affected parts, reinstall electronics and systems, and rebrand each wing. On-site, each SailGP team will complete a full sea trial in its own F50 in addition to extensive checks conducted by SailGP’s team of designers and engineers.

“These new components for the wingsails feature an Aluminum Nomex core and increased laminate, which means the new shear webs will be approximately twice as strong,” explained SailGP CEO Sir Russell Coutts.

“This is a major refit, with multiple teams working around the clock on extraction, production, design, testing, and reinstallation, split between the American Magic facility in Pensacola, Florida, and at SailGP Technologies in the U.K.”

SailGP information – New York event – YouTube – Facebook

Season 5 Leaderboard (after 4 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
* The season began with 14 events but Tranto was replaced with Saint-Tropez, while Rio and Middle East were cancelled though Rio may be rescheduled.

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.

Source: SailGP