SailGP: Five things to watch in New York

The SailGP league returns to the race course after the Season 5 schedule had to cancel their event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With upgrades done to strengthen the F50 rig, here’s five things to watch out for when racing gets underway on June 7-8 in New York:

Racing resumes
The cancellation of Rio means there’s been a long gap between events, with the F50 fleet last meeting at the United States double header in March. The fleet will resume battle in New York, with teams gunning for a win to make their move up the 2025 Season leaderboard. But with such a long gap between events, will some teams be rusty? And who will find their racing form the quickest?

Return of ROCKWOOL DEN
It’s been an even longer gap from racing for Nicolai Sehested’s ROCKWOOL DEN, which suffered significant damage after colliding with a race mark in the first fleet race of Los Angeles. After missing two events, the Danish will return to the racecourse this weekend. Will they be geared up to take on the fleet, or taking a more conservative approach to avoid further incidents?

5 different winners in 5 different events
There’s been five different winners at the first five events of the season with New Zealand, Australia, Emirates GBR, NorthStar Canada and Spain all picking up titles so far. Will New York produce yet another winner? Or will one of the first five teams repeat the feat when racing gets underway?

NorthStar Canada the in-form team?
With three podium finishes in the last three events – including an event win in Los Angeles – Giles Scott’s NorthStar Canada seems the team to beat heading into the Big Apple. Can the Canadians carry this winning momentum forward? Or will their incredible performance streak end when they reach New York?

Can New Zealand repeat its Season 4 win here?
This weekend marks SailGP’s third visit to New York. It was Peter Burling’s New Zealand which took the win here last season, beating NorthStar Canada and Emirates GBR in the nail biting Final. Can the Kiwis defend their event title and repeat their triumph when racing gets underway on June 7?

The Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix has a two day racing schedule for the 12 teams with seven qualifying races before the three-boat Final. The course will be in Upper New York Bay, with the Coast Guard maintaining an exclusion zone from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm on June 5 and 6, and from 2:00 pm to 5:30 pm on June 7 and 8. The race exclusion zone impacts vessel traffic west of Governors Island. For crew lists, click here.

SailGP information – New York event – YouTube – Facebook

Season 5 Leaderboard (after 5 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).
• The league currently maintains control ownership of the teams based in Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, and Spain, though it’s actively in the process of selling the Australian and Spanish teams

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