Spain win at SailGP New York

Diego Botin and the Spain SailGP team have punched their way to the top of the Season 5 leaderboard after winning on June 7-8 in New York, NY. After three qualifying races each day, Spain led wire to wire in the Final against New Zealand and France.

Spain’s victory has them overtaking Tom Slingsby’s BONDS Flying Roos (Australia) in the overall standings, while Peter Burling’s Black Foils (New Zealand) move into the top three – bumping Great Britain from third to fourth. The win marks a second consecutive U.S. victory for Spain after their win in San Francisco.

With the course off of Governors Island, river current was a major factor along with highly variable wind and wave conditions. Mostly light on day one, the first race had only three on each F50, but the wind picked up on day two for full crew races.

Australia, Canada, and Great Britain were struggling in the conditions, but Brazil had a breakthrough event. Getting their first race win, and posting four consecutive top five score, they were primed to be in the top-three final before an 11th in the last race dropped them to fourth.

“We’ve been ticking lots of boxes,” noted Brazil helm Martine Grael. “I think it’s good to know that we are working in the right way. Our eyes are broadening a little bit, we are getting more corner vision and being able to see more on the race course. I know it’s working the right way.”

SailGP information – New York event – Crew lists – YouTube – Facebook

New York Results
1. Spain – Diego Botin, 1-4-3-2-11-7-(1)
2. New Zealand – Peter Burling, 2-11-1-4-2-4-(2)
3. France – Quintin Delapierre, 6-3-4-3-1-5-(3)
4. Brazil – Martine Grael, 9-2-5-1-4-11, 34 points
5. Australia – Tom Slingsby, 5-1-10-11-5-1, 33 points
6. Denmark – Nicolai Sehested, 3-9-2-5-10-DNS/12, 26 points
7. Canada – Giles Scott, 7-5-11-8-9-2, 24 points
8. Great Britain – Dylan Fletcher, 11-6-9-10-3-3, 24 points
9. Switzerland – Sebastien Schneiter, 8-8-6-6-12-6, 21 points
10. Germany – Erik Heil, 4-7-12-9-6-10, 19 points
11. Italy – Ruggero Tita, 12-12-8-7-8-9, 12 points
12. United States – Taylor Canfield, 10-10-7-12-7-8, 9 points*
* Received four penalty points for making contact with Denmark.

Season 5 Leaderboard (after 6 events)
1. Spain – Diego Botin, 46 points
2. Australia – Tom Slingsby, 45 points
3. New Zealand – Peter Burling, 44 points
4. Great Britain – Dylan Fletcher, 41 points
5. Canada – Giles Scott, 38 points
6. France – Quintin Delapierre, 36 points*
7. Switzerland – Sebastien Schneiter, 20 points
8. Denmark – Nicolai Sehested, 14 points**
9. Italy – Ruggero Tita, 13 points
10. Brazil – Martine Grael, 9 point**
11. Germany – Erik Heil, 0 points**
12. United States – Taylor Canfield, 0 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 Denmark, New Zealand, and Spain, though it’s actively in the process of selling the Spanish team.

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