US SailGP Team struggles in New York

The United States SailGP Team hoped that crowds would give them a boost at the three domestic events during Season 5, but finishes of 10 of 12 (LA), 11 of 11 (SF), and 12 of 12 (NY) proved otherwise.

Prior to the New York event, USA Grinder Anna Weis gave hope for a better result:

“After San Francisco, we took a hard look at some weaknesses that we had within our team and we spent the two months really really working hard behind the scenes looking at all the data, looking at teams who are better than us and what we can do to improve those things when we get back out on the water.”

USA team CEO and co-owner Mike Buckley asked for questions on their Facebook page after finishing last in New York. Here’s a sampling:

• Ross Bennett: When will you focus on results, and stop wasting time and money?

• Chris Lohman: How long until you make major changes in personnel? We have heard for almost two seasons now how this is a process and you are improving over time yet teams such as Italy and Brazil have been in less than one season and already outperforming Team USA?

• Rollie Herman: Perhaps it isn’t the crew, but management that needs to change.

• Maxwell Van Iterson: With Taylor’s recent comment of “we aren’t focused on results…” how does it strike you to know the “captain” of a race team, doesn’t care about the results of a race?

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.