New Zealand win at SailGP Portsmouth

It was not to be for Dylan Fletcher’s Great Britain SailGP Team as Peter Burling’s Kiwi squad cinched victory on July 19-20 in Portsmouth, bumping New Zealand to the top of the 2025 Season leaderboard. Fletcher came away with a second-place on home waters, while Sebastian Schneiter’s Swiss SailGP Team finished third in the team’s first-ever event final.

In a showdown on the Solent, Burling’s team showed the fleet just who’s back in charge, after the nail-biting three boat final had Switzerland, GBR, and New Zealand all jostling for the top spot throughout the duration of the shortened-course sprint final. It marks the second time New Zealand has stolen the Brits’ home victory – Burling beat Sir Ben Ainslie in Plymouth in Season 3.

“Obviously, we’re pretty gutted not to win,” admitted British strategist Hannah Mills. “We felt like this weekend, everyone was sailing so well, so to not quite manage to do it in the final is obviously super disappointing. But I think as a team, we’re just so proud of how we bounced back after a couple of rough events. And just to do it here, we’re so very proud.”

Despite finishing last in the final – stopped in the final moments of the race due to technical issues on board – Seb Schneiter’s Switzerland still had plenty to celebrate. Throughout the day, the team held their own against Tom Slingsby’s BONDS Flying Roos, hunting down the Swiss in a tight battle for third.

“I’m super proud and happy to make our first final – I think we deserve it,” offered Schneiter. “We worked really hard as a team, and we sailed well all weekend. It’s a shame to end up having to stop that final with some technical issues, but we had an awesome start – we showed up, we were there, and now I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.”

Perhaps the most impressive comeback story of the weekend was the France SailGP Team’s return to the start line after a major wing incident ruled them out of racing on day one. An overnight repair job from the SailGP Tech Team put France back on the startline just 24 hours later, and straight onto the racecourse – the team picked up 19 points for the weekend and two podium finishes – a first and second in fleet races 6 and 7, respectively.

The circuit now heads to its next European destination for the first-ever Germany event in the global championship’s history – taking place in Sassnitz on August 16-17, 2025.

SailGP information – Portsmouth event – YouTube – Crew list

Portsmouth Results*
1. New Zealand – Peter Burling, 2-4-1-11-1-5-1-(1)
2. Great Britain – Dylan Fletcher, 1-2-3-2-3-6-7-(2)
3. Switzerland – Sebastien Schneiter, 5-1-2-6-8-3-4-(3)
4. Australia – Tom Slingsby, 7-5-5-1-4-8-5
5. Italy – Ruggero Tita, 8-3-6-3-10-2-9
6. Spain – Diego Botin, 4-6-4-10-5-11-8
7. Denmark – Nicolai Sehested, 3-10-7-7-6-4-11
8. Canada – Giles Scott, 6-8-11-9-2-10-3
9. Brazil – Martine Grael, 10-11-8-5-9-7-6
10. France – Quintin Delapierre, DNS-DNS-DNS-DNS-11-1-2
11. Germany – Erik Heil, 11-9-9-4-7-9-12
12. United States – Taylor Canfield, 9-7-10-8-DNS-DNS-10
* France did not race on Day 1 (Races 1-4) due to significant wing damage in practice. USA had a hydraulic issue with their starboard daggerboard that kept them out of Races 5-6.

Season 5 Leaderboard (after 7 events)
1. New Zealand – Peter Burling, 54 points
2. Australia – Tom Slingsby, 52 points
3. Spain – Diego Botin, 51 points
4. Great Britain – Dylan Fletcher, 50 points
5. Canada – Giles Scott, 41 points
6. France – Quintin Delapierre, 37 points*
7. Switzerland – Sebastien Schneiter, 28 points
8. Italy – Ruggero Tita, 19 points
9. Denmark – Nicolai Sehested, 18 points**
10. Brazil – Martine Grael, 11 points**
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.

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 still owns the New Zealand and Spain teams and are looking at how they can bring new investment into them.

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