SailGP: We still have a long way to go

When the global sports league SailGP got underway, it did so with funding from billionaire Larry Ellison with a mandate for profitability after five years. After COVID, five years became five seasons, and the league is now in its fifth season. SailGP CEO Russell Coutts was recently asked if SailGP was now earning money:

“Absolutely! We don’t need any more funding from our founder Larry Ellison. That’s great. I really believe that we are the first company in sailing to have achieved this. So, certainly in the professional side of the sport. That’s an encouraging development and direction. But we still have a long way to go.

“I’m really excited to see how much this company can grow. If you had asked me five years ago if I could imagine 10,000 paying fans at an event, I would probably have said no. Now we’ve proven that we can do it.

“The fans really love it. SailGP is attractive to a much more ready demographic, appeals to a much broader audience. I think a lot of our fans are racing fans rather than sailing fans. I think that’s very encouraging for the sport.” – Full report

Details: https://sailgp.com

Season 5 Leaderboard (after 8 events)
1. Australia – Tom Slingsby, 61 points
2. New Zealand – Peter Burling, 61 points
3. Great Britain – Dylan Fletcher, 58 points
4. Spain – Diego Botin, 56 points
5. France – Quintin Delapierre, 47 points*
6. Canada – Giles Scott, 44 points
7. Switzerland – Sebastien Schneiter, 30 points
8. Denmark – Nicolai Sehested, 22 points**
9. Italy – Ruggero Tita, 20 points
10. Brazil – Martine Grael, 11 points**
11. Germany – Erik Heil, 6 points**
12. United States – Taylor Canfield, -8 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