France win at SailGP Sassnitz

Quentin Delapierre’s French team delivered one of the most dramatic storylines in SailGP history in Sassnitz, storming to victory on August 16-17 in the very first Germany Sail Grand Prix – just 48 hours after a crash threatened to end their event before it even began.

France snapped their starboard rudder in a turn during practice racing, sending Delapierre to the hospital while the shore team worked overnight to fix France’s F50, with both cleared to prior to racing.

Across two days racing at the Baltic Sea resort, France steadily rebuilt momentum, beating home team Germany Deutsche Bank to make the Grand Final against Australia and Great Britain.

As places changed in the lighter offshore winds, Delapierre and his crew held off the relentless pursuit from two of the league’s biggest names, completing the fairytale ending few could have imagined.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Delapierre, who picks up his first event win since Season 3. “It’s been a while since we won a Grand Prix – it’s a super nice feeling. It was super shifty out there but we just enjoyed it.”

The German event was less joyous for Brazil after their front beam collapsed in a high-impact nosedive. No crew were injured, but it was not possible to repair the boat in time for racing. As for USA, their port tack collision in race 4 (final race of day one) with starboard tack GBR kept both from finishing, with a hull section from USA taken to repair the Brits to keep them in the event.

SailGP information – Sassnitz event – YouTube – Crew list

Sassnitz Results*
1. France – Quintin Delapierre, 8-2-6-4-4-8-4-(1)
2. Australia – Tom Slingsby, 6-3-1-2-3-2-3-(2)
3. Great Britain – Dylan Fletcher, 2-1-11-10-2-1-2-(3)
4. New Zealand – Peter Burling, 5-4-10-1-9-5-5
5. Germany – Erik Heil, 1-7-7-6-7-3-8
6. Spain – Diego Botin, 9-5-3-5-6-7-6
7. Denmark – Nicolai Sehested, 11-6-2-7-2-6-7
8. Canada – Giles Scott, 10-10-5-3-5-4-9
9. Switzerland – Sebastien Schneiter, 7-8-9-8-8-10-1
10. Italy – Ruggero Tita, 4-11-8-9-10-9-10
11. United States – Taylor Canfield, 3-9-4-11-11-11-11
12. Brazil – Martine Grael, 12-12-12-12-11-11-11
* Brazil did not compete after damaging boat in practice. USA did not finish race 4 after collision with GBR and did not compete in races 5-7.

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