New crew for New Zealand SailGP Team

The New Zealand SailGP Team have added substitute crew as some of its sailing team prepare for the Tokyo Olympic Games. Joining the Kiwi squad are Arnaud Psarofaghis (helm), James Wierzbowski (flight controller), and New Zealand Olympic sailor Jason Saunders (wing trimmer).

Psarofaghis (SUI) is one of Switzerland’s top foiling catamaran specialists, Wierzbowski (AUS) played a pivotal role in the China SailGP Team’s third-place finish in SailGP Season 1, and two-time Olympian Saunders (NZL) rounds out the lineup.

The new recruits will step in for the next two SailGP events in Taranto, Italy (June 5-6) and Plymouth, UK (July 17-18) as helm Peter Burling and wing trimmer Blair Tuke take a supporting role as the duo prepare for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Andy Maloney and Josh Junior, fresh from their recent world championship successes at the Finn Gold Cup, will assume the team leadership roles at Taranto before also sitting out Plymouth as they come into the final stages of their Olympic build up.

The female development program will see Liv Mackay continue in the development role whilst Erica Dawson is preparing for Tokyo.

Like other sporting teams around the world, the New Zealand SailGP Team has been forced to work around COVID-19 disruption. The rescheduled Tokyo Olympic Games and quarantine regulations required the team to create substitute crew while allowing its athletes an optimal build up to the Olympic Games.

“We’re stoked to welcome Arnaud, James and Jason to the New Zealand SailGP Team,” said Tuke. “All three sailors bring a huge amount of talent and experience to an already strong team. We have a super high-performance group of athletes who have the necessary skills and experience to perform in the SailGP environment.”

Burling added, “While we’d obviously prefer to be competing in Italy and in the UK, technology is enabling us to continue to work with the team on its preparation, performance, and analysis with the real-time Oracle cloud data insights. We’ll be working really closely with the new recruits to build on the knowledge we already gained from the first event.

“We are confident the team will continue the significant strides we made in Bermuda and know we’ll be re-joining an even stronger team in Denmark after the Olympics. We’ve got our eye firmly on winning Season 2 of SailGP.”

SailGP CEO Sir Russell Coutts noted how it’s a testament to the strength of the New Zealand SailGP Team that it has five world-class athletes heading to the Tokyo Olympic Games. “As a New Zealander I’m proud to see them representing our country and hopefully they’ll be re-joining SailGP with some Olympic gold medals.”

SailGP information – Taranto details – Facebook

Format for SailGP events:
• Each event runs across two days.
• There are three races on each day, totaling six races at each event.
• The opening five fleet races involve every team.
• The final match race pits the three highest ranking teams against each other to be crowned event champion.
• The season ends with the Grand Final, which includes the Championship Final Race – a winner-takes-all match race for the $1m prize.

SailGP Season 2 Schedule*
April 24-25, 2021 – Bermuda Grand Prix
June 5-6, 2021 – Italy Grand Prix – Taranto
July 17-18, 2021 – Great Britain Grand Prix – Plymouth
August 20-21, 2021 – ROCKWOOL Denmark Grand Prix – Aarhus
September 11-12, 2021 – France Grand Prix – Saint-Tropez
October 9-10, 2021 – Spain Grand Prix – Andalusia
January 29-30, 2022 – New Zealand Grand Prix – Christchurch
March 26-27, 2022 – United States Grand Prix – San Francisco (Season 2 Grand Final)
*Subject to change

2021-22 Teams, Helm
Australia, Tom Slingsby
Denmark, Nicolai Sehested
France, Billy Besson
Great Britain, Ben Ainslie (alternate – Paul Goodison)
Japan, Nathan Outteridge
New Zealand, Peter Burling (alternate – Arnaud Psarofaghis)
Spain, Jordi Xammar (alternate – Phil Robertson)
United States, Jimmy Spithill

Established in 2018, SailGP seeks to be an annual, global sports league featuring fan-centric inshore racing in some of the iconic harbors around the globe. Rival national teams compete in identical F50 catamarans with the season culminating with a $1 million winner-takes-all match race.