From cocktail server to boat builder

by Andrew Rice, The Atlantic
In the summer of 2017, Keeron Wilson was an 18-year-old deckhand working on a spectator boat in Bermuda, serving cocktails and carving out a modest living as part of the island’s tourism industry.

He was aboard Calico Jack’s, a 60-foot motorized pirate-themed tour boat equipped with a diving plank and a busy bar in the central bay to the west of the island known as the Great Sound. It was a comfortable Bermudian existence.

Then a fleet of America’s Cup AC50 catamarans — 50-foot carbon-fiber flying behemoths — came shrieking past Calico Jack’s at speeds approaching 50 knots.

To the tourists on board, it was a photo opportunity.

To Wilson, it was a lightning bolt.

“To see those catamarans flying across the water at such high speeds, with no engines,“ Wilson tells The Athletic, speaking from the far less tropical setting of Southampton, on the south coast of England. “Just the science and technology behind it…

“I’m young, and everybody likes speed. I saw that and said, ‘I want to build those’.” – Full report

SailGP information – Bermuda details – How to watch

Season 6 – 2026 Schedule:
• Jan 17-18 – Perth, Australia
• Feb 14-15 – Auckland, New Zealand
• Feb 28-March 1 – Sydney, Australia
• Apr 11-12  – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• May 9-10 – Hamilton, Bermuda
• May 30-31 – New York, USA
• June 20-21 – Halifax, Canada
• July 25-26- Portsmouth, GBR
• August 22-23 – Sassnitz, Germany
• Sept 5-6 – Valencia, Spain
• Sept 19-20 – Geneva, Switzerland
• Nov 21-22 – Dubai, UAE
• Nov 28-29 – Abu Dhabi, UAE
Note: The 11th event was moved to Geneva from Saint-Tropez, France.

Season 6 format:
• Thirteen teams compete in identical F50 catamarans.
• Each event is two days.
• All teams compete in up to seven qualifying fleet races of approximately 15 minutes.
• The top three teams from qualifying advance to a final race for the event title.
• The season ends with the Grand Final event which includes the Championship Final Race for the top three teams in the season standing.
• All teams are privately owned except for New Zealand which is owned by the league.

Season 6 prize money:
A total of USD $12.8 million is up for grabs in 2026. The winner of each of the 13 events takes home $400,000, with $260,000 for second and $140,000 for third. The team with the most points at the end of the season wins $400,000, while the team that wins the Championship Final Race wins USD $2 million.

F50 Configuration:
All teams use same configuration based on weather forecast. There are four wingsail sizes (18m, 24m, 27.5m, and 29m), six jib sizes, two T-foil daggerboards (high-speed and low-speed), and one set of rudders with high-speed and low-speed settings.

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.