It's no secret in the SailGP that the New York summit is one of the most impressive and also one of the most difficult events of the season. Unstable winds, gusts, turns, waves and currents challenge the crews. This became even more apparent than usual this weekend. First of all the planned races on day one will be replaced by three show runsbecause only four boats could be craned into the Hudson River in winds that were too fresh.
This was followed by a compact super Sunday, on which the usual SailGP sailing programme of seven fleet races was held over two days in a short programme of just three races up to the final. In the first two races, the Germany SailGP team once again stumbled over its Achilles heel: the starts. After the costly early start in race one, helmsman Erik Kosegarten-Heil and his crew had their second start cancelled.
However, they then caught up well and had strong scenes until a controversial penalty in a tight situation with the Danes caused a further setback. "There were only three races. You would have had to get a big result in the first race to be in contention for the final," explained Driver Erik Kosegarten-Heil"We took a little too much risk in the first start."
Dramatic SailGP start collision involving three boats
The German starting knot burst in the third fleet race on Sunday. Driver Erik Kosegarten-Heil shone with a top start through the centre. Black-Red-Gold reached the first turning mark in the lead, but fell back to fourth place by the finish. "It was an extremely ambitious day with the big wings. We didn't have a good day and we're not happy with the jury's decisions today. It was very frustrating overall," said Kosegarten-Heil.
Whilst the best were still fighting for a place in the final with their flying F50 foils in this third and final fleet race, many eyes of the thousands of spectators on site remained fixed on the starting box. A dramatic collision involving three boats had occurred there at the start. Here you can see it from the on-board perspective of all three teams.
The Red Bull Italy, Mubadala Brazil and U.S. SailGP teams ended up as a "pile-up" when the hulls of their F50 foils crashed into each other. The background noise: terrifying. The picture afterwards: devastating. However, the league was happy to report that all athletes were "safe and accounted for". For the high-tech catamarans, the immediate inspection and the damage assessment are likely to be drastically different.
US team and Italians penalised by SailGP jury
What had happened? The Italians wanted to prevent an early start and tacked hard. This put pressure on the Americans on the windward side, who did not luff fast enough to prevent a collision. For their part, the Brazilians, who were slightly behind, were unable to avoid the Italians because they were blocked by the Americans. They rammed the Italians T-bone style, turning the Italian boat into the Americans.
The situation from the perspective of the rules: Brazil could not avoid the sandwich, the Italians had the right to windward and the Americans should have kept clear as the windward boat. The US team with helmsman Taylor Canfield, who had previously shown a strong performance with a second place and a race win, also lost out on a place in the final on their home turf with this momentous mistake.
There are definitely blind spots on these boats." Taylor Canfield
The jury penalised the US team with seven event penalty points based on rule 14 of the racing rules. Driver Taylor Canfield said after the collision: "This is something we have to deal with as a group - internally and also as a league. Nobody likes big collisions."
SailGP driver Phil Robertson vents his anger
The Italians were also penalised with four event penalty points as the cause of the situation, because they had condoned the collision that was to be avoided. Driver Phil Robertson could not understand why his team was penalised. His view of the crash: "We were clearly in front at the start. And then two teams come from behind and crash into you..." His team also tried to avoid the collision: "As soon as I saw it, I made a pretty evasive manoeuvre."
I would say: you shouldn't get any closer to death than that. You're at the mercy of others." Phil Robertson
Robertson made no secret of his annoyance after the races, saying: "There are five people on the side of the boat being rammed by another boat at 60 kilometres an hour. It's really no fun. Everyone is totally annoyed. It's frustrating for a weekend to end like that. Especially when you start the race in a kind of podium position, are in a good position and want to do your best. And then something like this happens."
According to initial reports from the helmsmen, the Italian boat is also in much worse condition than the American boat. Phil Robertson said: "The boat is as good as scrap. One hull has almost sunk. It's broken into many pieces. I don't think it will come back, it's ready for the rubbish. And we'll see what happens next."
Australians, Brits and Canadians fight their way into the final
Martine Grael was able to smile again after the crash on land. The Brazilian 49erFX double Olympic champion said: "We thought we would have lighter winds today. But we had a nice breeze here in New York. It was fun until we had a big sandwich crash. We got stuck in the middle. It happened pretty much in slow motion. Nobody got hurt. That's the most important thing. The question now is how quickly we can repair. There's not much time until Halifax."
After the collision, the motto was "The show must go on". While the helpers from the teams and the league struggled to secure the wedged-together broken boats and get them apart, the others with the large 27.5 metre wings on light wind foils struggled with each other, somewhat overpowered. "It was hard to handle the boats in the gusts. It was challenging!" said the experienced French driver Quanetin Delapierre from Team DS Automobiles.
Australia's Bonds Flying Roos, defending champion Emirates GBR and the Canadian team NorthStar qualified for the final. Tom Slingsby's "Flying Kangaroos" prevailed in the most difficult sailing conditions. They scored with good boat control, very self-confident tactics and also a bit of luck with an umpire's decision in a close duel with the fiercely attacking Brits.
"The final was a bit wild. We thought we were in the right. They thought they were in the right. The referees ruled in our favour." Tom Slingsby
There was no sign of their near capsize the day before at Sunday's gala for Australia's record three-time SailGP winners. For Tom Slingsby and his Green and Yellows, the "Big Apple" tasted sweet this weekend with their third event win in a row. However, the road to victory on the Hudson was no walk in the park for his team either. Tom Slingsby said: "It's the toughest race course. There's the wind, the current, objects under the water. There's just so much going on."
We tried to keep our heads above water. Then we reached the final. And then we had a great race." Tom Slingsby
Australia leads the table after six of 13 events with 55 points ahead of Team Emirates GBR (44 points). The Germany SailGP team dropped back to seventh place after finishing eleventh and last in New York and will make another attempt to climb back up the rankings in three weeks' time in Halifax (20/21 June). The Spaniards, who had to watch on in frustration with hydraulic problems after their efforts in the show races on the day the results counted, will also be looking to score points again there. Click here for the results from New York.
The half-time event of the sixth SailGP season will take place alongside the start of the 132nd Kiel Week on 20 and 21 June in Canada. The comeback of New Zealand's Black Foils has been announced for the summit on the east coast of the Nova Scotia Peninsula, where they will be sailing with a newly built boat after their serious crash in Auckland in February.
A review of the New York SailGP summit:
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
