The British had actually hoped to set the tone and shine on home soil. But that didn’t quite happen to start with. After two lacklustre races, however, Dylan Fletcher, Hannah Mills and Team Emirates GBR finally secured their first race win. By then, however, it was already clear who were dominating this first of two days of racing at the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix: last year’s New Zealand winners in Group A and the Swedish Team Artemis in Group B.
“Save of the Day” prevents German capsize at the British SailGP
Following their comeback last month in Halifax after four months without a boat, Peter Burling and his Black Foils showed an impressive upward trend in Group A in Portsmouth, finishing 4th, 2nd and 1st. “Wind whisperer” Nathan Outteridge and his Swedish Artemis team were even a touch better in Group B, finishing 2nd, 1st and 2nd. Outteridge said: “Lovely sunshine, a good breeze, and we had a really good warm-up session, which gave us the confidence we needed to really push the boat in the race.”
"In conditions like these, it really makes a big difference if you can push the boat to the limit." Nathan Outteridge
In Group B, which was dominated by Team Artemis, the British team found themselves in fourth place for the time being after three races on day one, behind the Swedes, the Americans and the Swiss. In the same group, the Germany SailGP Team failed to get off to a good start.
That first botched start was initially followed by a much better one in race two, but the boat lacked speed on the course. After that, Schwarz-Rot-Gold even managed a really good start in race three. But then, as the league reported in its daily summary, wing trimmer Kevin Peponnet stumbled whilst changing sides. The F50 foiler spun out of control, the crew struggled to prevent the boat from capsizing. The commentators hailed Erik Kosegarten-Heil and his crew as “the heroes of the day”.
GER stunt in front of Horse Sand Fort in the Solent
The helmsman described the course Later, he said: “We were the first round the mark and had another technical problem. The boat dipped into the water once. That allowed the British to get inside us and dictate when we could jibe, so to speak. We had to sail very close to that fort – that ‘Donat’ in the water, a sort of castle (Ed.: this refers to the circular Horse Sand Fort, with a diameter of 80 metres, which lay right in the middle of the course).”
According to Erik Kosegarten-Heil, this led to “more or less a few mix-ups” on board. He explained: “You can’t raise the sails whilst both boards are still down. Kevin was late getting to the new side and couldn’t get one of the boards up in time. I didn’t realise it wasn’t up yet, so I carried on hoisting. One thing led to another.” Erik Kosegarten-Heil went on to describe the first half as “somewhat disappointing overall – not our best day”.
That said, he wasn’t unhappy with the starts, saying: “We had two good starts and one bad start. But we didn’t manage to tap into the boat’s speed potential, so we never really made any headway. That surprised us a bit today. Perhaps we need to have a look at the data and choose different settings for tomorrow. Overall, there’s room for improvement.”
"It could have gone better." Erik Kosegarten-Heil
Six races and six different winners – in the challenging Portsmouth conditions, with Artemis clocking a top speed of 98.58 km/h – meant the sailors had a great time. “That was some incredible sailing today,” said “Artemis” helmsman Nathan Outteridge. “What conditions we had today! We really enjoyed the day,” confirmed Peter Burling on behalf of Black Foils.
Team sailing in SailGP: plenty of speed, few opportunities to overtake
The opening day of the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix was packed with excitement from the very first to the very last signal. With wind speeds of 30 km/h on the Solent, the F50 boats were fitted with the smallest 18-metre wing sail, as well as high-speed rudders and boards. The decision to race in groups – a format the league intends to retain from this eighth event of the sixth SailGP season until the end of the season – ensured that the teams were able to operate with a clearer overview.
“Sailing in split groups is actually quite cool,” said Erik Kosegarten-Heil, “there are more high-speed situations. That really gets you going. You do find yourself in a lot of tight situations, but there aren’t many opportunities to catch up either.” Other teams also felt that the course was laid out in such a way that there were few overtaking opportunities after the starts.
Dylan Fletcher also criticised this, saying: “The conditions were fantastic. It was just a bit frustrating how the race course was laid out. It created a sort of procession. I hope they can do something about that for tomorrow to make it a bit more interesting.” His strategist, Hannah Mills, added: “It was a really difficult course for overtaking. In a way, the course was single-file as far as the lower left gate was concerned. But the conditions were simply phenomenal.”
The best British rider in the first half was a Canadian
The most thrilling finish came in Race Two of Group B. The Canadian NorthStar Team, winners of Race One, were once again in the lead, but were then overtaken at the last minute by Los Gallos, Spain They were attacked and overtaken. During the defence, the Canadians lost their grip on the foils and were overtaken by three more teams just before the finish line.
Nevertheless, the British-Canadian sailor Giles Scott, a two-time Olympic Finn class champion for Great Britain, was the day’s top performer, crossing the line 0.27 seconds ahead of the rest. After three races in Group A, his team was in second place in the group with ten points, just one point behind the Black Foils.
As the day drew to a close on a positive note for the British team, their race victory had the fans on their feet once again in the XL Race Stadium. This sparked fresh hope that the 2025 season champions, as the home team with two top races on Sunday, might still be able to reach the final, for which the top two teams from Groups A and B qualify. For Team Germany, however, this will be very difficult, as they are currently in sixth place in Group B with just two points. Click here for the provisional results after day one.
The Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix on ZDF streaming
The Emirates Great Britain SailGP will resume on Sunday at 5.30 pm German time. ZDF is streaming the races live. The commentator is SailGP expert Felix Van den Hövel. Conditions are expected to be just as challenging as on Saturday.
Click here for the managers’ half-time reactions:
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter