"Canada is a bit of a benchmark at the moment. We were very happy to be able to keep them at bay in the third race," said not only the Spanish defending champion Diego Botin with great respect on Saturday in San Francisco. Giles Scott and his Northstar SailGP Team Canada are the team of the moment in the Formula One of sailing, in which prize money totalling 12.8 million US dollars is being paid out this season.
Canada continues its winning streak in US territory
With 5th, 1st, 2nd and 1st places, Finn double Olympic champion Giles Scott, his strategist Annie Haeger and their crew made it clear that they want to continue their current run of success after second place in Sydney and victory a week ago in Los Angeles. The Australian record winners led by three-time SailGP season champion Tom Slingsby came close to them at the start off San Francisco with 2nd, 3rd, 3rd and 4th place.
We had a good day today." Giles Scott
With a total of 32 points, the Australians were only three points behind Canada (35 points) and three points ahead of the Spaniards (29 points) at the San Francisco halfway point. Leader Giles Scott said in the evening in San Francisco: "We sailed cleanly today, pushed hard and made the right decisions a few times in difficult situations."
After four of seven races, France and New Zealand were equal fourth with 23 points each, ahead of Great Britain (19 points), Switzerland (18 points) and Italy (14 points). The French once again caught the eye with their blatant "lift driving": they shone as winners in race one, then finished tenth and eighth before ending the day in second place in the fourth race.
Race victory in sight, course limit exceeded
The Germany SailGP team initially had to settle for ninth place. Even the dream start in the second race of the day didn't help much. After that, helmsman Erik Heil and his team led the race for long stretches before a violation of the course limits and the associated penalty threw them back.
At the end of the formidable performance with a small slip-up, however, he still managed a strong fourth place. However, the day's tally of 9th, 4th, 10th and 8th places was initially only good enough for ninth place. "We had prepared well for the high-speed starts, but found it a bit difficult to get going and had relatively hectic communication on board," said Erik Heil shortly after the first four runs against the backdrop of the Golden Gate Bridge, describing his team's mostly less successful starts in an interview with ZDF commentator Nils Kaben.
Three penalties for Team Germany
In the first race, the Germans were too slow out of the blocks and were stuck at the start with no room for manoeuvre. In the third race, the racing team of Thomas Riedel and four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel conceded an early start penalty, as did the teams from Brazil and the USA.
That was a bit worse than expected for us." Erik Heil
It was clear to all three teams that they did not want to be left behind at the start in the nice winds of 13 to 17 knots. Accordingly, they were early - too early at the start. This was immediately penalised by the referees on the screens in London. In the course of the race, Team Germany also received a further "boundary penalty" for crossing the course boundary again.
Erik Heil explained: "We can adjust how quickly the foils come down. But for us today, it took an extremely long time for the foils to go into the lock. And you can't turn before the foils are in the lock." The course limit is then quickly exceeded in the fast-paced races on the small SailGP courses. But Erik Heil remains optimistic for the showdown on Sunday.
We are definitely confident." Erik Heil
On Saturday evening in San Franciscio, the two-time 49er Olympic bronze medallist identified the starts as a whole and the communication on board the German F50 Foilers as another area for optimisation, saying: "We had a bit of difficulty structuring our starts well."
US team severely tested in two nosedives
The 35-year-old explained: "The teams' strategy changed from start to start. And we found it really difficult to find good lanes in the start box. I think that's a bit of a challenge for tomorrow: to find a calm, conservative start variant that brings us closer to the top five on average. And then we'll also try to work on communication so that the pace is reduced a little. This means that there is a little less communication on the boat."
The Americans must have had plenty of communication on board in their home waters: Taylor Canfield's team had to survive two nosdives in the second and fourth races on Saturday. Both caused the team to fall back to eleventh and last place very quickly. The Americans had imagined things differently in front of their home crowd. Click here for the intermediate results from San Francisco after four of seven races until the final of the top three teams.
Good pressure is also expected again on Sunday in San Francisco. The fresher winds are "also a little bit the conditions where we have our strengths," said Erik Heil. He continued: "We're always happy when there's a bit more wind, a bit more action. That's where we feel comfortable." ZDF will once again be broadcasting the Oracle San Francisco SailGP of the sailing world elite on Sunday from 11.30pm German time.
Replay! The replay of the broadcast of the first day of the Oracle San Francisco Sail Grand Prix on ZDF with commentator Nils Kaben:
