Nicolai Sehested and his team at Rockwool Denmark must have been torn between gratitude that in the event of a very sudden collision shock no team member was injured and the anger that they crashed a turning mark - presumably with the T-Foil - in the very first race of the Rolex Los Angeles SailGP. For the Danes, the mishap with the barrel meant a direct exit on day one.
Rolex LA SailGP: Danish start on Sunday uncertain
Team Rockwool Denmark had to return to harbour with a badly damaged SailGP spoiler and then missed three races in a row. The jury also immediately transferred a painful twelve event penalty points and eight season penalty points to the Danes' account. Whether Nicolai Sehested and his crew will be able to start again on Sunday was initially still uncertain on Sunday night.
The show belonged to the resurgent New Zealanders on the first of these two SailGP race days in the Oscar and Olympic city of Los Angeles. After a disappointing eighth place in Sydney, Peter Burling and his Black Foils turned up at the start line visibly determined. The Kiwis, who had slipped back to fourth place after three SailGP regattas in the fifth season, won the first two races of the day and impressed with starts that were as outstanding as they were compelling.
They then slipped up with ninth place in race three as a result of an early start, before finishing the day in a commanding second place. After four races, their performance was enough to give them the lead in Los Angeles ahead of the Canadians with two-time Finn Olympic champion Giles Scott at the helm. In third place after four races were three-time SailGP record winner Tom Slingsby and his Australians.
Australians prevent first female SailGP race win
These three teams also shared the top performances of the day: the Kiwis achieved the highest speed with 59.68 kilometres per hour, the Australians were the most effective with the shortest distance and the Canadians achieved the longest average foil flight time with 88.1 per cent. Tom Slingsby's green and yellows quickly got a better grip on day one with 10th, 3rd, 1st, 3rd after the weak opening race.
With their victory in race three on Saturday, the team from Down Under thwarted the historic first race triumph of a female helmswoman in the SailGP in the final metres. It was only at the last turning mark before the short sprint to the finish that the Australians, with a strong inside position, higher speed and a better angle to the finish line, managed to first push the Brazilians with helmswoman Martine Grael in the outside position and then narrowly overtake them.
The Brazilian 49erFX double Olympic champion and her team were just one second short of their first race win in the fast-paced world league of sailing. The most compact performance on Saturday in the first of three US Grand Prix summits was delivered by the Canadians with their new helmsman Giles Scott. After finishing 3rd, 2nd, 5th and 6th, they were only three points behind the leading New Zealanders (31 points) and one point ahead of the Australians (27 points) at the halfway point late on Saturday evening with 28 points. Click here for the interim results before the final day.
Germany SailGP Team: good starts, tough runs
The Germany SailGP Team finished the first of the two race days in ninth place with mixed results. Erik Heil's crew made some very impressive starts on Saturday. However, not in the opening race, in which the Germans - as in Sydney with heavy penalty point consequences for both - got into trouble again with Martine Grael's team Mubadala Brazil in the pre-start phase. Neither of them benefited from this as the field stormed away at the starting gun.
Nevertheless, Erik Heil and his team still managed to break into the top five in this race. In the end, they finished eighth. With fifth place, Team Germany achieved its best result of the day in the second race on Saturday. This was followed by a seventh and an eleventh place in races where more was possible. Time and again, the team from the racing team of entrepreneur Thomas Riedel and four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel showed that they can also compete at the front when - as Erik Heil puts it - "everything comes together well".
Time and again, however, Team Germany suffered setbacks, fell off the foils and lost valuable positions. In good winds between 13 and 19 knots, this was not so much due to the quality of the sails, but also to seaweed that had wrapped itself around the appendages and caused stumbles. Which is why the last place in the fourth and final race of the day was particularly painful after an initially successful start. Nevertheless, Erik Heil noted: "We swam along quite well."
SailGP on ZDF: Livestream late Sunday evening
The second and final day of racing starts again on Sunday (16 March) at 2 pm local time in Los Angeles. The ZDF livestream starts here at 9.55pm. The presenter is Kristin Recke. After Los Angeles, the SailGP season will continue one weekend later in San Francisco. On 16 and 17 August, the SailGP German premiere will take place off Sassnitz, for which tickets can be purchased here.
Replay! Click here for the SailGP live broadcast by the organisers:
