Strong wind champion Tom Slingsby and his Australian Bonds Flying Roos were crowned the comeback kings on the first of the two race days at the SailGP premiere on Lake Geneva. Twice in three races, the three-time SailGP record winner and his crew, which was reduced to just two competitors as in all teams, managed to overtake the field from the back of the field to the finish. On one occasion, they overtook eight boats on just one section of the course.
SailGP premiere on Lake Geneva
With 4th, 1st and 3rd place, the green and yellow team catapulted themselves to the top of the standings by the end of the race day. With 25 points, the Slingsby team led at the halfway point of the Swiss debut ahead of Team Emirates GBR (23 points) and the proud Swiss hosts (18 points): Sébastien Schneiter and his fellow Swiss riders battled their way to third place in what Emirates GBR rider Dylan Fletcher described as a "street fight", finishing 5th, 2nd and 8th to the delight of the home fans on Lake Geneva in the first half of the race.
The Germany SailGP team started Saturday's races without much luck. However, with 9th, 7th and 5th place, there was a positive upward trend for the half-time eights. Things went the other way round for Peter Burling's Black Foils. The Kiwis are leading the season championship after ten of twelve events, but had to see how things went downhill for them on Saturday on Lake Geneva with 1st, 5th and 11th places.
Experienced SailGP helmsman Nathan Outteridge, who will be back in the SailGP ring with the Swedish team Artemis Racing next season after taking time out to raise his family, said before the first starting signal in Switzerland: "I think there could be some big surprises here." The Australian said this primarily with a view to the very light winds for which Lake Geneva is known.
Enthusiasm about the new light wind foils
The gentle winds were just right as an extreme test stage for the new foils in the SailGP: the twelve teams contested their three heats on day one with just three sailors in a starkly minimal constellation. The foilers were able to take off in just a handful of knots. Of course, this was not always successful and not always permanent, but rarely have the SailGP participants been so united and so enthusiastic in their praise of a technical development.
The new light wind T-foils and rudders were convincing. In the Emirates GBR team, experienced flight controller Luke Parkinson said: "The teams are getting on increasingly well with the new foils." The British team achieved a boat speed of 63.32 km/h in a wind speed of just 8 km/h (4.3 knots). Helmsman Fletcher said: "We are really happy to have these new foils." French pilot Quentin Delapierre also agreed: "I'm super surprised by the lift that the new foils generate. I think it's a really good improvement for the fleet."
It's absolutely incredible how we were able to foil around in the little wind - great action." Dylan Fletcher
Erik Kosegarten-Heil also confirmed the good news for the German racing team. In an interview with ZDF, he described the light wind foils as "cool" and said: "We are definitely foiling earlier. We definitely have a lot of action on the boat. And of course we like that. But the spectators like it too. That's why we have a positive attitude towards foils."
Team Germany: great starts, problems on the course
Erik Kosegarten-Heil commented on the German race day in a differentiated manner: "I think we are extremely satisfied with the starts. We had great starts. In the first race we simply had the mega mega problem of falling off the foils. In the third race, we managed to stay on the foils for as long as possible. And that decided the race."
In two of the three races, the German team was in top positions around the first mark, but then fell off the foils. "If we get these gybes right, we'll achieve two more top-three finishes," said helmsman Kosegarten-Heil, setting out the ideal scenario for the second and already decisive day of racing. On Sunday, the SailGP fleet is hardly expecting any more wind than on Saturday. Which is why Black-Red-Gold was still studying the images of all the boats' manoeuvres on Saturday evening in order to achieve improvements.
The race organisers have changed the start time for the final day: the debut on Lake Geneva will start at 2 pm. This is 90 minutes earlier than originally planned, ZDF will also start its broadcast here. The background to the decision is that thunderstorms are expected in the Swiss SailGP area later this afternoon.
What the drivers said after race day one
His heart beats faster in light winds than in storms: Tom Slingsby talks about his experiences on day one of the SailGP freshwater premiere in very light winds. Plus comments from Erik Kosegarten Heil, the enthusiastic local hero Sébastien Schneiter and the other helmsmen. Double Olympic gold medallist Ruggero Tita explains how many new challenges his Red Bull Italy team faced on this day:
