It ended as it began: Yesterday's second day of racing at the eleventh event of the current SailGP season was a huge mess due to bad weather. The first day of training for the Germany SailGP team around helmsman Erik Heil had already fallen victim to the weather in Halifax, Canada. Strategist Anna Barth spoke of the "most difficult conditions we have ever had". On the first day of racing, the classification was also shaken up, but on the second day it got really wild with more wind, including stronger gusts and gybes.
So wild that not all the boats could be set up and craned in on time. In order to make racing possible at all, the boats of the potential finalists were launched first. Then as many catamarans as possible were to be launched without jeopardising the TV broadcasting time. While the Swiss and Americans had to stay ashore in the last two places after day one, Germany's high-speed sailors missed the first race of the day, which was won by the home team Canada with Phil Robertson. The remaining second and last fleet race before the final of the top 3 was completed in sixth place under the most difficult conditions.
"We are disappointed with this race day. We only had a total of 15 minutes sailing time. That's obviously far too little to familiarise ourselves with such difficult conditions and develop a good strategy," says Erik Heil. The team had reached the race course with marginal preparation and without completing a technical check. "At times, it was not at all clear whether we would still be able to start and whether our boat would still be brought into the water," explains Anna Barth. They were lucky to be in the second race.
Technical defect: Australia capsizes dramatically and must fear for the final
Consequently, the crew opened the race conservatively, "unfortunately a little too conservatively" for helmsman Heil in retrospect. They wanted to get round the course with as few complications as possible. "Without preparation before the race, not much more can be expected," the 34-year-old commented on the race on the team's Instagram account. His crew came back well after the start and worked their way up two places.
However, this was also because the Australians with helmsman Tom Slingsby probably suffered a serious technical error. Whilst in the lead and travelling at very high speed, the catamaran capsized on the last downwind leg of the race (Video). "It was a technical problem, the wing flipped over through no fault of our own. That's frustrating, as we would have made it to the final if we had finished the last race," said Slingsby afterwards. The Australian catamaran had already threatened to capsize in the previous race, but then righted itself again. None of the sailors were injured in the incidents. The F50 was then brought safely into the harbour.
After a rather weak first day, the Australians slipped to third place in the season rankings behind New Zealand and Spain. The seemingly unbeatable Slingsby team, of all teams, which has won all previous seasons, is weakening in the current season finale. The harsh eight-point penalty following the tonne crash in Christchurch had cost them the lead in the standings, and now the Australians even have to worry about qualifying for the grand finale in San Francisco after finishing seventh in Canada.
For the first time after Ainslie's departure: well-deserved event victory for Great Britain
France and Denmark are lurking behind them in fourth and fifth place, six and seven points behind. The decision will be made at the penultimate event of the fourth season in New York (22 to 23 June). Whoever is successful in front of the Statue of Liberty can hope to win the prize money of two million US dollars, which will be awarded a little later in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. In a single race, the first three teams of the season will determine the overall winner for 2023/24.
Meanwhile, Brit Giles Scott clearly mastered the turbulent conditions in Halifax the best and deservedly secured his first event win as helmsman. Starting the final in first place, he consistently defended his leeward position at the first buoy and thus put himself on the winning track. In front of the spectators, who braved the pouring rain, he raced past at speeds of up to 94 km/h and relegated his fellow finalists France and Denmark to second and third place.
Scott only took over from record Olympic champion Sir Ben Ainslie at the beginning of the year and has recently been heavily criticised. "Winning an event is hugely important, especially for me personally after a pretty frustrating apprenticeship in the SailGP," said the two-time Olympic champion. However, with a 13-point deficit to Australia and tied on points with Canada in sixth place, it will be difficult for the Brits to reach the season finale.
German SailGP team with learnings after New York
The newly formed US team led by match racing expert Taylor Canfield still can't get going without penalties. With three last places on day one, the overall result was foreseeable early on and was finally sealed by the denied craning in on Sunday. A third place at the restart in Abu Dhabi was followed by four places in the basement of the standings. The conditions for the upcoming home event in New York could hardly be worse.
There, the German team wants to say goodbye to the first season with a strong performance. Although eighth place in Halifax was a slight dip in the rising form curve, the event was still very instructive. Helmsman Erik Heil explains: "It was a good week to identify problems and set new training goals. We were already able to realise our previous goal of improving our starts in Halifax."
The team of Thomas Riedel and Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel demonstrated this in the first race in particular and then sailed to the finish in fourth place. They wanted to build on this in the second race, but fell off the foils after a right of way infringement by France and were then relegated to ninth place. An early start in the last race of the day also ended in penultimate place. "Being alert in these conditions and sailing the boat really fast was a big challenge. Of all the races I've sailed so far, it was the most difficult, but I also learnt a lot," summarised strategist Anna Barth.
Max Gasser
Editor Test & Technology
