Rivalries reignite

The team were able to make up ground, eventually finishing in fourth.

“We got stuck on Steel Point and just couldn’t get going again, basically becalmed, so that was a bit disappointing,” Ainslie explained.

Meanwhile, the Australian team jumped out to an early lead over Nathan Outteridge’s Japan team, allowing them to win their first race of the season and setting up a tantalising final with Ainslie.

In the match race the British team got out to an early lead and was the fastest boat on Sydney Harbour. Slingsby and the Australians found themselves behind from the start, incurring a penalty for entering the start box early and the hosts were unable to pull back.

“Apparently we were a quarter of a second early, I thought we were OK, but we weren’t,” reflected Slingsby.

“To get rid of that penalty in the pre-start, in no wind, meant we were a sitting duck really.”

Ainslie however had a clear game plan in the match race.

“We were asked which end of the line we wanted and normally you would say we’ll take the port entry and get in there first and get control. But we had a look at the start box and realised the wind was so patchy and shifty, actually that entry would be tough to keep the boat moving as we’d have to throw in a couple of manoeuvres and we didn’t want to get caught out like we had before.”

The British team of Ben Ainslie, Luke Parkinson, Iain Jensen, Matt Gotrel, Richard Mason and Neil Hunter showed nerves of steel to cross the finish line to be crowned champions of Sydney SailGP, proving they will be a force to be reckoned with this season.

After the first event of Season 2, Great Britain sits atop the leaderboard with 47 points, followed by Australia with 42, Japan with 39, Spain with 31, the United States at 31 and Denmark with 22, while France rounds out the standings with 14 points.

Japan featured in every match race last season and will look to fight its way into the top-two at the next event in San Francisco.

It was an impressive debut performance for the young Spain team and helmsman Phil Robertson, as they earned three second-places finishes over the course of the event and established themselves as podium contenders for Season 2.

The fellow newcomer in 2020 – the Denmark SailGP Team presented by ROCKWOOL – finished the event sixth but showed flashes of high-level ability throughout the two days of competition. After sustaining damage to its boat and having to retire from two races on the first day, Billy Besson’s French team finished seventh.

Rome Kirby and the United States team finished fifth and will look to gain ground on the leaderboard when the global championship returns to San Francisco Bay on May 2 & 3, followed by New York, Cowes (UK) and Copenhagen.

At the first US event of Season 2, all seven boats will be boosted by the addition of a first-of-its-kind modular wingsail that will likely allow the F50s to fly at record-breaking speeds.

With stronger winds and new modular wings, the event will likely see some teams breaking the 50-knot mark again after the British team claimed top speed in Sydney, just shy of this with 49.1 knots.

sailgp.com