Please select your home edition
Edition
A+T Instruments BFD 2024 Leaderboard

SailGP poised to usher-in a new era of international Grand Prix sailing

by David Schmidt 8 Oct 2018 09:00 PDT 8 October 2018
The F50 is claimed to be significantly faster than the AC50 © SailGP

If you share my love of incredibly fast sailboats that leverage the latest technology and forward-leaning thinking, then you'll probably share my interest in the AC50 class of fully foiling, wingsail-powered catamarans. These boats, which have been described by some of the world's best yacht designers and naval architects as the fastest inshore sailboats to have ever been built, were used to contest the 35th America's Cup, which unfurled in June of 2017 on the waters off of the island nation of Bermuda. And while the America's Cup has moved on to 75-foot "monohulls" for "AC36", the sailing world learned last week that the six AC50s that were built for the last Defense will see a second life as a One Design class that will be used to contest the newly announced and fully professional SailGP sailing league.

Some backstory. The sailing world's rumor mill has long been churning out whispered reports that Sir Russell Coutts (NZL), the three-time America's Cup-winning skipper (1995, 2000 and 2003), and Larry Ellison, the billionaire technology mogul who won two Cups (2010 and 2013) with the Kiwi-accented "RC" leading the charge as CEO of his Oracle Team USA, were considering launching a Grand Prix sailing league. In fact, the origins of SailGP harken back to 2007 when Coutts teamed-up with fellow Cup skipper Paul Cayard (USA) to create the World Sailing League, an idea that never took flight thanks to looming financial problems.

Still, the idea of a fully global, fully professional sailing league somehow kept its head above water during the years of litigation between Oracle Team USA and Alinghi, the former Swiss-flagged Cup custodian, as well as the three Cups that were sailed in high-performance multihulls (2010, 2013 and 2017) on two continents and off of one island nation.

Now, after a long and quiet 16 months since loosing the Auld Mug to the significantly faster Emirates Team New Zealand squad and suffering the humbling loss of the world's most (in)famous sports trophy, RC and Ellison are back with a new vision of Grand Prix level sailing that has "recycled" the AC50s at Core Builders in New Zealand (which Ellison owns) into a One Design class, dubbed "F50s", that will be used to contest a new, World Sailing-sanctioned Special Event series.

The 2019 SailGP series will be comprised of five events, starting in Sydney, Australia (February 15-16) and continuing on to San Francisco (May 4-5), New York (June 21-22), Cowes, UK (August 10-11) and finishing in Marseille, France (September 20-22). According to a World Sailing announcement, each event will feature two days of competition that will involve five fleet races and a final match race to determine the overall event winner. As a sweetener-cum-crowd-pleaser, the final 2019 SailGP event in Marsaille will feature a $1 million dollar, winner-takes-all championship race between the top two teams.

"SailGP distills all of the most successful, exciting and relevant elements of high-performance, professional racing, while adding the extra edge that comes with nation-versus-nation competition," said Coutts, SailGP CEO, in the official World Sailing press release. "We are aiming to be pioneers of new technologies, boat design, commercial partnerships and global audience engagement. But with every crew on the same groundbreaking F50 catamaran, this isn't a tech arms race, rather the ultimate test to establish the best sailing team in advanced foiling catamarans."

While there are far more question marks than answers remaining about the long-term vitality and sustainability of SailGP, World Sailing's press release describes an "11-year partnership". Furthermore, Coutts has suggested that a reasonable operating budget for a year of SailGP campaigning could fetch $5 million U.S. dollars, which is a tiny fraction of the cost of a competitive America's Cup campaign.

There are currently teams from Australia, China, France, Japan, the UK, and the USA listed on SailGP's official website, but only one team has publicly announced (Great Britain SailGP Team), so it will be interesting to see if this new series hits the starting line at pace and on its foils, or if unexpected headwinds present themselves.

That said, the combination of a relatively low barrier to entry, the fan-centric nature of the racing, and the amphitheater-like settings of the selected venues, coupled with the blistering speeds of the F50s and the national nature of the teams, could prove to be serious competition for the America's Cup, which of course is exactly SailGP's intended vision.

Still, Cup history reminds us that while the World Sailing League also started with the best of intentions and under the sunny skies of a pre-Great Recession economy, the combination of the worst downturn since the Great Depression, followed by Oracle Team USA's success against Alinghi both in court and on the waters off of Valencia, Spain in 2010, spelled doom for RC's original vision for a Grand Prix sailing league. It will certainly be interesting to see if SailGP is able to find its foils in 2019, and - if so - what sort of impact this new professional series has on the sport of sailing as a whole.

May the four winds blow you safely home.

David Schmidt
Sail-World.com North American Editor

Related Articles

America's Cup Power Plays
And Growing Sailing Through Learning There's always so much speculation and intrigue in-between each edition of the America's Cup. Everyone wants to know what is happening behind closed doors, inside the teams, and when the Challengers meet with the Defender. Posted on 28 May
Hyde Sails Flying Fifteen Video Tuning Guide
Ben McGrane explains how to get the most out of your B1 mainsail with B1 or 2H jibs Hyde Sails release new detailed video guide for tuning the Flying 15 for use with the B1 mainsail with B1 or 2H jibs. Posted on 22 May
Gladwell's Line: - May 22 - A big month
Kiwi's loss is Italy's gain - our thoughts on the hosting debacle. Kiwi's loss is Italy's gain - our thoughts on the hosting debacle. Paul Whiting's tribute - 45yrs on. Surprise winner of biggest ever two-handed nationals. Chalkie Bland remembered. Posted on 22 May
Puget Sound sailing, Etchells, J/70s, Cup news
Seeking Goldilocks conditions on Puget Sound, Etchells NAs, J/70 U.S. Nationals, AC38 news As the saying goes, 'you don't know unless you go'. While I've mostly heard this phrase applied to climbing, skiing, and mountaineering, four late-winter and springtime races on Puget Sound this year exemplified the fact that this line. Posted on 20 May
The appeal of offshore
Is there still appeal? Have we made it too onerous? Why would someone take it up now? I had been pondering. Yes. Marquee events have no issue attracting entrants. Middle Sea, Transpac, Cape to Rio, Fastnet, and Hobart all spring to mind instantly, but what of the ‘lesser' races? Lots of boats in pens (slips) a lot of the time Posted on 18 May
Banger Racing, Back Racing and No Racing
Racing on the cheap, a return to racing for young Aussies, and ILCA struggles We start with racing on the cheap at the Colander Cup, then focus on a return to racing for the Aussies at the Youth Worlds, moving on to a complete lack of racing at the ILCA Worlds, and then looking at how SailGP should be back out on the water. Posted on 14 May
Exposure Marine Fastnet Race Kit Video Review
A set of 3 torches specifically designed for offshore racing crews It's a huge year for offshore sailing, and arguably the biggest event of the summer is the Rolex Fastnet Race. Within an hour of entries opening the Royal Ocean Racing Club had received a record 435 yacht registrations. Posted on 14 May
Touching base with Francesca Clapcich
Francesca Clapcich on her 2028-2029 Vendee Globe campaign In late March, Italian-American sailor Francesca “Frankie” Clapcich announced that her Team Francesca Clapcich Powered by 11th Hour Racing will campaign for the 2028-2029 edition of the Vendee Globe race. Posted on 13 May
How Seldén Carbon Masts are made
I took a look around the Seldén Mast factory with Richard Thoroughgood to find out more I took a look around the Seldén Mast factory with Richard Thoroughgood from Seldén to find out a bit more about how the carbon tow reels become the masts that we use when out sailing. Posted on 12 May
SAY it with intent! SAY it in carbon…
You know, you might also have to SAY it in epoxy. You know, you might also have to SAY it in epoxy. Get all that, and you are certainly someone who needs to know about SAY Carbon Yachts. It's all about efficiency, acceleration, pace, and the amount of horsepower required to get there. Posted on 8 May
Armstrong 728x90 - MA Foil Range - BOTTOMHenri-Lloyd Dynamic RangeRooster 2025