SailGP: The best lineup of of sailors ever assembled - common theme at Media Conference
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 23 Apr 2021 22:03 HKT
24 April 2021
Ben Ainslie, helmsman of Great Britain SailGP Team, wears a mask as he speaks to the media in a pre-race press conference ahead of Race Day 1 © Thomas Lovelock/SailGP
"The best lineup of sailors ever assembled" was a common theme at the opening media conference for Season 2 of SailGP, which gets under way in Bermuda, today.
The eight skipper line up includes twice America's Cup champions, Peter Burling (NZL) and Jimmy Spithill (USA); the top sailor in Olympic history, Ben Ainslie (GBR); Olympic Gold and Silver medalist, Nathan Outteridge (JPN); top French multihull sailor, Billy Besson; former world match racing champion Phil Robertson (ESP); and top Volvo Ocean Race and top match racer Niccolai Sehested (DEN).
Using the new virtual media facility which enables coverage by journalists working remotely, the media conference was conducted under social distancing requirements, and with the skippers all wearing face masks.
The eight skippers appeared in groups of three in the media conference, with SailGP CEO Russell Coutts joining the final two - Peter Burling (NZL) and Jimmy Spithill (USA) who last faced each other on the America's Cup Match last month in Auckland.
All teams admitted to being short of a gallop, with the compressed build-up to the event caused by the consequences of the COVID pandemic, and in particular the lockdown currently in force in Bermuda.
Season 1 winner Tom Slingsby (AUS) made the first of several observations as to the big step up to this series, which will be the first time that eight of the wingsailed foiling catamarans will have been on the startline at the same time. "It's hard to say how the extra boats on the startline will affect you," the 2012 Olympic Gold medalist and 2013 America's Cup winner noted. "It's not like we have a grid like a motor race, where you don't really notice the extra cars - but when you have eight boats all on a straight start line - you sure notice the extra boats."
"There's less passing lanes now, so we've all got to up our game to stay at the front."
"We've all had limited training time, but every team is in the same boat. Some got more than others, but that's the way it is", he added.
One complication for the Australian team is that their coach Philippe Presti (FRA) has followed his long time protege Jimmy Spithill and is now working with the US team. "They have all our playbooks, all our tactical moves, how the crew cross the boat. He knows everything about our boat and our structure," Slingsby lamented. "He's taken all that across to the US team, and on the water we saw them copying that with some straight up speed - so we're going to have to do something different to them and mix it up."
"We have to improve - if we stay as we were last season we're not going to win. So the fact that they know last year's playbook doesn't bother us too much."
Slingsby along with several other top skippers identified the need to get away to a good start as one of the key improvements the team was looking to make.
Sir Ben Ainslie, the most successful sailor in Olympic history and a a fellow crew member of Slingsby's and Jimmy Spithill (SailGP USA) in Oracle Racing, the 2013 America's Cup winner, echoed Slingsby's opening comments. "This is an exceptional line up of talent in this one design format racing. It is quite possibly the best we have seen in sailing. Whoever comes out on top is going to to have to sail incredibly well, in this classy field, and these types of boat in this format of racing."
"As competitive sportsmen we want to be racing against the best and really testing ourselves. With SailGP it is an incredible opportunity for all the athletes in this league to go up against the best in these iconic venues around the world, in these F50 boats - it doesn't get any better than that," he added.
Ainslie was moderately satisfied with their performance in the Practice racing. "We went OK, I wouldn't say that we started that well. We had a few issues getting off the start line. But once we did that the guys were sailing the boat really well."
New crew member Hannah Mills, and Olympic Gold medalist, was onboard for the practice race to get a taste of F50 racing. "She wasn't supposed to be helping us out that much, but in the Practice racing it is Ok - and she did a great job."
SailGP Japan skipper Nathan Outteridge has lost two crew from Series 1 in the form of his former 49er crew Iain Jensen and Luke Parkinson who have joined Ben Ainslie aboard Great Britain SailGP. "Thankfully they left a lot of knowledge with our new team, and that was able to be transferred to out new team members. We have the same three Japanese sailors with us as in Series 1, but have bought in [former America's cup helmsman] Chris Draper and [Luna Rossa co-helmsman] Francesco Bruni, to complete the team - who have been gelling quite well - given that all teams have had limited time on the water."
"You're going to hear it all morning, but this is probably the best fleet we have probably ever seen in any sailing competition in one design boats. These sailors all have different backgrounds, and we have eight of the strongest teams we have every seen in a sailing competition. I think just getting top fives in these races is going to be very difficult. If you are going to win races, you're going to have to sail perfectly from the start to the finish - as we saw in the Practice Racing yesterday."
A new feature this year is for all the teams to be able to see each others' performance data. "It's a huge advantage if you can find the time to go through it, knowing what you are looking for," Outteridge remarked. "SailGP send performance reports which analyse every team," he added. "If you are struggling with a particular maneuver, or why one team has a particular advantage, it is all there. Every team gets the same performance reports and it is all about how you interpret that data, and how you can turn it around."
The first day's racing is actually on Friday, due to a good weather window with light winds on Saturday triggering the change in schedule, and the Final Day on Sunday in expected stronger winds. The original broadcast schedules will be maintained.
On the final day, Sunday local time in Bermuda, the forecast is for stronger winds, when the newly developed smaller 18sq metre wingsail rig may come into play.
"If the current forecast holds, we could possibly go to the 18m rig, with the high speed foils," SailGP CEO Russell Coutts said. "Today we have the [big rig] and low speed foils in, on Sunday its looking like the small rig and high speed foils."
The process used in SailGP is quite different from that of almost four years ago in the America's Cup, where the team would consult their weather forecaster the night before, and make a decision as to which foils would be loaded, and then the boat had to be checked by a measurer in the morning before the boats were launched around mid-morning.
In SailGP the boats are all one design and the teams all sail F50's that are in the same configuration.
"The procedure is that Shared Services consult with the sailors, and there is a discussion about what configuration will go in, and then there is a final decision made."
It is not known whether there will be racing on Saturday, but the racing from Friday will be broadcast in the original time schedule in the broadcast territories.
For the full media conference listen/watch below.