SailGP: Canada tops overnight leaderboard in New York- schedule change for Day 2
by Richard Gladwell - Sail-World.com/nz 23 Jun 2024 10:16 NZST
Spain SailGP Team and USA SailGP Team sail past the Race Stadium on Race Day 1 of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix - June 22, 2024 © Ricardo Pinto/SailGP
Canada SailGP team led by Phil Robertson (NZL) tops the overnight leaderboard by a single point, after only two of the scheduled three races were sailed in SailGP New York.
Opening day conditions brought racing to a premature end on an overcast day, with rainsqualls surrounding the course.
The winds ranged from fickle to furious - zero to 20kts winds. The 10 strong fleet, which all made it to the start line, were foiling fast at times, and others were stuck in displacement mode in the vagaries of the Hudson River - an even more precarious point of sail with the river current making self-start foiling more difficult.
Excellent tactical decision making and consistent 4th and 2nd place finishes in the day’s two fleet races saw Canada finish on top with 16 points.
It was an excellent day for Nathan Outteridge’s Switzerland, which picked up its third win of the season in the second race of the day and finishes the day second on the leaderboard. Peter Burling’s New Zealand rounds out the top three with 5th and 3rd place finishes. Burling was leading the third and final race which was abandoned the first leg.
Just 5 points separating Canada in 1st and Spain in 7th. The top three boats on the points table, after Sunday's racing go through to the Final, to contest the Event Championship and acquire more Season points. The top three teams on Season Points, will contest the richest event in Yachting - the $2million, winner takes all, Grand Final to be staged in San Francisco, next month.
SailGP event organisers have confirmed that the second day of racing in New York will now take place 3hrs 30min earlier than initially planned due to a stormy late afternoon forecast.
Racing will now take place between 1pm - 2.30pm ET instead of the initial window of 4.30pm - 6pm ET.
According to an official SailGP statement, this is ‘to provide the best opportunity to stage the remaining fleet races and winner-takes-all Final’.