Touching distance of the podium in New York
by Switzerland SailGP Team 23 Jun 2024 14:57 PDT
22-23 June 2024
New Zealand SailGP Team helmed by Peter Burling lead the SailGP Fleet as the pass the One World Trade Centre and the New York City skyline on Race Day 1 of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix in New York, USA © Bob Martin for SailGP
After five years, SailGP made its return to the Big Apple this weekend for the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix. The high-speed racing action took place off Governors Island, close to the Statue of Liberty, across both days.
In the build-up to the weekend, Switzerland SailGP Team put in a solid performance in the breezy conditions during training time and the event's practice races. Come the weekend, light, shifty winds and the threat of thunderstorms disrupted the racing programme; only four of the five fleet races were completed, and today, for the first time ever racing was brought forward by three and a half hours.
On Saturday, race day one, the Swiss continued their strong form to take a sixth and first place, in Fleet Races 1 and 2 (respectively), and finished the day second overall. Heading into today, it was all to play for, but the team couldn't quite get the break needed to get clear off the start line, making it hard to fight against the pack. Today's results of eighth and sixth see Swiss SailGP Team finish sixth overall in New York, but for the first time this Season, a podium was in reach.
Driver Nathan Outteridge said: "Yesterday was a great day for us! Lots of positive signs for the team, and a lot of it came down to a better executed start. It showed that as a group we are getting better and better; the handling is improving and it's allowing me to get my head out of the boat a bit more."
"Today we struggled to get off the start line and when you are in the pack the air is more turbulent, so we didn't really execute as well as we did yesterday. Also being on the little jib in quite light winds was a real struggle for us. When you are under powered the margin for errors is less and we made a few handling errors, so couldn't get the boat locked in and going nicely.
"It was frustrating to slip back but all in all there's a lot of good things learnt here in New York. We didn't quite get the result we thought we might be able to achieve but there's been more steps forward made and we are looking forward to getting back out there for the Season final in San Francisco next month."
The fleet will meet again in less than three weeks, for the SailGP Season 4 Grand Final taking place in San Francisco, 13-14 July.
Switzerland SailGP Team crew line up:
- Nathan Outteridge - Driver
- Will Ryan - Wing trimmer
- François Morvan - Flight controller
- Laurane Mettraux - Strategist
- Julien Rolaz - Grinder (G1)
- Eliot Merceron - Grinder (G1)
- Jérémy Bachelin - Grinder (G2)