SailGP Diary: Race Day 1 - January 18: Spectacular stadium racing on the Waitemata
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 18 Jan 14:32 PST
Race Day 1 - Auckland SailGP - January 18, 2024 © Richard Gladwell - Sail-World.com/nz
A High that won't go away provided a day beyond words for the first race day of SailGP in Auckland, and the 11 teams responded magnificently providing an unforgettable day's racing.
Coming across the Auckland Harbour Bridge just after 1.00pm, the table had been set, a capacity on the water spectator fleet was anchored around the perimeter of the course area.
Walking along the waterfront soon afterwards heading to the media centre, the watering holes and cafes were all filled to capacity. There wasn't a spare table and people were spilling over the fences an onto the walkway.
On the other side of the aisle spectators, two-deep, ringed the Jellicoe Harbour basin where the 11 F50s were moored, floating like butterflies on the ruffled surface.
Outside the media centre - very nicely positioned right on the water's edge, the teams began their warm ups in what looked to be a Force 3-4 breeze. Outside North Head, the breeze was recording at 15kts gusting 17kts from 070° - the same easterly direction as yesterday.
The teams reported after racing that despite appearances the breeze was only 8-12kts and with significant holes in it, which resulted in plenty of placing changes and fightbacks in the middle of the fleet.
But in the front, it was the leader's race to lose. The race leaders enjoyed the benefit of sailing in clear air, while those in the middle and tail end of the 11 boat fleet had to contend with residual rig turbulence.
After race when questioned as to whether they would prefer fleet racing with 11 teams on the same course, or race as they had done on the previous day - in two fleets of five and six boats. The teams were rock solid on the split fleets.
However for the punters in the 25,000 seat stand in Auckland the vote would definitely put the spectacle ahead of the racing.
After the racing there were some interesting reactions and comments as to the way the racing unfolded.
Canada Northstar skipper Giles Scott, recently transferred from the British team and Sailing Director of INEOS Britannia America’s Cup team, described the day as “it was good fun – an amazing Race Course. I think the spectacle was probably pretty unreal."
“For us, results wise. It could have been, a bit better. We felt like we were on the on the back foot, in a few of those races, with a few close battles and some near coming togethers. But we’ll look to do better tomorrow.”
For all crews it was the first formal race day outside the Practice Sessions (sailed in smaller fleets) with the new T-Foils.
“They're good fun, and I think the boats are going really, really well with them”, was Scott’s initial take. “There's not really too many issues in terms of the operation of them and the systems.
“I think the testing that was done last year has been pretty positive. I think they're looking good.”
One of the decision points after this regatta and with 12 boats on the start line will be whether to change from a single fleet, racing for one of three places in the Event Final, or to race in two fleets, with some form of points progression to the Final.
Scott’s preference, like many competitors we interviewed was for Two fleets.
“I think it's very dependent on the venue. But in a venue like this, if we had the if we had the French here, I think that the right look would be six boats. But I don't make the rules.
“It's great fun, there’s lots going on, and it's tight racing - just like racing go-karts, but the go-karts are 50 foot long!”
Double Olympic Gold medalist Hannah Mills, strategist on Emirates GBR described the race course as “just phenomenal. The grandstand is so cool - you can hear everyone. It's such a unique thing in our sport to be able to really hear the crowd. That was pretty amazing.”
However it would be more than just the cheers of the crowd ringing in their in the team debrief on Saturday evening.
She says there could be a lot on the debrief whiteboard.
“I think all the teams probably coming in will be saying a similar thing. For us we it’s the starts - with two really good starts, and then two starts we really struggled. So that's always one to look at and see what teams are doing, and how we might change things up and spot the bad ones earlier so we can try and make a better job of it.
“And then a few things on the comms and decision making - just on a couple of the races where we struggled a little bit - and then always looking at setup and looking at what the other boats are doing. “We're going quick,” she added.
Racing on the small course with 11 teams all duking it out has its challenges. The former Olympic Womens 470 sailor and skipper of the INEOS Britannia Womens America’s Cup team says there is no blueprinted game plan.
“Honestly, it changes every time that's the problem, especially when it's this shifty. You know, we were going from true wind at 80° to kind of true wind of 20° at times.
“That’s a massive shift range, which is making it really, really hard on that final approach, depending on what shift you coming back on. It’s very challenging.”
Traffic management is a bit factor in the highly congested small course big fleet racing.
“That's one of my biggest jobs,” Mills says. “It’s just eyes out all the time.
“The coaches booth is really helping with that, with spotting issue boats a long way out. Their input keeps the tempo down on the boat when you're going around marks or tacking on to port, or, you think it's going to be tight.
“So that's been a good step forward, I think, in terms of managing the risk. And then for me, it's always balancing that with the tactical communication and decision making.”
Having direct input from coaches in a booth on the edge of the race course is normally classed as “outside assistance” under the regular Racing Rules, but for SailGP it has given a good set of eyes outside the boat.
“We have the coaches booth in action so they can talk to us while we're racing,” Mills explains. A lot of their job is about talking about some potential issues with boats a long way out who might be a problem - just to draw the attention of the right people. An off the boat spotter, if you will.”
The US SailGP team had a very mixed day with mistakes at critical times of the race costing them dearly.
The team had a change of ownership and complete change of crew midway through Season 4. Skipper and top match racer Taylor Canfield said “we just need to go out there and execute a little better more.”
“We definitely made a lot of mistakes today. We have to go back, look at the video and see where we can clean everything out. Truthfully, I know the team has what it takes, and we've done it all before we did it in our practice last week, so we just got to go out and have more confidence.”
“It's a tricky racetrack, really small, 11 boats. It was all on. At times we were full noise – foiling at 80kmh. And other times we were almost dead in the water. So it was a heads out day, and a boat handling execution day. The up and down nature of the wind made that really difficult.”
Taylor said they had done some practice in the area, which is dominated by Stanley Point, causing the seabreeze to flow around it like a huge wind deflector – with the breeze exiting at quite different strength and angles from Ngataringa Bay and Stanley Bay. The SailGP fleet has to transverse between these two breezes on every upwind leg unless they stay left and take the Ngataringa Bay breeze – which comes over flat-lying land before hitting the deflector Stanley Point.
“We had some days like training inside here, actually almost one similar to that the first day that we raced with, the six and six split fleet in the harbor here. So, yeah, it's tricky."
“We had a little more win today, and the puffs seemed to land a little bit harder but, I think that we’ve got to be definitely heads out of the boat be ready for those big puffs.”
After leading off the start by a big margin in Race 2, the US Team did a spectacular nose-dive, dropping back into mid-fleet.
“It was super unfortunate,” Canfield reflected. “We just got a little bit high on the foils. And, the tip coming out of the water with the new T foils, is very unforgiving.
“Sometimes you can recover from it. Sometimes you can't. And this time it was really difficult for us. The boat got really slow, and then we had to do a down speed bear way, and the Australians were able to get down inside of us.”
“That caused us to not be able to gybe and we sailed into a hole. So it was escalating from there. But overall, I think that we just need to be more heads out, and we're gonna work hard for that tomorrow.”
“Boat handling was a big thing today. I think if you could execute all the maneuvers, you would have been in pretty good shape. “
Despite all the willing of the 25,000 strong crowd in the huge Grandstand, the NZ SailGP team, the BlackFoils had a very up and down day.
“We struggled to find our feet a little bit in the first couple of races,” remarked skipper Peter Burling. “But we are really pleased with the way the group just continued to build and absolutely nailed that last one.”
He said there would be a few talking points going into the evening debriefing.
“I think just to keep executing our plan. We obviously the breeze was so much lighter and further right than we're expecting that first start one, but then over shot on the next two, and then actually nailed it in the last one.”
It seemed from the shore that the race leader had a big advantage sailing in clear air in a congested fleet which created plenty of rig turbulence, adding to the naturally created lulls, gusts and shifts.
Asked as to the breeze strength in the race area he said they had “8-15 kts, something like that. Pretty shifty, but nice to have it settle down that in that last one.”
“It's definitely hard,” Burling commented on life back in the peloton. “There's a few times where it was a super light out of the wing mark, and it was pretty much a full invert.
“We got few times we're actually there in not bad shape, and then ended up right at the back of it.
“So I felt like we had just as many snakes as ladders out there today, but we’re right in the in the mix to get into Final tomorrow - right where we want to be. And we're really pleased with the way the group kind of kept stepping forward.”
Sailing in just their second SailGP regatta skipper of the Brazil SailGP team Martine Grael said: “ It was pretty intense, close quarters racing, with so many boats.
“At the beginning of the day, it was just a struggle for wind, with all the boats in a race course. It was really light in the middle - and we couldn't quite connect the dots. At the end of the day, we had a lot of very close calls in a single race.
Preferring racing in the smaller fleets of the Practice Session, the double Olympic Gold medalist says she would like to “keep it a little bit more easy, and especially when we had, up winds and down winds crossings, with other boats with changing winds and sailing angles.
“People were just constantly changing their bows. And, you know, sometimes you just want to keep clear sail your course and make sure you're clear of everybody.
“We didn't have any incidents. But we always want to race in the safest way possible.
“We want to to be able to start well tomorrow. I think it's a total shift in wind (and rig) for tomorrow, but we can pick up in one day. My guess on the debrief meeting today would be a lot about communication and strategy.”
Asked for her preference for racing in a 12 boat fleet or two smaller fleets of six boats, Grael responded: “I think you could look back at the results from the last two days and, and pick that, well. I think we were a bit better with the split fleets.”
Brazil have American Magic skipper and Olympic Gold medalist, Paul Goodison on the crew for the ITM New Zealand SailGP.
“I think he is fully recovered from his rib injury,” Grael reports. “I think he's going to be an asset for a team on the long run. And we are just finishing our discussions. I think that's our whole goal [to have him on board long term. “But he is a great sailor, and I love the communication that goes on board, like how it goes. It's, it's very good to have him aboard,” she adds.
In just their second SailGP regatta, this has been a test under fire, for the South American team, from the much more experienced teams. As expected the learning curve is near vertical.
“It’s very steep as in any start-up. But we want it to keep on going very steep until, we hit the flat spot at the top of the climb.
“We had big improvements in just these training days as well. We would like to progress another 50% above our current level,” she added.
Racing continues on Sunday in a fresher breeze. An extra race was sailed today - four races - with three to be sailed on Sunday, with the top three contesting the winner takes all Final.