SailGP: Northstar Canada has stellar win as Blackfoils stumble on Final Day
by Richard Gladwell - Sail-World.com/nz 16 Mar 2025 15:50 PDT
Canada Northstar SailGP - Day 2 Rolex Los Angeles SailGP - March 16, 2025 © Ricardo Pinto/SailGP
The regrouped Northstar Canada team turned in a superlative performance in the Final Day of Rolex Loas Angeles SailGP, to score a big win - their first under Giles Scott (GBR) as skipper.
In fact we have to go back to Christchurch in early 2023 - two years distant - to find the last time the Canadian team won. This was also the first win under new team ownership, and since double Olympic Gold medalist Scott replaced the team's original helmsman Phil Robertson (NZL). His first regatta was in Dubai at the start of Season 5.
The New Zealand team, the Black Foils could not maintain their advantage from Day 1, when they won two of the four races, finished second in another. They were only millimetres over the startline in the fourth, and were sent to the back of the fleet by the Chief Umpire.
For the second day, the BlackFoils seemed to get their start time and distance right - with one particularly impressive display in Race 6 where they were 200metres behind with 21 secs left to the start, but managed to time their run perfectly through to leeward of a group of boats clustered at the windward en of the start line, and got through to be on the front of the starting grid and with speed.
However the Kiwis seemed to have an issue staying on the foils during tacks and gybes - more so than other teams.
Just 11 teams faced the starter, sailing in a light weather configuration with a 24metre wing - the mid-size option - just four crew - and the medium to fresh air T-Foils, but with the light air rudder foil. Winds were lighter today down to 7kts at times, but strengthened slightly during the day. The pressure was not even across the course, with teams getting sufficent windstrength to get foiling on occasions, only to drop back into displacement mode during the tack or gybe.
In the early stages of the final fleet race, with Canada, Australia and New Zealand seemingly assured of a place in the Final, the British team skippered by Tokyo 2020 Gold Medalist, Dylan Fletcher and 7pts in arrears for a Finals place looked to have gate crashed the cosy Finals party, with an emphatic ened to end win.
At the start the lead group all got foiling off the startline, with New Zealand last. Canada and Australia were in 5th and 6th place and the Brits were through to the Final.
However the Kiwis got foiling and sailed abound a bunch ahead of them to be 5th on points and with Australia dropping abck to be last, and out of the Final, prompting skipper Tom Slingsby to rebuke his crew just after the start of Leg 3, when they were lying in 8th place and out of the Final: "We've gotta ail better than this. Ridiculous. We just lost it." At this point Emirates GBR were a leg ahead of the rest of the fleet. But in the end the Finals slot was controlled by the jostling in the peloton, with the two of the three finalists, Canada, New Zealand sitting in the top five, and Australia living off the scraps at back.
However as has been seen so often in SailGP, Australia were in like a robber's dog in the final metres as the Australians battled with USA for 7th place. Yet again Tom Slingsby and friends were able to get foiling, and snatched the vital place right at the death, and joined the Black Foils and Canadians in the Final.
The Flying Roos didn't live up to their moniker at the start of the Final, being dropped by Canada and New Zealand who both foiled to the first mark, leaving Australia to sail at half their speed. But the Australians cunningly picked the best side of the course on Leg 3 and closed up the gap, aided somewhat by the Kiwis falling off the foils yet again.
The Canadians eased away to a 200 metre lead, heading for the right hand side of the course and better pressure. The Kiwis looked to be getting back into it on the penultimate leg, chopping the Canadian lead down to 65 metres, but another muffed tack - through crew error, or repeated equipment failure saw that lead more than double in a few seconds in the now 8.5kt breeze.
Slingsby was unable to re-establish contact with the Kiwis and Northstar Canada eased away to a comfortable win the the 7m 30sec race, with New Zealand team second and Auatralia third.
The action resumes next weekend in San Francisco.
Full replay: