Canada wins the Rolex Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix, J/22 Midwinters, sailing speed record attempt
by David Schmidt 18 Mar 2025 09:00 PDT
March 18, 2025
Giles Scott, driver of Canada NorthStar SailGP Team, lifts the winners trophy after Canada NorthStar SailGP Team win the Rolex Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix © Jed Jacobsohn for SailGP
While 2025 hasn't been kind to the City of Angels, sailing fans turned out to celebrate the Rolex Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix event this past weekend, which saw 12 SailGP teams engaging in racecourse fisticuffs on the waters off the Port of Los Angeles. Saturday saw four fleet races unfurl, while Sunday included three fleet races and the event's winner-take-all Final. Once the finishing guns fell silent, the Canadian-flagged NorthStar SailGP team emerged as the event winner, with four top-three finishes and the all-important bullet in the Final.
This win marked Canada's first trip to the podium's top step since March 2023, and the team's first event win since driver Giles Scott joined the squad last fall, however they finished Sydney event (February 7-8, 2025) in second place, meaning that momentum seems to be gathering pace in their camp.
The Canadians were joined on the Los Angeles winner's podium by the Black Foils (aka the New Zealand SailGP Team) and the Australia SailGP Team, who finished in second and third place, respectively.
"Amazing to come away with a victory!" said Scott in an official team communication. "We had a challenging first few events, but things have been on the up in the last two [events]. Kudos to the team who have been working away quietly and for not letting adversity get the better of us. Great to put a win on the board. Elbows up!"
This was a great win for the Canadians, but the result that impressed me the most happened in Fleet Race 3, when Martine Grael—a two-time Olympic gold medalist and SailGP's only female driver—and her Mubadala Brazil SailGP team, which is new to the league this season, scored a second-place finish. In fact, they almost won the race, but Tom Slingsby and his Australian SailGP Team worked an inside line at the final mark and rolled the Brazilians.
While it's always nice to see established teams post strong results, it's even better for the health of the league when new or reorganized teams post great results.
Other noteworthy efforts by new or recently reshuffled teams include the France SailGP Team's third-place finish in Fleet Race 3 and their bullet in Fleet Race 4; Germany SailGP Team presented by Deutsche Bank's second-place finish in Fleet Race 7, and Red Bull Italy SailGP Team's third-place finish in Fleet Race 7.
Unfortunately for the Rockwool Denmark SailGP, the team hit a mark in Fleet Race 1 and was awarded 12 penalty points. The team sustained significant damage to their foil and casing that couldn't be repaired overnight and were forced to retire from the event.
"The next steps for us are to fully assess the extent of the damage, weigh up the possibility of repairing it, and if that's not possible, whether there are fleet spares available," said Nicolai Sehested, the team's driver, in a team communication. "We don't have much time before San Francisco [next weekend], so full focus is on how we can get back on the water as quickly as possible."
Also, the United States SailGP Team might have enjoyed a home-waters advantage going into the event, but they finished the event in ninth place overall. The team's best results were a fourth-place finish in Fleet Race 3 and a fifth-place finish in Fleet Race 5.
Looking bigger picture at the SailGP Season 5 leaderboard, after four events (Dubai, Auckland, Sydney, and Los Angeles), driver Dylan Fletcher and his Emirates Great Brittain Team are in the pole position, followed by Slingsby and his Australia SailGP Team, and driver Peter Burling and his New Zealand SailGP Team.
Spain is in fourth, Canada is in fifth, France is in sixth, Switzerland is in seventh, Italy is in eight, Denmark is in ninth, the USA is in tenth, Brazil is in eleventh, and Germany is in twelfth.
While the fleet enjoyed flat waters and relatively moderate conditions in Los Angeles, the Oracle San Francisco Sail Grand Prix is set to unfurl this coming weekend (March 22-23) on the often windswept Bay. Crystal balls are, of course, in short supply, but odds are good that teams will be challenged with heavier airs and bigger seas at this next event.
Jumping from foilers to keelboats, the J/22 class enjoyed its Midwinter Championship on the waters off of Heath, Texas, this past weekend.
After seven races (with one discard), Chris Doyle and his The Jug 4 family team, which included his brother and his son, took the win. Jeff Progelhof's Schitzen Giggles team took second place, while Alex Schwinn's Tilt squad completed the event's top three.
And finally, word recently broke that the SP80 team, lead by driver Mayeul van den Broek, has posted a new top speed of over 51 knots. The team's goal is to break the world sailing speed record, set in 2012 by Paul Larsen's Vestas Sailrocket II. To accomplish this, the SP80 team must sail faster than an average of 65.45 knots over a 500-meter stretch of water.
Unlike Vestas Sailrocket II, which used a hard wingsail for propulsion, the SP80 team is powered by a custom-designed foil and a kite, the latter of which is flown by Benoît Gaudiot, SP80's dedicated kite pilot.
"This run above 50 knots allowed us to finally observe the behavior of our foil in a speed range that remains largely unexplored in the world of sailing," said Gaudiot in an official team communication. "We deliberately slowed the boat down just before reaching 52 knots as a precaution, but our analysis of the data indicates that it did not encounter any major barriers. This is extremely promising for the future!
The team is expected to continue pushing their limits this spring at their training area off of Leucate, France.
"The boat is now close to its full technical potential," said van den Broek in a team communication. "The challenge for Benoît and I now is to sail as much as possible to master the boat's behavior from 0 to over 70 knots. We need to fine-tune our trajectories, improve our synchronization, and push the machine even further."
May the four winds blow you safely home.
David Schmidt
Sail-World.com North American Editor