SailGP: Canada on the podium again as Slingsby and Burling rue missed opportunities
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 18 Mar 21:54 AEDT
Canada NorthStar SailGP Team helmed by Giles Scott celebrate winning the Rolex Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix -. Sunday 16 March © Jed Jacobsohn/SailGP
The Rolex Los Angeles SailGP, the fourth regatta in the 14 event Season 5, was the first win for the team since its acquisition by Canadian biotech entrepreneur, Dr Greg Bailey six months ago.
For skipper Giles Scott (GBR) it must have been a moment of quiet vindication after being replaced as co-helmsman on board the British America's Cup challenger, INEOS Britannia in mid-August 2024. Ironically his replacement Dylan Fletcher (GBR) also an Olympic Gold medalist, just missed the cut for the SailGP Los Angeles Final on Sunday, by one place. However Fletcher's Emirates GBR team the overall points leader in Season 5.
After placing an acceptable sixth in the season opener in Dubai in November, the Canadian team crashed to 10th out of 11 competitors in Auckland after their flight controller was injured in a nosedive on opening day in Auckland. While on the water, in top end conditions, they took the decision not to risk damage for Sydney and didn't race on Day 2. A month later, they recovered to be a promising second in that even. Now, a third of the way through the season, they are now fifth on Season 5 points, and look to be the team to beat.
"When we got off the water on Saturday and were second overall, we still felt really frustrated. But we put it together today [Sunday]," Scott told SailGP media after the Final.
"We got some nice splits in that Final race, and it's massive for the team.
"The Kiwis got, the jump on us at the start. But we got a jump on them on the next gybe, and then we just had an option for for a split at the bottom with the right turn. And I think from there, the way that the course was laid out, it was kind of in our favor. They [the Kiwis] were going to struggle at the top. We got past, held on. Job done."
Scott wasn't about to predict more of the same next weekend in San Francisco. "It's pretty early in the season for San Francicos - it [the weather] could be anything up there. There's no rest. We're straight back into it," he said.
For the New Zealand team, led by three times America's Cup winner, Peter Burling, second place in the winner takes all Final was acceptable, but slightly disappointing - given they won two races on the first day, and went into the second day with a three point lead. More pleasing was their starting performance. However whether that was something the sailing crew had rectified, or if it was an end to the recurring technical gremlins which had seen the support team alongside in the pre-start period, remains to be seen.
The team dropped the ball in Race 3, that was not because of their usual malaise of trying to come through the pack, in turbulent air, but being too early by fractions of a second - which is quite a different problem.
"It's great to lead at Mark 1 really comfortably [in the Final]," explained Black Foils skipper, Peter Burling in the Mixed Zone at the end of the regatta. "I felt like we made a few incorrect decisions around the racetrack. There's definitely a few things I looked back and kick myself on technically. And then we had that one big vent [foil ventilation], which put them [Canada] a long way in front. It's a real shame to let someone pass in a Final when you led at Mark 1. You should win those ones. But we learned a lot from it. And we're looking forward, in not too much time, to getting back out there on the racetrack, in San Francisco."
"It was a really tricky weekend, I think, all around. But we're really pleased with the way the teams just progressing and building, getting better and better every event. We're looking forward to continuing that momentum," he added.
On the second day of the regatta, with three fleet races and the three-boat Final, it was difficult to assess any team because of the funky breeze. The variance in strength and direction can be a huge determinant in foiling ability and the ability to be able point at a mark. A lot of ground, and places, can be made or lost very quickly. There were occasions in Los Angeles when teams made the very unusual choice to opt for VMG to get to a mark, rather than sail across the course, over twice as fast, at foiling speed.
That begs the question of the upcoming SailGP propulsion systems/foiling booster, and how this will be scored, in venues like Los Angeles, in such funky conditions.
The first race of Day 2 highlighted the differences between the have and have nots.
The fleet split into two groups - those (three boats) who had clear breeze and managed to get foiling at 30kts, and the rest (six boats) who copped the front runners' rig turbulence, and could only manage 13kts. The Australians, trailed the fleet, after picking up some weed on their foils and were down to 12kts.
After getting good starts, the Kiwis got caught trying their old strategy of a run from the back, but managed to get their bow down found an escape route to the leeward end of the line. With Burling's usual aplomb the Kiwis dive to leeward minimised the damage from the peloton and they came into the first mark, barely foiling at 22kts, but in 5th place. But after Mark 1 they got overrun by the front of the now-foiling peloton and before off their foils in the first gybe, and dropping back as far back as 10th at one point.
The rest of the race came down to who had the breeze and who hadn't - typified by the Australian crew sailing their final metres to the finish at 31kts for 5th place while a few metres away the Swiss were in 6th place and sailing at 9kts in displacement mode.
Behind them the rest of the fleet were sailing at similar speeds (9-10kts) but heading for the finish line, while the US team were foiling at 17.5kts, but couldn't get their bow down, and were effectively sailing away from the finish line.
"I forgot how to start today, absolutely," explained Flying Roo's skipper Tom Slingsby after the Final. "Starting was a real problem for me today - just finding the gaps and getting to the line. That Final race was very frustrating. Just to be out of the game from the get go [through a slow start] was a pity."
"I made it as hard as it could possibly be today."
"It felt like it felt like we had a comfortable position going into the last race [Fleet Race 7]. I said "if we finished top seven. No worries, we're comfortably in". And then I looked halfway through the race, and I think we're in seventh or eighth, and GBR were winning - which is the one boat that we couldn't let win.
"And all of a sudden it got really tight there. We had to overtake USA on the way to the finish, and fortunately, just got there."
Not making life any easier for the teams was the event managers' decision to sail with the medium size (24 metre tall) wingsail and the T-Foils, which are an all-purpose foil. The theory is that for light air they can be replaced with a high-lift old style 'L' foil, but since the first regatta of Season 5 in Dubai, that option has not been used.
It may well be that the T-Foils can perform better downrange than expected - and they could become a permanent fixture. However as the day progressed the breeze increased that vital extra couple of knots - taking a lot of luck out of the performance equation.
This weekend the SailGP circuit moves to San Francisco for the sixth event of Season 5, followed by the inaugural event in Rio de Janeiro in early May. New York is the venue for Event 8 in early June.
That completes the F1 style "Circuit of the Americas", before the racing heads for Europe with the opening Event 9 of the 14 event series in Portsmouth in mid-July.