SailGP: Russell Coutts gives a progress report from Pensacola and Southampton.
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 3 May 2025 16:03 PDT
Inside the SailGP Technologies facility in UK with new wingsail and boat production underway - May 2025 © Russell Coutts - SailGP
SailGP CEO Russell Coutts has provided an update on the League's issues as it undertakes a review of the wingsail structures, new boat builds, and building up the spares inventory.
Writing on social media he provides an image taken inside the team's new build facility in UK.
"Photo in SailGP Technologies today. New wing for Australia taking shape with boat 13 in the background. Also a lot of additional spare parts in the making. Off-site, the new light wind foils and rudders are well advanced and we should see them for the first time in Geneva. Wing repairs going well in Pensacola….thanks to American Magic. All in, it’s a huge project!"
Cancellation of the Rio de Janeiro leg of the planned 14 event Season 5, has enabled the team to assess and address some wingsail issues that were most spectacularly highlighted with the collapse of the Tom Slingsby skippered Flying Roos wingsail just seconds before the start of Race 7, when their 24-meter wingsail collapsed as the team approached the starting line in the Oracle San Francisco Sail Grand Prix on March 23, 2025.
Sail-World understands that more builders are being flown into Pensacola, where the SailGP support team has taken over the American Magic, America's Cup team's support facility.
No formal announcement of the cause of the collapse of the Australian wingsail, or the earlier collapse of the Brazillian wingsail in Bermuda during a training session ahead of Season 5, and the collapse of the New Zealand teams wingsail after the finishing racing on September 9, 2023, during the France Sail Grand Prix in Saint-Tropez. There have been other wingsail damage issues and subsequent repairs from the obvious capsize incidents, lightning strikes and in Sydney when a wingsail went rogue after being caught by a squall during unrigging during Sydney SailGP in January during the early stanzas of Season 4.
It would seem that SailGP is on course to resume competition for Season 5 at Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix, which is scheduled for June 7–8, 2025. This event marks the league's third visit to New York and will be the final stop on the U.S. leg of the season before the championship moves to Europe.