Strong New York event pushes Black Foils into top three in season long Rolex SailGP Championship
by Ben Mackey, BlackFoils 8 Jun 20:04 PDT
Fleet start - Day 2 of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix © Jason Ludlow /SailGP
The Black Foils have moved into third place in the season long Rolex SailGP Championship after a second place at the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix.
Despite missing out to Spain (46 points) in the final of the event the Black Foils are now just two points behind them in the overall season standings with the Bonds Flying Roos (45 points) sitting in second place.
Sunday’s racing saw markedly different conditions to the opening day in New York with stronger breeze leading to high paced racing and multiple shifts in places during each fleet race.
Consistent performances from the Black Foils across the three Sunday fleet races saw the team enter the final in second place behind France.
Black Foils Co-CEO and Driver Peter Burling said despite not getting the win the event was a step forward for the team.
“All in all I am pretty happy with the way we sailed this weekend. It felt like we really got a lot more comfortable in those tricky conditions than we had been. Looking forward to carrying that forward into the rest of the season.”
The New York result caps off a run of three events in the United States with the team making two out of three finals.
Burling was pleased with the team’s consistency across the weekend building on work done between events.
“It was nice to come out firing here. It has felt like we’ve had a tough run with issues with the boat and a few little things not quite swinging our way. It was nice to have a nice clean weekend and have everything working and show what we can do.”
“We had a clear focus across the team on the water and off, on getting the most out of the extended time between events and the results this weekend are a credit to everyone’s efforts during that time”
“We know the season ramps up from here with the run of European events and it’s exciting to be in the top three as we move to the second half of the season. Every point is important and it’s great to be moving in the right direction on the table.”
The teams will next be in action in July as the Rolex SailGP Championship moves to Europe with the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix in Portsmouth over the weekend of the 19th and 20th of July.