SailGP: Snakes and Ladders on a fickle Day 1 - Abu Dhabi
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 30 Nov 14:56 NZDT
The BONDS Flying Roos SailGP Team helmed by Tom Slingsby lead Germany SailGP Team presented by Deutsche Bank and the Black Foils SailGP Team on Race Day 1 of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix Season Grand Final presented by Abu Dhabi Sports Council © Ricardo Pinto for SailGP
Rockwool Denmark, fresh from extending their title sponsor for the next decade, was the top performer in a testing Day 1 in SailGP Abu Dhabi.
Ahead of today's racing, the pressure was on the top four teams in Season 5 to qualify for the $2million winner-take-all Grand Final.
The points table for the first day of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix 2025 Season Grand Final, presented by Abu Dhabi Sports Council, was notable for three of the top four in Season 5, occupying the bottom three places, with three races left to sail on Sunday.
New Zealand's Black Foils fared a little better, lying 8th on the overnight leaderboard.
Light winds were forecast - a prediction which was unfortunately very accurate. In a class claimed to be the fastest on the Planet, no one was able to get foiling. In fact, the best that could be achieved was for the teams to get their charges to sail in "H1" mode, which is SailGP-speak for using the windward T-Foil to lift its hull clear of the water, reducing drag.
The racing was conducted at pedestrian speed - for the 100km/h (54kts) capable F50. The speed record for the day was set at 31.14km/h (16.8kts) by the German team, with most of the racing being done in the 10-20 km/h (5.4-10.7kts) speed band.
In a nod to the desperate conditions, the courses were short, the start box was tight, crew numbers were restricted to just three sailors, and just five legs were sailed in each of the four races. The new 27.5-metre rig was tried for the first time, along with light-air rudders, high-lift T-Foils, and the biggest jib.
The irony is that F-50 crews have found that the new high-lift T-Foils make excellent hydraulically powered paddles. So much so, in fact, that the umpires have had to introduce a limit as to the number of times they can be raised or lowered. There is now a maximum rate of six strokes per minute in the F50s. On the onboard comms, we could hear Tom Slingsby asking for their current T-Foil stroke rate and how many they had left in the current minute, for fear of copping another penalty after the race. Others spoke of a similar level of confusion.
Penalties were surprisingly frequent, with the Kiwis copping three in one race. One for the actual incident, and two more for not "getting behind". The Australians kept the pressure on themselves, being penalised twice for starting early - even though the margin was just 15 cms. After the racing, skipper Bonds Flying Roos Tom Slingsby commented that their "on board systems were saying we were clear, when we weren't".
"It's obviously extremely stressful," he said. The America's Cup champion, Olympic Gold medalist and three-time Grand Final champion had a lot on in a wind-challenged Day 1 in Abu Dhabi. "We're in a bit of a different race than a normal one — trying to win the event — so we're trying to keep control of Spain, and it's hard in these conditions. Someone gets a gust, or the helicopters get too close — which happened a few times today — and boats just take off, and there's not much you can do about it. But we're trying to control the situation as best we can.
"We're in a better position than we were at the start of the day," the Bonds Flying Roos skipper said in the Mixed Zone after the day's events had sunk in. "It doesn't look like that when you're in 10th overall, but as long as Spain is behind us, we're happy."
Season Points leader, Emirates Great Britain lost ground on the leaderboard, finishing up on equal points with the Black Foils - with the Kiwis nominally ahead after the application of a tie-breaker.
"It was not our finest day of the season, but we kept chipping away. But we need to do some work about managing the risk and doing what we need to do to make the Final," said Emirates Great Britain skipper Dylan Fletcher. The Brits lie in an unaccustomed last place on the overnight points table. "It was all about the start, and after that, you're a bit boxed in about what you can do."
"It was a very short course, very light winds, and fingers crossed that we get some more breeze tomorrow and some decent foiling action."
"It is very different with 12 boats - we're just focusing on what we need to get in the [four boat] Final, and then we'll give it everything from there."
Black Foils Peter Burling was philosophical with the New Zealand team's 7th overall on the leaderboard, and was no doubt relieved that his opposition for tomorrow's Final formed a cellar-dwellers trifecta, at the bottom of the leaderboard.
"We got reasonably unlucky today. I thought we were doing a good job of getting the boat around the start line. But then in Race 3 [when lying in 5th place], we got one penalty against Great Britain. And then Craig [Michell - Chief Umpire] decided to give us another two, so that took us right to the back in that third race. And then obviously the Swiss crashed into the back of us on the last start. That put us from what I thought was the best position we'd had all day, to pretty much last again as well. So a couple of things didn't swing for us today, but the team did a great job of carrying on, working our way forward, and making the most of it."
The day appeared to be one of big losses with equally sized gains on offer. "What viewers probably don't see is that we get committed to making a key decision so early in the race. And if you get it wrong, or someone slightly gets inside you, that just makes life incredibly tough."
"What we're trying to do today is make good decisions. Obviously, didn't get them all right, especially on the first run, when we were going backwards a few times."
After the race, Burling could be overheard talking to the support team about the Black Foil's rudder, which presumably was damaged in the pre-start shunt. The Kiwis got pushed well past the top of the starting box, and were fortunate to be able to run over the top of several boats who had either got their timing wrong, or were part of the trio who were over early and had to drop back to last place.
The eight teams that do not have even a mathematical chance of making Sunday's Grand Final generally had a good day on the water and will come away with a modest amount of prizemoney and some positivity to take into Season 6, which starts in Perth, WA, on January 17, 2026.
Rockwool Denmark had a remarkably consistent day, winning two races and finishing third in each of the other two. They top the leaderboard for Abu Dhabi, with the Swiss team second. They had a good finish to the day, placing second in the last two races.
"I think it just came down to having a really good atmosphere between myself, TJ and Ed [Powrys (GBR) their new Foil controller), explained Rockwool Denmark skipper Nicholai Sehested. "It was the first time sailing with Ed in the three-up, so it was just good communication, and we found each other easy to work with — it was perfect."
"I think it was the first time we were fast in the light stuff — H1 and H2. It was a different way of making decisions today because we were sailing away, as normally we have to get the elbows out in the light stuff. So it came a lot easier than normal. You have to sail fast to avoid dealing with the other boats today. Normally, in the heavy winds, we can do that, but it's good to see we're starting to do that in the light wind too," he added.
Mubadala Brazil won their second race of the season, to lie third overall. They had two changes today with wingsail trimmer Pietro Sibello replacing Leigh McMillan, and Rasmus Kostner (ex Rockwool Denmark) replacing America's Cup champion Andy Maloney in the flight controller role.
"We've had a lot of seat changes — not only in our team but across all of SailGP," reflected skipper and double Olympic Gold medalist Martine Grael. "A lot of changes give us the opportunity to step up even higher as well, and we've got a nice team together. The only challenge we have now is time — it's a new learning curve, and we've been frying our brains to get the communication side and the manoeuvres together so we can go racing this weekend. It's been intense but quite rewarding."
The United States did well, even without their star-signing, Harry Melges IV, on board. USA's Taylor Canfield brought his superlative match-racing skills to Abu Dhabi, and despite an 11th-place finish in Race 4, the US team lies in 5th place overall. However, the USA team were another that attracted the umpires' attention over the new foil-paddling rules.
"Overall, a great day," said Canfield. "We sailed really well and caught a lot of boats today, which was nice to see. That's the goal in this league: to catch boats around the racetrack, and we did that all day long except in the last one."
"Unfortunately, in the last race we had two penalties from a new system the umpires introduced this event with the board cycling and how many cycles we can do. We had been monitoring it all day, and we don't really know why. Our data shows we didn't overuse the board, and for us, it was really frustrating — from a decent race and a decent start to last place. It's frustrating, and we're going to go back and review it, but it is what it is at this point. We've got to go out and fight hard tomorrow."
"Definitely tricky — it's been happening all season, so we're used to it by now. We have a really good grip on this: we have timers going in the booth, and we're getting all the info we need, and we're still kind of baffled as to why we got those penalties. We were all over it and really well prepared for it, and we did it very well in the first three races, and then something changed. But we're going to brush that off. We feel good, and we have a good handle on the starts, which is always tricky in these conditions."
Red Bull Italy's Phil Robertson delivered the goods for his new team, finishing in 6th overall after the opening day, a place that, like the USA, would have been higher but for a 12th in the final race of the day.
"I guess for the first day coming back, it's a nice way to ease into it," said the Red Adair of the SailGP League. "It's pretty horrible out there — especially the stars. There are a lot of boats, everything is very close, and there are a lot of situations, but it was alright. A good day, and a lot of fun to be out there again."
"Definitely a little bit of a disco out there — everyone is dancing around — and it's difficult, and you've got plenty on. Thankfully it's quite light, so it's not too bad, but once you get foiling three-up, it's exciting."
"We have one rule: come in hot on the inside at any mark. The problem is there are a lot of boats that owe you room, but they can't give it, so they're dishing out penalties, but you still can't get in there. It's very chaotic around those marks — definitely topics to look into."
The addition of coaching and match-racing superstar Ian Williams to the Northstar Canada line-up didn't make much difference. But on a day when strategic thinking paid a huge dividend, his input on board, rather than from the coaches' booth, would have been the better call - rules willing.
Northstar Canada's Giles Scott was another who tussled with the Umpire team. "We felt like we ended up in a fight with penalties today. We had our bad races — two good, two bad — and one of the good ones turned bad pretty quickly. I'll have to go back and look at some of those umpire calls, but we had some dialogue with Craig at one point, which I haven't quite understood yet. Difficult day,"
"I think the margins are so, so fine, and there's really not a lot between any of the boats out there — just tiny little differences here and there."
"Every inch and millimetre matters in this stuff. Sailing's not a lucky sport, but there's a bit of a throw of the dice in how you line up with other boats and how they decide to affect you. There's definitely an art to it, and you can do it — and do it well — but the jeopardy is high, put it that way."
Defending champion Los Gallos Spain, in fourth place going into the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix Season Grand Final, came under laser-focussed attention from the other three Grand Final contenders, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain.
"It was a very light and tough day," reflected skipper and 2024 Olympic Gold medalist Diego Botin. "The starts involve a lot of waiting in these conditions, and we pushed for it, which made us make a few mistakes. Obviously, the results don't show it, but we're quite happy with the way we went out there — not happy with the result, but with how things are going for us. We'll keep pushing tomorrow, even though things aren't super hopeful for us," Botin conceded a reference to the smother-cover of the British Commonwealth trio of competitors.
"We're going to go through everything again, do the same thing, and maximise our chances for tomorrow — there are still some — and we'll go for it 100%," Botin added, looking ahead to their Day 2 battle with the British Armada.
The Deutsche Bank German team got off to a flying start with an emphatic win in Race 1, but in a foretaste of the day's menu for all teams, crashed out in the second race, and finished in 12th place in the 12-boat fleet.
A perplexed German skipper, Erik Heil, was another who fell foul of the Foil-paddling rule. "I don't know — we're still trying to find out what's the best way to use the boards. The umpires came up with a rule that was supposed to permit the use of the boards, but now we are using them way more. I'm waiting for the first one to blow up. We have the coaches sitting in the booth and they are telling us when we can use it and when we can't, but still somehow we get penalties. We have to figure out with the team tomorrow morning what's allowed and what's not."
A fresher breeze is forecast for Sunday. However, the top four will go to bed, ruing their errors, when the opportunity was there, with consistent sailing, to have built up sufficient point margin to guarantee a place in the $2million Grand Final, on Sunday.
While the focus is on who makes the cut for the three-team Grand Final, with US$2million winner-takes-all prizemoney, there is another US$800,000 to be divided amongst the top teams on the Event leaderboard.
Leaderboards - Season and Event
Full race replay (not immediately available in some territories)
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