SailGP: Black Foils finish ahead of Grand Final competitors - Abu Dhabi - Day 1

Black Foils - Day 1 - Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix Season Grand Final - November 29, 2025 © BlackFoils

A mixed day of fleet racing has the Black Foils sitting in eighth overall in Abu Dhabi but crucially ahead of their three Grand Final rivals.

Emirates Great Britain are the next best placed team in contention for the Grand Final in tenth followed by Australia's Bonds Flying Roos and Spain's Los Gallos.

Saturday's final fleet race also saw the team's F50 suffer rudder damage after Switzerland crashed into Amokura on the port side during the start of the race. The Swiss team were then given eight penalty points after the race following inspection of the rudder by SailGP's tech team. The port rudder will be fully replaced ahead of Sunday's racing.

Black Foils Co-CEO and Driver Peter Burling said it felt like the team had some unlucky moments.

"I thought we were doing well getting the boat off the startline. A couple things didn't swing for us today with the penalty in race 3 at the bottom mark and the crash with the Swiss in race 4 putting us right to the back on both races but the team did a great job carrying on and working our way forward."

Burling added that the team was excited to keep pushing tomorrow.

"I think what you don't see perhaps on the broadcast is that you get committed to a decision so early in these conditions with options on the course. You've got to try and make the correct decision early and if you get it wrong or someone slightly gets inside you - it makes life incredibly tough. That's what we were trying to do today is make good decisions obviously didn't get them all right today especially on the first run going backwards a few times but all in all we are looking forward to getting back out there."

Action in the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix 2025 Season Grand Final, presented by Abu Dhabi Sports Council, will continue tomorrow live on Youtube starting at 1000hrs UTC (1100pm NZDT)