SailGP confirm that Spain won't compete in Freo - Video
by SailGP Media 16 Jan 13:18 AEDT
Los Gallos SailGP Team - Oracle Perth Sail Grand Prix Rolex SailGP Championship Event 1 Season 6 © Ricardo Pinto/SailGP
Spain's Los Gallos SailGP suffered board case damage, board damage and hull damage in a nosedive in Freo on Thursday. It was announced at the start of Friday's media conference that the team will not be competing in the weekend's racing..
The 2024 Rolex SailGP Champions were taking part in practice racing in feisty conditions off Bathers Beach in Fremantle when they crashed their F50.
No athletes were injured but the impact caused major damage to the boat’s foils and hull, forcing the Spanish team to retire from racing and seek urgent assistance.
SailGP’s Tech Team were able to recover the boat and were today carrying out a full investigation to determine the extent of the damage.
Driver Diego Botin said the incident had thrown their participation in the Oracle Perth Sail Grand Prix presented by KPMG, the first of 13 Grands Prix in 2026, into doubt.
“Unfortunately we had damage around both board cases during a gybe in the second practice race,” Botin said. “In the middle of the gybe, during the turn, the board case snapped and we had quite a big crash. The board case is damaged, the board is damaged and also the hull. We need to see the assessment from the Tech Team of what they can do to see if we can race this weekend or not.
We obviously did a big effort to minimize the damage from the race course to the shore and now it's all in the hands of the Tech Team. They have amazing knowledge of these boats, and I'm pretty sure they're going to do their best to fix the boat as quickly as possible. But we won't know how bad the damage is for a few hours yet.”
Botin’s team had been racing in classic Perth conditions - winds gusting 40 km/h and big waves - when the crash happened.
They are the second team to fall foul of Perth’s notorious Fremantle Doctor sea breeze. Artemis wing trimmer Chris Draper was taken to hospital after suffering facial injuries in a similar training crash.
“We were having an amazing training session - the day the conditions were perfect,” Botin added.
“Racing these boats again in such good conditions was super fun and we're also feeling super strong around the course so it’s quite a big disappointment for us, but we'll see how it develops.”
Racing will take place from 1pm to 2.30pm local time - 5am to 6.30am GMT - on both Saturday January 17 and Sunday January 18.