Emirates GBR SailGP Team - Dylan Fletcher reflects on Race Day 1 in Perth
by Emirates GBR SailGP Team 17 Jan 02:21 PST
17-18 January 2026
Dylan Fletcher, driver of Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team - Oracle Perth Sail Grand Prix day 1 © Cameron Gregory
Emirates GBR Driver Dylan Fletcher said he was happy the team "kept it clean" and avoided any collisions on Race Day 1 of the SailGP 2026 Season opener in Perth, but added there was "plenty more in the tank" for Race Day 2. Fletcher's comments came after New Zealand's Black Foils and the Switzerland SailGP Team were forced to retire from the day's action after a crash in Race 1.
After four fleet races on Saturday, Emirates GBR's scorecard of 5-3-7-5 puts them in fifth on the leaderboard, tied on 24 points with Australia's BONDS Flying Roos in fourth. SailGP newcomers Artemis Sweden is top of the leaderboard, while the U.S. SailGP Team is in second and DS Automobile France is in third - with all three teams on 31 points.
Fletcher said: "Today certainly felt like the first day of the season. We didn't do a great job of getting off the start line, but it was very wild and hectic out there. Unfortunately, we saw some collisions today, so we're happy we kept it clean but there's plenty more left in the tank."
Emirates GBR enters the new season as reigning champions, but with a new line-up. Wing Trimmer Stuart Bithell, who won gold with Fletcher at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, joins the crew from the German SailGP Team. Fletcher said Bithell did "a great job" on Race Day 1, despite facing a "baptism of fire" with Saturday being the first time the crew sailed with the 24m wing, after using the 18m in previous training days.
Bithell said: "We've not sailed with the 24m wing this week yet so we were just getting dialled in with that in the warm-up pre-racing today. It looks as though there may be more wind tomorrow, I think the Fremantle Doctor will be knocking on the door again, but we will be ready for anything."
The Fremantle Doctor, a powerful summer breeze that arrives in the afternoon, caused chaos in the training days in Perth this week. Artemis wing trimmer Chris Draper required stitches to his face and mouth after a crash on Tuesday, while Spanish team Los Gallos were written out of the entire event with major damage to their F50 following a similar incident. Iain Jensen, who transferred from Emirates GBR to the BONDS Flying Roos for the new season, was forced to sit out the opening day in Perth after sustaining a knee injury.
Emirates GBR Strategist Hannah Mills said Perth and the Fremantle Doctor provided "epic racing".
"It was pretty epic, really tight racing out there," she said.
"We have lots of areas to gain in, but I'm sure most of the fleet feel the same. We struggled on the starts today but did well at clawing our way back through the fleet nicely. We'll be mostly focusing on the starts going in tomorrow, we've got a lot to a learn and a lot to gain but overall we're in a good place."
Racing resumes on Sunday, with three fleet races scheduled before the top three teams then enter the winner-takes-all final race, where US$400,000 is up for grabs. UK viewers can watch the action live on TNT Sports from 05:00 GMT.