SailGP: Repaired Black Foils' F50 back at Auckland base
by Richard Gladwell - Sail-World.com/nz 9 Feb 19:40 PST
Black Foils' F50 ready fro transportation from C-Tech to the SailGP Tech Base in Auckland - February 10, 2026 © SailGP
The repaired Black Foils F50 hull has returned to the SailGP Tech Base on Auckland's Wynyard Point, for final finishing and commissioning.
After a collision 90seconds into the first race of Season 6 in Fremantle, in mid January, teams in three countries have been working against time to effect a major repair on the wingsailed catamaran.
According to Richard O'Farrell,Wing, Head of Dept at SailGP Technologies, there's a tight deadline ahead of us. "A few composite jobs to finish today, and then from tomorrow morning, the Systems team will jump in. So it's the Hydraulics team first, then Electronics, and then Calibration, and then Paint and Fairing."
He says the target is to be sailing at Friday lunchtime, ready for Practice Racing on Friday afternoon.
Before that the F50 will have to go through a formal commissioning provess, as the techical team undertakes data and sensor checks to ensure the rebuilt boat is in a racing state.
The Black Foils had the aft end of the port hull severed in a collision with the Switzerland SailGP Team. The Swiss were repaired to race on the final day, but did not have sufficent races available to have a chance of making the Final. The Black Foils took no further part in the event, and has been in a race against time to make their home even in Auckland starting on Saturday afternoon.
"The guys have done a great job," explains Technical Manager, Luke Porter on Tuesday morning."The SailGP Technologies facility in Southampton were responsible for building this new stern section for us, and we've had a team at C-Tech (in West Auckland) gluing it back together."
He says the next steps are "turning it back into a boat. So we've got to get the steering system back in. We've got to get the rudder and boards in make sure that everything's aligned."
"We've got the hydro (hydraulic) guys stepping on kind of any minute now, then the electricians will jump on and power it all up and and the idea will be to get it back out on a Saturday like nothing ever happened."
"When we do a repair like this, we obviously have to strip all the hydraulic and electrical systems. There's lots of little pieces to go together.
"We've got what kind of two or three days left of it and and we'll be putting it back together until the kind of last minute."
"It's looking really promising,' said Black Foils strategist Liv Mackay." SailGP Technologies have done an absolutely incredible job to really bring those two different parts together, and it seems like it's come together really well."
"So we'll be out on the water training on Friday at this stage. Then we're set for the weekend."
"We're very much focused on the sailing. Obviously the collision wasn't a good start for us for Season 6. But we're really focused on on Auckland this weekend,
"We really want to perform here, but it's super important to get those points on the board."