SailGP: Practice cancelled in Sydney; American Magic beefs up Rockwool; French to race in Rio.
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 26 Feb 22:58 PST
Fox Sports Sam Squiers with Russell Coutts and Quentin Delapierre at the media conference - KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix - Sydney - February 27, 2026 © Andrew Baker/SailGP
The French team DS Automobiles, who were involved in a spectacular collision in Race 3 of ITM NZ SailGP, will be ready to race in Event 4, in Rio de Janeiro on April 12-13.
"There's a bit of certainty here around the French team", SailGP CEO Russell Coutts told the Media Conference ahead of the start of SailGP Sydney, on Friday. "The team at Southern Spars in Auckland, New Zealand, have done a remarkable job of getting the French boat back in order.
"It's just about at the stage now where it is being painted, and it will be back on the start line in Rio for the next event. So good news."
No mention was made of the situation facing the Black Foils, which was also badly damaged, and held by the International Jury to have been at fault in the incident, in which two crew members were injured.
After the Media Conference finished, all Practice Racing for Friday was cancelled due to forecast thunderstorms. Four F50s were in the water at the time, and the six-hour rig and launch process was well underway.
Organisers were obviously keen to avoid a repition of a "major weather event" which severely damaged the SailGP fleet in Sydney in February 2023, when a sudden and violent 50-knot (approx. 93 km/h) squall hit the SailGP technical base at Barangaroo just after the first day of racing had concluded.
However the price of their caution is that teams miss much needed practice, and the opportunity to iron out and setup or equipment gremlins that become manifested in racing, with impacts on the points table.
During the media conference, the Flying Roos skipper, Tom Slingsby, was asked whether wingsail trimmer, Iain Jensen, would be back this weekend.
Jensen suffered multiple tears to his knee during race practice in Perth in mid-January. Super-Sub Glen Ashby stepped in at short notice and stayed aboard for the Auckland event. The plan for Friday's practice was to conduct a graduated test of Jensen's sailing ability.
"He's been medically cleared to sail," skipper Tom Slingsby reported. "As anyone who's had a knee injury knows, it's always fine till it's not."
"It's one of those injuries where it's really tough because you lose confidence in your legs, and when you're crossing these boats across the trampolines, you really need to have confident footing underneath you."
"But Goobs has been passing every test he's been given, which is unbelievable, given the injury, and he might be sailing."
"So we're going to go out there and do a couple of laps with him before the practice racing, and we're going to stop and assess, how's it feeling? Do you have confidence in your knee? And then we'll make a call.
"If he does the practice racing, we're just going to take it step by step."
"We've got Glenn Ashby on hand. He'll be on the chase boat in his gear, ready to jump on if needed."
However, the Flying Roos were not among the four F50s launched and sailing before the decision was made not to proceed with Practice Racing.
So Jensen's resumed participation is still a work in progress.
Those points aside, the media session devolved into a weekly corporate sales meeting, with the overachievers playing down their early-season performance and the underachievers talking up their moves on the road to redemption.
American Magic’s first move
There are some changes to the crew lists for Sydney, aboard Brazil, Pietro Sibelle is replaced as Wing Trimmer by Jeremy Wilmot, on loan from the US team, and Richard Mason steps up from the Reserve Bench to replace Paul Goodison as strategist.
"This weekend, we're missing two crew members," said Brazil skipper Martine Grael. "We've got them replaced for personal issues. I think it's going to unite a lot of the team. Everybody's got to be doing a little bit extra to make this work," she added.
Another change occurs on the Red Bull Italy, where Tom Burton (AUS), 2016 Olympic Gold medalist in the then Men's Laser class, joins the Italian team as a coach alongside Head Coach Tom Burnham (USA).
The first move following Doug DeVos (USA) and his American Magic team's acquisition of Rockwool Denmark is the inclusion of super-coach James Lyne as coach of the Danish SailGP team. Lyne has a background in high-performance programs, including serving as the former Head Coach for American Magic in the 2024 America's Cup and a similar role with DeVos' Quantum Racing in the 52 Super Series and the 11th Hour Racing Team. He previously served as a High Performance Coach for the US Olympic Sailing Team.
The coaching moves weren't covered in the media conference, as neither team nor Italy was represented on stage. It is not clear whether Burton's inclusion in the Italian team is permanent or just to provide expert local input to the team before and during racing.
A look at the leaderboard shows a big gap opening up where, after just two events, the rich have got richer, and there is already a 10-point gap - or an event win - between the top teams and the poleton.
With Practice racing being cancelled for the second successive series, due to threatened lightning, and very limited simulator time available, the options for many teams to improve their performance seem to be limited to listening to the data analysis boffins, whiteboard sessions, and others stating the obvious.
"Momentum" was not mentioned at this morning's media conference, but clearly some have it, and others do not.
The well-known equation that ‘Performance equals Potential minus Mistakes’ is never truer than at present in SailGP.
The difficulty is that, given how the event is unfolding, the opportunity to rectify mistakes is very limited indeed.
Other than three days of practice in Freo in nice steady winds, two practice sessions have been cancelled on the basis of a weather forecast of lightning.
This year, the League imposed a seven-week Transfer Window following the Season 5 Grand Final in late November 2025 in Abu Dhabi, and closing on January 8, 2026. There were 23 crew transfers logged in the period, and other than for medical replacement reasons, like with Glenn Ashby aboard the Bonds Flying Roos, sailor poaching and substitution are prohibited.
The imposition of a stringent licencing system has also worked against elevating new talent. The America's Cup talent pantry is bare. And those that might be available sit on the bench until their licence conditions, including many hours of frequently cancelled practice time, are fulfilled.
"The last season has been a little bit of snakes and letters," said Martine Grael, skipper of Mubudala Brazil. "We had some very good growth in the beginning, and then we had quite a few challenges in the rest of the season last year."
"And this year, we have started with a lot of changes in the crew, and it is challenging to get the unity into the team.
"As Hannah [Mills GBR] says, it's a lot more about what you can grow within your team than the rest that is going out there. [The challenge] is how you can perform with the tools you have, the boat, and make it go faster, and the team grow more together."
Racing is scheduled to get underway at 1730hrs local time on Saturday evening, in what is being billed as Twilight racing.