SailGP: Black Foils look set to return at Halifax
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 27 May 16:10 PDT
Image of Black Foils new F50 in the SailGP Technologies facility in Southampton, UK © Russell Coutts
It would seem that Black Foils fans will again see the New Zealand team, sailing at Canada SailGP, Halifax in less than a month.
SailGP League CEO, Russell Coutts, has posted an image on social media of the new AC50 suspended at the SailGP Technologies facility in Southampton. It appears to be in the final stage of the building process - undergoing final platform and foil alignment checks. Aacompanying the images s the caption "NZ ready to return in Halifax".
The team's F50 was badly damaged in two incidents in Fremantle and Auckland. Damage from the first was repaired in a Herculean effort to enable the team to race in Auckland, however a collision on day 1 of the Auckland event, resulted in New Zealand boat being declared a write-off. The other F50 involved, the French DS Automobiles was repaired, using a mix of its own parts, and the port hull from the Black Foils F50. They missed the Sydney SailGP event but competed in Rio in mid April.
The Black Foils will sail a completely new F50 in Halifax, in mid-June, or failing that in Portsmouth on 26-27 July.
SailGP will sail the third event in their Circuit of the Americas, this weekend in New York, before heading for Halifax, and then crossing the Atlantic to sail in the British, European and Middle Eastern venues.