SailGP: Three teams race - all for naught - Day 1
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 31 May 07:01 PDT
Emirates Great Britain SailGP and Los Gallos SailGP Team pass the Statue of Liberty, on Race Day 1 of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix - May 30, 2026 © Jason Ludlow/SailGP
Fresh and swirling winds made mincemeat of the Day 1 racing schedule, and it later proved for the point score, for the Mudabala New York SailGP.
Only points from Sunday’s racing will count toward the event leaderboard and the 2026 Season Rolex SailGP Championship standings
Racing took place between Governor's Island and the Statue of Liberty - giving any weekend office workers in downtown New York an ideal vantage point.
Although the winds were only topping 21kts, normally quite sailable, the real issues were the directional changes and gusts in the Technical area as the shore team tried to launch. Mindful of what happened in Sydney SailGP in February 2023, when the Canadian wingsail broke free of its tethers and hit a tent of other teams wingssails causing massive damage, and preluding racing on the following day.
The need for caution was underlined when the Bonds Flying Roos performed a spectacular nosedive during the warm-up and took no further part in the racing. The extent of the damage was not visible.
After the Australian withdrawal, only two F50S competed in the first race, with the USA SailGP team joining Los Gallos (Spain) and Emirates GBR for Races 2 & 3. F50s were launched in the order of standing on the overall Season 6 leaderboard.
On the termination of launching SailGP League explained:
Due to high winds impacting craning operations, SailGP has implemented an adjusted racing format for day one of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix (Saturday, May 30).
A reduced fleet of four boats will compete, with participating teams determined by current championship standing. Scoring will be adjusted to reflect the reduced fleet – with a maximum three points available for a race win (3, 2, 1, 0).
Despite extensive efforts to launch the full fleet, conditions have prevented the craning of all F50s due to winds exceeding the limits for craning operations.
Racing resumes on Sunday, May 31, from 3:30pm local time (7.30pm UTC), with 12 teams expected on the start line.
In a further explainer it was announced that no points would be awarded for three races.
In Race 1, Emirates Great Britain took control in the final seconds of the pre-start, starting well ahead of Los G. The Brits continued to lead Los Gallos, all the way around the track. Sailing with the 24metre wingsail, the crews were expected to have issues with boat and foils control, but it was not to be. Most of the interest centred around whether the boats could break 100km (54kts) during bearaways. The teams went close, but no one quite made it. As Emirates GBR strategist Hannah Mills commented: "It was a matter of knowing when you could push and when to back off."
Race 2 was called off as Los Gallos and Emirates GBR contested the start more keenly. At the off, Los Gallos made a beeline down the first Sprint leg, but a windshift meant that the British team were unable to lay the mark, and the race was restarted - this time with USA SailGP team on the startline.
In the restart, the Brits repeated their tactics from Race 1 won the second start from the Spanish, after setting up in the leeward position with Dylan Fetcher and friends preventing the windward boat, Los Gallos from putting their bows down until after the Brits had pulled the trigger. But Diego Botin, recovered well and stayed close to the Brits, doing an overtake as they rounded Mark 4. The British woes were compounded as they attempted to luff the Spanish, but instead came off their foils and lost momentum. The US team, sailing without any warm-up, were quite happy to sail out the course. In the 16kt breeze, the rich got richer and Diego Botin took what in the end proved to be an easy win.
Race 3 was contested in a slightly fresher 18kt breeze, with plenty of whitecaps on the Hudson River. USA crossed the start line first, but found themselves as the filling in the sandwich between the other two, and got squeezed out early on the sprint leg. The Brits led around Mark 1, from USA. It was a tight race mid-way up Leg 3, with USA taking the left, and the Spanish the right. As the three boats intersected and came back out on port tack they all had to concede to the Spanish coming in with starboard right of way, and that was the turning point of the race. Spain stretched out to win from Emirates GBR and Los Gallos in third place.
Racing will continue tomorrow, Sunday, in what are hoped to be lighter conditions and with the whole fleet of 12 boats participating.
After the race the team skippers were unclear as to how the points for the three races would be divided.
The following morning, it was announced that no points would be awarded for three races.
Racing from opening day of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix will not count toward the event or 2026 Season standings, SailGP’s Race Committee has confirmed.
The decision follows a heavily disrupted opening day on the Hudson River, where strong winds, delayed craning and extreme conditions prevented the full fleet from launching.
With time running out before racing began, only four teams were craned in - the BONDS Flying Roos, Emirates GBR, Los Gallos and the U.S. SailGP Team - based on championship standings.
Before the start, the BONDS Flying Roos were then ruled out after suffering a major nose-dive caused by an on-board hydraulic issue, leaving just three teams able to race.
The Race Committee said the decision to remove Day 1 results from scoring had been taken “in the interest of maintaining the integrity and fairness of competition.”
As a result, scoring for the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix will commence from Day 2, with all results from Sunday’s racing counting toward the event leaderboard and the 2026 Season Rolex SailGP Championship standings.