SailGP: Canada "nearly has an exceptional day" - Day 1
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 25 Jul 19:47 PDT
Day 1 - Emirates Great Britain SailGP - Portsmouth, United Kingdom - July 25, 2026 © Felix Diemer/SailGP
"We sailed well today. We sailed really well. We nearly had an exceptional day, but we still had a very good one," was how Northstar Canada skipper Giles Scott summed up the beleagured team's opening day at Portsmouth.
"We had two really solid races, and the middle one was looking equally as solid up until the very last moment on that final downwind, where we slipped back to fifth through missing the board lock on one of our flip-flops," he added.
Up until that point, about halfway down the penultimate leg, the Canadians were leading, but became overly focused on the short-term game rather than the big picture.
The Spanish split gybes at Mark 5, and when the two came together, with Canada pushing their starboard tack rights to the limit on the Spanish, maybe looking for a penalty off Los Gallos. But Diego Botin stuck the Spanish team's bow up a little to clear the Canadian's transom, putting the pressure back on the North American team, who had to gybe to make their racing line for Mark 6.
The Spanish emerged from what could have been a very high-speed collision situation just high of their lay line to the mark, but had the wit to soak down to make the mark without having to gybe. They stayed foiling to round the mark and were gone.
Meanwhile, Canada looked to be out of sorts just before the mark - after trying to luff Spain to windward. But this too failed to attract the umpire's attention.
The Canadians failed to get their starboard foil to lock, lost its lift, and dropped into displacement mode. They chugged around the mark and for most of the short leg to the finish - dropping from first place at Mark 5 to be fifth at the finish.
Had they spent some of their lead on Leg 5 and optimised their position at the end of the leg, rather than engaging with Los Gallos, Northstar Canada would have come out of Day 1 with a 1,2,2 scorecard, equal to Artemis Racing (SWE), the overnight leader in Group B. For the Canucks, it was a big step up from their performance in the previous seven events in Season 6.
The Canadians looked to have speed to burn. From Mark 2, they led around every mark - except Mark 5 as above, in the first two races in their seven-boat group. In Race 3 they were a safe second all the way around, behind the Black Foils (NZL). It certainly was a "very good day". But an "exceptional" day would have seen them go into the second day almost assured of a place in the Final.
In the other Group Artemis (SWE), often passed off as the Emirates Team NZ's "works team", also had a very good day, winning Race 2 and finishing second in the other two. The Swedish team recorded the top speed of the day - clocking 98.58 km/h or over 53kts.
USA led from start to finish in Race 1 of Group B, and were a consistent third in the next two races to be second on the overnight leaderboard for their Group.
"It was a typical Portsmouth sea breeze day," said skipper Taylor Canfield. "Big breeze, a lot of action, a lot of obstacles in the racetrack. But for us, it was good."
"It definitely feels like we left a lot out there, and we had some issues with the boat today, which is frustrating, especially in our last start."
"We didn't have any race software - no time to kill or time to start - which put us on the back foot. But to battle back into races was great, and we think we sailed the boat quite well. But we're gonna do the due diligence tonight and make sure we're better tomorrow."
For the home team, Emirates Great Britain, it was not a great day - scoring 4th and 6th placings in the first two races in their six-team Group, but saved their backsides with a win in Race 3, leading from Mark 2 to the finish.
The Brits were helped in part by a snafu by the German team, which got away to a flying start in Race 3 - leading at Mark 1, but came close to capsizing in the aftermath of a gybe to dodge the WW2 Spitbank Fort located just downwind from Mark 1. One of the crew slipped in the gybe missed releasing the wingsail, and they rounded up on their ear, coming within an ace of capsizing, dropping them back to 6th and last place.
Australia and Great Britain have it all ahead of them on Day 2. Both lie in fourth place in their respective Groups, 3 pts and 4pts respectively, off making the cut for the Final, each with just two races remaining to make up the deficit.
"We obviously struggled the first two in the starts," reflected Emirates GBR skipper Dylan Fletcher after today's racing. "We're not doing a great job of the positioning on the tack, and there felt like our fleet had a better level of boat handling than the A fleet, and therefore there weren't really any opportunities with it being a processional race course."
"I think we certainly felt as though we weren't delivering, and felt a lot of pressure in that last one to fight to come out firing," Fletcher remarked. "So we needed the win, and it was good to deliver. But we need a lot of hard work tomorrow to make sure we get into that final."
Tom Slingsby, the skipper of the Flying Roos, put their indifferent (5,3,3 performance) down to their starts.
"We weren't that far behind the line, but we always ended up like three or four boats wide at Mark 1," he explained. "We're often unable to get that left turn at the bottom mark, and we just didn't get to go where we wanted to go - so it was hard to overtake boats."
"Often the leading boats are taking the right way [around a mark], and it was quite a favoured course to the left turn at the bottom mark. And so, when the two boats ahead of you take the left-hand turn, or three or four boats ahead of you take a left turn, you say, "Okay, well, maybe I'll go right and see if I can get some leverage."
"But every time we did that, we actually made more of a loss. So I wish we just sat and followed for longer."
Today was the first race for a while that the teams have sailed with the smallest 18metre wingsail. In expectation of fresh winds, the F50s were also configured with High Speed Foils, Rudders and medium jibs.
"It's been a while since we've been on the 18-metre wing," Slingsby reflected. "That was nice. The boats felt like they were ripping around, and the fleet felt like it took a big jump up."
"But we just couldn't find overtaking lanes. Historically, in those sorts of conditions, we're usually pretty good at picking our way through. But today, it just felt like everyone was sailing a really high level."
Questioned on the switch to split fleets, or racing in Groups, after the racing, most skippers commented on the processional nature of the racing, and the lack of passing opportunities, putting an emphasis on getting a good start and a fast sprint leg to Mark 1.
But a slow shift in the direction of the breeze, which turned the Spitbank Fort in the racing area into a significant obstruction, probably accounted for most of the complaints. "I think it was just a bit frustrating the way the racecourse was orientated," commented Dylan Fletcher.
"We misread the change on the course," said Los Gallos' Diego Botin.
"Suddenly, the left boundary was very close to the fort. We didn't read it properly, and we went on the wrong side of the fort."
"Then we had issues with the fleet, especially with Brazil. "We tried to go through a gap between Brazil and Italy, and we got the penalty for that - which was a painful while for us, and we couldn't recover."
"We'd like that fort to not be in the race course," said Artemis Racing skipper Nathan Outteridge. "I think in that final race, it was a little close with what happened to Germany there.
"In the first few races we had that were supposed to go around the outside of it, so it made a pretty simple one jibe into the bottom marks.
"But then, as the day went on, the boundary started coming in, and there was only a tiny sliver of water left to get around.
"Our coaching team did a really good job identifying that and telling us, ' Don't go around it, just gybe before the mark."
"We didn't have a great start on the last one, but we were on the inside, which meant we had the opportunity to gybe. It was one of those racecourses where there's some obstacles, but if you get your routing right and your performance is good, it pays off a lot.
Similar, maybe fresher winds are expected on Sunday. Racing gets under way at 4.30pm