Sail GP - Sydney Highlights

In the lead up to the inaugural SailGP event sailed on Sydney Harbour over Friday and Saturday, Nathan Outteridge and Team Japan had been touted to top the podium. By the end of Day 1 Team Japan had shown every reason why they were favourites, looking much the most controlled in their manoeuvres and heading the race leaderboard by one point from a late-charging Team Australia. But Day 2 delivered a dominant performance from Team Australia, taking out both fleet races and leading from start to finish in the match race against Team Japan to win the event. With the breeze rarely passing 10 knots over the two days – indeed probably averaging 7-8 knots at most – and the entire fleet nailing barely a handful of fully foiling tacks between them, the amount of time that the boats spent foiling was nonetheless testament to the power of the F50s. Remarkably, the proposal to fit the fleet with new modular wings in 2020, adding a further four metres to the rig height for light airs would likely see the best in the fleet achieving a ‘dry lap’ in similar conditions.