[Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include the addition of the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team to the roster of what is now the Rolex SailGP Championship, following the league’s long-term title sponsorship agreement with the Swiss watch brand.]
SailGP Season 4 is so yesterday, and today the professional sailing series is in full noise in Abu Dhabi with the first of 14 events getting underway this weekend following a flurry of off-season crew shuffles, team reboots and big-time announcements for the league created by Russell Coutts and Larry Ellison.
With a new season comes new expectations, so let’s get to it, starting with the US team, poised to make a move from the basement of the Season 4 rankings. The upstart US SailGP Team, which league broadcast commentators confidently put at the bottom of their pre-season prognostications, certainly has something to prove. With the benefit of an off-season training block in Bermuda over the summer and the addition of experienced flight controller and Olympic medalist Hans Henken to the team’s starting roster this week, they’re in a much better place and poised for the long season ahead which finishes in Abu Dhabi next November. Helmsman Taylor Canfield, team strategist and CEO Mike Buckley, wing trimmer Jeremy Wilmot, flight controllers Henken and Mac Agnese, and grinders Anna Weiss (also the designated jib trimmer), and Peter Kinney round out the All-American starting lineup, which will be out for points on its rebranded F50.
The Season 4 champions of Spain SailGP Team return largely intact with Rolex Yachtsmen of the Year and Olympic gold medalists Diego Botin and Florian Trittel, as well as Joel Rodriguez, the team’s flight controller. With this threesome locked into their normal positions and a solid grinding squad to pull from, there’s good reason to expect a strong showing from the defending champions.
Australia SailGP Team helmsman Tom Slingsby is now free of his America’s Cup distractions and will no doubt return to form, but he’s lost his longtime wingman Kyle Langford and the chemistry the two of them have perfected over the years. Smoothing the transition, however, is Chris Draper, who’s moved fluidly between various teams over the past few years as a reliable and experienced hand on the controls.
Slingsby has retained the rest of the Aussie line-up, including veteran flight controller Jason Waterhouse, grinders Kinley Fowler and Sam Newton, strategist Natasha Bryant and reserve strategist Nina Curtis. Confidence is high that the Aussies will find their way to Dubai’s three-boat finale and will continue to be contenders for the season purse once again.
The Canadian squad was hot and on the chopping block at the end of Season 4, but with a new helmsman in British Olympian and Giles Scott (and the dismissal of the league’s most entertaining helmsman Phil Robertson) and a rebrand as the Northstar SailGP Team, the Canucks are a true wildcard of the league once again. Wing trimmer Paul Campbell-James, who’s been in the league since the beginning, has seen most everything that can happen in an F50, remains with the team, as does strategist and past US Olympian Annie Haeger.
Emirates GBR SailGP Team’s most dramatic lineup change is Olympian and America’s Cup helmsman Dylan Fletcher assuming full control of the wheels from team principle Ben Ainslie, who no doubt was looking for a bit of mental break after a brutal America’s Cup campaign and keen to see the team develop with some new and younger energy. Ainslie will settle deeper into his CEO role.
“It’s a tough one because ultimately I love the sailing part more than anything,” Ainslie said in a team statement. “I still feel good physically, I can get around the boat just fine, but it’s about the future of the team and I don’t think the future of the team on the water should be based around me.”
It will be fascinating to watch develop the dynamic between Fletcher and ace strategist Hannah Mills, who led the INEOS Britannia’s AC40 Athena Pathway program into the Puig America’s Cup Final in Barcelona. Both have been immersed in pinnacle racing for the past year and at the top game, and that will certainly make a difference when the pressure is on.
Denmark’s Rockwool Racing, with its entertaining and humble helmsman in Nicolai Shehested, has been knocking at the top of the fleet for the past two seasons, beset by self-inflicted setbacks, so the announcement this week of onboarding Italian America’s Cup helmsman Francesco Bruni as a coach is welcome news to Rockwool fans. With teams now having direct communication with coaches on shore during the racing, the coach’s booth concept has had a significant impact on better consistency for some teams in Season 4 and as this relationship develops, Bruni will perhaps provide the sage wisdom to keep the Danes more consistent over the duration of the entire season.
Germany SailGP Team, now in its third season, has continued to be a regular presence at the back of the fleet, but with its squad returning behind helmsman Erik Heil, German fans hoped the team’s collective experience of late will advance them up the standings this year, leaving the newcomers of the Mubadala Brazil SailGP Team with the burden of rookie status.
But the Brazilians have the league’s sole female helmswoman of Martine Grael, a decorated medalist in the 49erFX, and a force on any racecourse. To fast-track with the F50, the Brazilians have tapped British wing trimmer Leigh McMillian and recruited flight controller Andy Maloney away from the New Zealand Black Foils camp. Grael was expecting to get up to speed with the F50 during the Bermuda training camp, but her time was cut short when the boat’s wing collapsed (no fault of the sailors), leaving them short on time in the boat.
The Swiss SailGP Team, unable to string together a winning package over the past three seasons have rebooted with an interesting new lineup that includes Alinghi Red Bull Racing America’s Cup helmsman Arnaud Psarofaghis as wing trimmer to helmsman Sebastian Schneiter on the wheels. Flight controller Bryan Mettraux is also new to the squad and the team’s management doubled-down on recruiting winning talent from other teams in the league to fill out other roles.
New Zealand, known now as the Black Foils, remains the spoiler as always. With Peter Burling and Blair Tuke fresh off their America’s Cup win in Barcelona, they’ll be eager to put full attention to the season. Leo Takahashi replaces Andy Maloney as flight controller, and Dubai will be the first reveal of how good the Kiwi outfit is for Season 5.
Only days before the Dubai regatta, the league’s 14th team was revealed with the SailGP’s original gangster Jimmy Spithill introducing the sailors of the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team. Spithill, while listed as an alternate helmsman, is leading the young team from the executive suite, leaving the driving of the team’s white F50 to double Olympic Gold Medalist Ruggero Tita. Australian wing trimmer extrordinaire Kyle Langford, was recruited away from the Aussie squad, and is joined by Alex Sinclair and grinders Matteo Celon and Enrico Voltolin. Giulia Fava, fresh of a win of the Puig Women’s America’s Cup with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli is the team’s strategist, and Andrea Tesei is the starting flight controller.
The prize money is on the table, the past is in the past and the SailGP beast is about to be unleashed.
