The Great Britain Sail Grand Prix kicked off on Plymouth’s Sound today, in front of a packed crowd.
The Swiss team placed 5th, 7th and 8th in the three races of the day, to finish 7th overall, ahead of Jimmy Spithill’s United States SailGP Team and the Spain’s Jordi Xammar.
Peter Burling’s New Zealand sits at the top of the leaderboard, Australia is in second place while the French sits in third.
“It was a really fun day! There was a lot of traffic on the racecourse but really good conditions out there; flat water, nice easy foiling conditions and great racing!
“We are getting some strong positions but are slowly getting eaten by the others, just because we are bleeding a bit in our tacks and some other things. So, if we can improve our manoeuvres, I think downwind we are fine, so more on the up wind and have some better starts I think we will be really solid on the racetrack," Driver Sébastien Schneiter said.
The Swiss team have additional support and knowledge in Plymouth, with former driver and CEO of Japan SailGP Team, Nathan Outteridge, joining as sailing adviser. Schneiter on the new team member in Plymouth, “Nathan has been a huge asset so far, he’s has been on the boat during the practice racing, we’ve been swapping at the helm, and he’s also been onboard just observing.
“We are all really keen to hear what he has to say on the debrief today but he’s been helping us a lot already. He’s a great teacher, very positive and he has some good secrets!”
On the strategy going into race day two, “We definitely feel like we have a few teams we can beat and there are a lot of teams that are in reach and we are really going to go out there tomorrow and try and sail at our best and I think we can improve the results.”
The full replay of race day one can be watchedHERE and the second and final day of racing resumes on Sunday 31 July at 14:00 local time, 15:00 CEST and broadcast live in Switzerland on Blue Sport / Blue Zoom.
Switzerland SailGP Team is supported by its main partner and Race for the Future partner, the VI Foundation. The team are racing with an important call to action for competitors and fans world-wide; to champion equal opportunities to achieve and to ‘#BacktheBid’, to see the sport of sailing reinstated in the Paralympic Games in time for LA28.
