The eighth event of Season 3’s 11-strong schedule, the Singapore Sail Grand Prix, marked SailGP’s first event of 2023 and and the league’s debut visit to Asia. We round up the best photos from the event.
Turbulent conditions, stormy skies and fickle winds played havoc on the first day, resulting in a 50 minute delay, four-crew configurations and a shortened racing schedule of two fleet races.
Australia was top of the leaderboard overnight, despite not winning a race, while New Zealand and the United States picked up the wins.
The wind turned up on the second day, with crews fighting to de-power the largest 29m wing in gusts of up to 33 km/h.
A top speed of 77.1 km/h was recorded by New Zealand as the flying F50 fleet screamed past spectators meters away on the shoreline and at SailGP’s first ever Beach Club.
Sebastien Schneiter’s young Swiss crew made history on the second day, sealing its first ever race win and following it up with a second place finish behind Denmark in the fourth and final fleet race.
This now means that all nine teams have won a race - after Jordi Xammar’s Spain picked up a win for the first time at the Dubai Sail Grand Prix.
Despite its improved showing, Switzerland missed out on a place in the Final by just two points, leaving New Zealand, Australia and Denmark to battle it out in the winner-takes-all podium race.
It was a perfect start for all three boats, with Australia making the fastest start and Denmark positioned the closest to the start line, but New Zealand had the all-important best angle to mark one.
A few mistakes from Australia and Denmark allowed the Kiwis to extend their lead to over 100m and sweep across the line to win the first ever Singapore Sail Grand Prix.
It was an especially impressive performance considering the team started the event on -4 points after colliding with the United States in practice.
After kicking off the year with the Singapore Sail Grand Prix, the SailGP fleet will next meet at the KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix on February 18/19.
