Championship leaders Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain are the best performing teams in the high wind conditions anticipated in Sydney, according to data provided by SailGP’s F50 fleet.
While Australia sits at the top of the leaderboard heading into its home event this weekend, Peter Burling’s New Zealand has the best track record of performing in high wind (27.8 km/h+) races.
The Kiwis have an average race finish position of 1.9, ahead of Australia which finishes in 3.3, and Great Britain, which has an average finishing position of 3.4.
There is then a significant gap between the top three teams and the rest of the fleet, meaning the top three teams are consistently performing better in high winds. Canada sits below Great Britain in fourth place with an average finishing position of 4.7.
The worst performers in high winds are Spain, which has an average finishing position of 6.4, and Switzerland, with 6.6.
However, it’s a different story when it comes to the teams sailing the shortest average distance in high wind conditions.
Switzerland is at the top of this metric - sailing an average of 5,496m in high winds, while Great Britain sits in second and Denmark in third.
The top teams in this metric demonstrate sound tactical ability by finding opportunities to cover less distance - pointing to the strategic worth of Nathan Outteridge to the Swiss team. Spain is at the bottom of this measurement - sailing an average distance of 8,584m, below the United States, which sails an average of 8,105m during high wind races.
When it comes to speed however, the United States comes out on top with an average of 63.5 km/h, followed by New Zealand with 63.3 km/h and Canada with 62.7 km/h.
Australia meanwhile sits mid-fleet in fifth with a fastest speed of 61.3 km/h, proving that the Aussies are not as dominant as they used to be in high wind conditions.
Powered by Oracle, SailGP Insights is an online dashboard which provides fans with huge amounts of data from our cutting-edge racing F50 catamarans.
