Canada and the U.S. will be ‘fired up’ and looking to rebound from disappointing Bermuda performances when SailGP’s highly-anticipated Canada debut gets underway, league commentators have said.
Speaking on Final Thoughts, SailGP commentators Todd Harris, Stevie Morrison and Emily Nagel reflected on the USA’s dramatic pre-racing capsize and Canada’s disappointing final fleet race, which saw them just miss out on a place in the three-boat Final.
Heading into the fifth fleet race, Canada needed to finish in at least 7th place to proceed into the Final, but a poor performance saw them slip through the fleet to finish 9th overall and miss out to Spain.
Reflecting on the team’s weekend, Stevie Morrison said driver Phil Robertson had seemed ‘proper dejected’ after racing.
“He didn’t really have a cheeky comment to come back with and I’ve always loved Phil’s positivity, but I think deep down they knew they didn’t do a good job in that last race,” Morrison said. He added that Canada was ‘probably the boat of the weekend’, with consistent 2-2-6-2 race results before the event-ending 9th place finish.
However, the disappointing end to the event is likely to fuel Canada’s fire when the team finally host their first home event on June 1/2 in Halifax.
“I think the great thing for Canada fans as we head towards Halifax is how well the Canadians are sailing,” he said.
Nagel meanwhile forecast another ‘battle’ between Canada and the Spanish when racing gets underway on Halifax harbour. “It’s Canada’s home waters but I know Spain have sailed in Halifax before,” she said.
Morrison agreed that Canada will ‘be fired up’ and said the Americans will also look to use Halifax to ‘bounce back’ from a disastrous Bermuda event.
“They’re heading back to North America and they said [the capsize] won’t define them - it’s how they bounce back that will define them and what better way than being on home turf,” he said. “Expect big things from the U.S. team going forward.”
The ROCKWOOL Canada Sail Grand Prix | Halifax will get underway on June 1/2.
