SailGP’s third ever visit to Bermuda’s iconic Great Sound marked the 10th stop on Season 4’s 13-event calendar and saw a dramatic capsize, close quarter racing and teams putting it all on the line to move up the leaderboard.
The weekend kicked off in dramatic style, with the USA suffering a shocking capsize in practice racing. The incident occurred in the third practice race, when the USA’s wing inverted, resulting in the F50 immediately flipping over and throwing five crew members into the water.
The damage sustained to the team’s F50 was too severe to repair in time for racing, which meant the American team was forced to watch the event unfold from the sidelines.
Picture perfect conditions graced the Great Sound when racing got underway, with Australia spectacularly bouncing back from a catastrophic event in Christchurch to take two race wins on the opening day, while Diego Botin’s Spain took the win in the third.
A configuration change overnight swapped the F50’s equipment to suit the lighter wind conditions. A desperate start by Quentin Delapierre’s France backfired when the team picked up a penalty in the early stages of the fourth fleet race.
Meanwhile Nathan Outteridge’s Switzerland executed a perfect start and stayed in front of the fleet to take the win.
There were multiple teams gunning for a place in the three-foot Final as the fifth fleet race got underway. Despite being one of the frontrunners, Canada slipped backwards through the fleet to lose its place to the Spanish, who slipped into the Final on the narrowest of margins.
And it was Spain that nailed the start of the Final, crossing behind New Zealand and Australia to hit the pin end of the line and secure the inside track to Mark 1.
From there, Botin’s team fought tooth and nail to keep the Kiwis at bay, deployed expert tactical decision making to force New Zealand to sail extra distance.
Spain crossed the line first to secure its second ever event win, solidify its third place position on the Season 4 leaderboard and move closer to the Aussies in second.
Next up, the F50 fleet will travel to Canada for the first time, with two days of fast and furious racing unfolding on front of the Halifax shoreline.
