Sail GP review

Royal victory at SailGP Plymouth

A controversial penalty scuppered the Great Britain team hopes, but the Duchess of Cambridge gave the home crowd something to cheer for

PHOTOS: BOB MARTIN; DAVID GRAY; RICARDO PINTO; FELIX DIEMER;JON BUCKLE – ALL FOR SAILGP It was a second spectacular visit to Plymouth in Devon for SailGP, with the world’s top sailors doing high speed battle on Plymouth Sound while 1000s of spectactors enjoyed the action under blue skies.

Sir Ben Ainslie’s Great Britain

SailGP team didn’t quite manage to

“bring it home”, as he had suggested before the event, but they grabbed the headlines as the Duchess of

Cambridge came on board, helming for a one-off ‘Commonwealth race’ against the New Zealand team.

The Duchess took the victory.

In the series itself, Ainslie’s normal starting prowess deserted him, showing just how competitive the fleet has become, with every mistake punished. On day two a close cross with Australia ended with Ainslie and crew being given a controversial penalty, but which knocked them out the final race-off. They finished the regatta in fourth overall, leaving their overall championship standings in good shape, second so far in season three, with three events done.

Ainslie called the penalty decision “a bad call” and said: “We sailed well and we got through the fleet [after some poor starts] but I’m obviously really frustrated and that last cross [resulting in a penalty] was very tight. We just came out of a gybe and as we came together, we obviously turned our boat down as we were building speed. In the umpire’s mind they then have a ‘ghost boat’ which is three boat lengths ahead of the actual boat, and I’m sure it was closer then, but when you saw the boats come together for the actual cross there was quite a bit of distance between us.

“I obviously don’t agree with the decision but it’s not the first time

ABOVE AND BELOW

The Duchess of Cambridge aboard and with Ben Ainslie post race

I’ve disagreed with [umpire] Craig Mitchell and it won’t be the last. It’s high stakes and there’s a lot on the line and the umpires are naturally defensive of their position but it needs to be clear that we infringed and in my view it was at worst 50/50.

“We’d have loved to put on a better show and get in that final race for our home fans so ultimately we’re a bit disappointed but that said we’re happy with how we were sailing and it’s been great sailing back on home waters in front of our brilliant fans.”

The Grand Prix was ultimately won by Pete Burling’s New Zealand SailGP Team who performed consistently well throughout the weekend. Twice America’s Cup winner Burling, who was the master of the F50 boat used in SailGP back in the 2016 America’s Cup in Bermuda, said: “I think a lot of people would have expected this of us by now and it’s great to have put together a good weekend and put in such a dominant performance. We have been working really hard to improve and I think we truly proved that today, we are just so much more comfortable with the boat now than we have been.”

The Denmark SailGP Team warmed up in the best possible way for its home event later in August with an impressive day two performance, delivering two second place finishes

ABOVE

Ben Ainslie’s starting prowess deserted him in this third round regatta

RIGHT

The Duchess of Cambridge gets to grips with racing on the edge

BELOW RIGHT

The Canadian team get some air time

BELOW RIGHT

Pete Burling’s New Zealand team took overall victory in the Plymouth event

to secure a place in the three-boat podium final for the first time ever.

Skipper Nicolai Sehested, a twotime veteran of The Ocean Race, said: “It’s been a long time coming for us, and it’s really pleasing to have made the final but if I’m honest it feels a bit sour. We felt like with the wind shift we didn’t have much luck in the final and it destroyed our chances of winning but that’s racing.”

For the first time in a while it wasn’t Tom Slingsby and his Australian team on the winner’s podium, with a broken rudder – which was fixed in record time by the SailGP Technical Team – nearly prematurely ending their afternoon in race five.

Slingsby said: “We are not disappointed at all actually, we are ecstatic about coming second in this event, it was just a really tough day for us. It looked like we wouldn’t be in the final with a gear breakage but it was an incredible effort by our team to get us into that final. And to come away with second place. Wow, we are really happy.”

Councillor Richard Bingley, Leader of Plymouth City Council, said: “What an absolutely fantastic weekend in Britain’s Ocean City! We were honored to host the Great Britain Sail Grand Prix in the UK’s first National Marine Park for the second year running. With SailGP comes a raft of benefits for Plymouth, including attracting thousands of visitors to our waterfront, providing a welcome boost to the local economy and raising the city’s profile on a global stage.”

The European leg of the SailGP championship continued in Copenhagen with the ROCKWOOL Denmark Sail Grand Prix on 19-20 August. Go to yachtsandyachting. co.uk for regular updates on results.

ABOVE

A strong turnout was on hand to cheer the competitors on

BELOW LEFT

Tom Slingsby’s dominant Australian team were finally knocked off the podioum following rudder damage

BELOW RIGHT

Champagne flows as the winners celebrate

SAILGP SEASON 3 CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (after three events)

1 Australia 29 points 2 Great Britain 24 points 3 New Zealand 22 points 4 Canada 22 points 5 Denmark 20 points 6 France 15 points 7 United States 13 points 8 Spain 8 points 9 Switzerland 7 points