SailGP Expands 2023 Schedule To Include Los Angeles
SailGP, which is coming to San Francisco for the 22/23 season Grand Prix Championship on May 6-7, has just announced adding Los Angeles to its next season. The 12-race 2023/2024 global circuit will start in Chicago on June 16–17 and then move to Los Angeles for the next race in the series on July 22–23.
North America is hosting six events in the expanded 2023–2024 calendar. This includes the brand-new stop in Los Angeles on the L.A. waterfront at the Port of Los Angeles July 22–23, 2023, and the June 2024 return to New York, which hosted SailGP in its inaugural season in 2019. Los Angeles recently hosted the winning performance of the University of Hawaii in the Port of Los Angeles Harbor Cup.
Season 4 will open in Chicago with the Rolex United States Sail Grand Prix on June 16–17, 2023, at Navy Pier. San Francisco is set to host the Grand Final again in 2024. Bermuda returns in May 2024, followed by another new location for the league: Canada, which will host an event in June 2024 (venue to be announced).
Before Season 4 kicks off, San Francisco will be hosting the May 6–7 Mubadala SailGP Season 3 Grand Final | San Francisco. The top three teams overall will finish the weekend on the Sunday with one winner-take-all final race to claim a $1 million bonus. US fans can watch the weekend’s racing on CBS Sports Network. Locally you can watch from the grandstands on the Cityfront by buying tickets here, or take your boat out to watch from the water. Premium on-the-water positioning is also for sale.
Los Angeles Councilmember Tim McOsker, whose district includes the Port, said, “We are excited to welcome SailGP to the L.A. Waterfront at the Port of Los Angeles. Our Outer Harbor is known for its consistent wind conditions — particularly for smaller sailing craft and windsurfers. This location will make for challenging, exciting competition, and the wide variety of local restaurants and waterfront activities will make the experience memorable for visiting SailGP race spectators.”
Jimmy Spithill and TeamUSA currently are sitting in seventh place, while Tom Slingsby is hanging on to first in the 10-race season, with only two finishes outside the top three and three first-place finishes. Team USA did take a first in Saint-Tropez and second in the one-day Sydney weekend before a violent windstorm on Saturday night destroyed boats and wings, forcing the cancellation of Sunday’s racing.
May 6–7 is a busy weekend on the Bay, with the Pacific Sail & Power Boat Show in Redwood City and the Vallejo Race being held simultaneously.
You can see the full 2023/2024 SailGP schedule here:
2023
June 16–17 // Rolex United States Sail Grand Prix | Chicago at Navy Pier
July 22–23 // United States Sail Grand Prix | Los Angeles
September 9–10 // France Sail Grand Prix | Saint-Tropez
September 23–24 // Italy Sail Grand Prix | Taranto
October 14–15 // Spain Sail Grand Prix | Andalucía- Cádiz
2024
January 13–14 // UAE Sail Grand Prix | Venue to be announced
February 24–25 // KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix | Sydney
March 23–24 // ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix | Auckland
May 4–5 // Bermuda Sail Grand Prix
June 1–2 // Canada Sail Grand Prix | Venue to be announced
June 22–23 // United States Sail Grand Prix | New York
July 13–14 // SailGP Season 4 Grand Final | San Francisco
I doubt you will print this but I will write anyway.
Dear sirs, I have to say that I am done with Sail GP. At the outset it seemed like a good idea. Identical boats racing close to the shoreline for maximum spectator enjoyment. Unfortunately the sailing part has been diminished, the entire spectacle is for the money collected from the spectators. The selected venues are often light wind areas, not enough wind to get the boats up and foiling, calmer areas blocked by close dockyard industry. But the race must start on time, wind or not so let us shorten the course so that the race will finish in twenty minutes so that there can be more non races. Time and again hollow victories for the ‘winner’. A sporting event for profit and maybe some spectacle, often not. Non sailing friends of mine do not understand what is going on and the commentators offer little in the way of explanation. The next step could be everyone stop for a commercial break like in football. Does anybody else feel the same as me or am I just growing into a grumpy old man?
It seems impossible to find the “Box” location to avoid while sailing on race days.