SailGP Makes a Splash in Spain
It was a “Zap,” “Pow” and “Kabam” weekend in Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain, as SailGP’s flying foiling circus delivered action in spades.
Team USA, led by San Diego-based skipper Jimmy Spithill, took a significant step closer to the $1 million cash bonanza at season’s end. They secured a second-place finish after avoiding a dramatic capsize by Ben Ainslie’s Great Britain Team that nearly took them out as well.
If Saturday’s action was a bit humdrum, it was all on for Sunday. A significant change in conditions, when 25-knot gusts blew in from the city on the east and met the Atlantic swell from the west, resulted in dramatic action. The Spanish turned out in throngs — including royalty. Their King Felipe VI was on hand to witness what foiling at 50 knots is all about.
Two Boats Capsize
Unfortunately, the home team went from hero to zero when a capsize ahead of the final day of racing took the Spanish team out of contention and out of the competition.
However, they weren’t the only team to suffer a devastating blow. Ben Ainslie’s British team turned over in the choppy waters of the Bay of Cádiz in the final podium race, leaving Tom Slingsby’s Aussie team to take the victory.
The Brits certainly have had better weekends. Ainslie, who now has an ownership stake in the team, luckily came out unscathed, remarking afterward, “It was a great lineup with us, USA and Australia in that podium race. We had a great start and managed to get into the lead. Then, halfway across the first reach, we got hit by a mega-gust. We just didn’t get the trim and the balance of the boat right and stuck the bow in and managed to pitchpole it.”
Team USA
“Today [Sunday] was definitely on the edge. You’re really in avoidance mode,” noted Spithill, referring to the winds and sea state. “We all came off the start line [in the final race] and saw Ben do a huge nosedive. We bowed out to avoid them, which caused us to crash. It triggered our emergency stop systems, effectively shutting the boat down. While we restarted the systems Tom Slingsby’s Team Australia was already far down the line.”
Regardless, the team’s consistent result saw the Americans increase their point total in the overall league standings. Only the top three teams at the end of the season will have the chance to race for the Grand Final in San Francisco on March 26-27, 2022.
Despite the final race troubles, Spithill is pleased with the weekend and second-place overall finish. “It’s another great result. We are now just one point off the leaderboard overall. All we have to do is qualify for the final and then win in San Francisco.”
The Women’s Pathway Program
Female sailors were onboard all the boats this weekend. CJ Perez, a young woman from Honolulu who just turned 18, was buzzing about today’s conditions. “It was absolutely unbelievable,” Perez said. “Sailing these boats is a whole other level. It’s what sailing is about. Your heart rate is at its max, your adrenaline is pumping, you’re nervous and excited for each tack and jibe, and it’s some of the best racing in the world, in my opinion.”
“It feels like a rocket ship,” said Perez. “We’re moving at speeds I’ve never experienced before and flying so high out of the water.” Perez, along with Californian Daniela Moroz of Lafayette, are the two female sailors on the US team.
Moroz can identify with the conditions that Perez encountered. “My last event was in Denmark, and yeah, it was super-cool I got to be on the boat [during practice racing] in some pretty hectic conditions,” said Moroz, who spoke to us from Sardinia, where she’s currently training for the Kite World Championships, which start today. “On the last day that I was on the boat, on our training day, it was, like, a little over 30 knots, and it was pretty wild — you know, running across the boat and just trying to stay alive!
“I definitely feel like I missed out in Spain. But I also knew I wanted to be preparing for Worlds and not be, like, flying back and forth last minute,” said Moroz. “It is very high stress in the week leading into the World Championships, so unfortunately I couldn’t be there. But CJ did super-well. It’s really awesome to see her on the boat too.”
SailGP introduced the Women’s Pathway Program at the start of this season as part of its strategy to promote inclusion. With the addition of a new crewmember as a new standard and light-wind configuration, WPP athletes are now able to gain the valuable experience needed to race the high-flying F50 catamarans.
“There is currently an experience gap among women at the top of the sport. This season we have embedded female athletes in each of our teams to gain vital experience,” said SailGP CEO Russell Coutts. “But we have to work quicker to accelerate change. It is imperative to break existing boundaries and create a more inclusive environment.”
Euro Series Complete; Time to Migrate South
The series next heads Down Under to Australia on December 17-18 before coming our way to San Francisco Bay for the exciting million-dollar giveaway.