On home waters Tom Slingsby’s Australia SailGP team scored a dream finish victory for the first-ever SailGP event in Sydney, Australia.
The local green and gold F50 team scored a decicive 38 second win over Team Japan SailGP of skipper Nathan Outteridge in the first Final Match Race of the series.
This capped a perfect finale for the thousands of locals and visitors aboard spectator boats, watching from along the harbour foreshore.
In third place overall were the Great Britain SailGP Team with Dylan Fletcher on the helm.
Day 2 of the inagural Sydney SailGP event started in a a patchy ENE 10-12 knot breeze
Slingsby’s Australia Team grabbed a textbook start in the first race of the day, then sailed their own race in clear air to dominate race 4, and take their third win of SailGP’s first championship event.
Behind them Dylan Fletcher’s Great Britain Team and the Japanese team of Nathan Outteridge battled for second in the patchy breeze.
Japan SailGP Team managed to leapfrog the British boat between marks 4 and 5, stealing, holding the runner-up position at the finish.
Great Britain SailGP finished third.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/317666157
In race 5 lighter winds of 7-9 knots made the going tough for the F50s.
After a poor start, Australia SailGP Team with Tom Slingsby at the helm clawed its way through the fleet to again dictate from the front.
Australia’s fourth race win came easily in the end, with China of Phil Robertson taking second and Japan in third place.
While Fletcher brought the Great Britain SailGP team accross the finish in fifth and an overall podium third place finish.
Post-race Tom Slingsby said, “We were able to extend at the finish. We were sailing really good pace we thought, and couldn’t drop them. That was a great race by them. When we’ve been leading we’ve been hard to catch.”
Next up was the Final Match Race between Australia and Japan for the inaugural championship win and maximum points towards the next event, in San Francisco.
Both high-tech wingsailed catamarans, started cleanly in a 7-10 knot summer seabreeze.
Australia SailGP Team controlled the inside running at mark 1 and by the fourth mark approach had extended their advantage to an unbeatable 350 meters.
The time difference at the finish line between Australia and the Nathan Outteridge helmed Japan SailGP in second was 38 seconds.
The Great Britain SailGP Team take third place overall.
The British team under the command of Olympian Chris Draper was quick off the start and showed moments of promise but admitted they would be studying the data to ensure they were faster and more polished for San Francisco.
Next stop for SailGP is San Francisco, May 4-5, 2019.
Sydney SailGP: Day 2 Final Overall standings after 6 races
1st Australia SailGP Team – Tom Slingsby – – 48 pts
2nd Japan SailGP Team – Nathan Outteridge – – 45 pts
3rd Great Britain SailGP Team – Dylan Fletcher Scott – – 36 pts
4th China SailGP Team – Phil Robertson – – 33 pts
5th France SailGP Team – Billy Besson – – 33 pts
6th United States SailGP Team – Rome Kirby – – 31 pts
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