The France SailGP Team were sidelined shortly before the first race after their wingsail top section collapsed.
As the twelve teams were preparing for the first race of day 1 of the of the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix in Portsmouth, UK. France SailGP, helmed by Quentin Delapierre, suffered a catastrophic wingsail collapse, ruling them out of any further racing. No one was reported injured.
The wingsail break will revive a situation that was thought to have been fixed after SailGP identified a defect in the wingsails across the whole F50 fleet.
That fault was identified following testing and analysis of the Australia SailGP Team’s wingsail after its collapse in March in San Francisco.
Each F50 multihull received an upgraded ‘main element 1’ – the area of the wingsail that bears the most load in racing conditions – with further upgrades scheduled throughout the season.
The SailGP Technologies Date Centre near Southampton in the U.K. will have received a real-time data feed and be looking at the reason for the the top section break and prioritizing a fix.
A salvage operation began immediately, with the French F50 towed back to shore. Delapierre revealed that the team had ‘saved what we can’ and the possibility of racing tomorrow remains up in the air.’
“We’ll see whether we can use another wing or parts,” he said. Either way, he added, “it’s not going to be a great weekend for us”. Despite that, he vowed to ‘stay positive’.
The Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix in Portsmouth, UK continues Sunday 20 July 2025.
