Peter Burling and the New Zealand Black Foils turned on the magic when it mattered most to clinch the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix.
First Burling raised his game winning two races on the second day to join Dylan Fletcher’s Emirates Great Britain, and Sebastien Schneiter’s Switzerland in the shortened three-boat sprint final .
Then he recovered from a difficult Final Race start trailing the Brits and Swiss. After the Brits split to the right, Burling won his battle with Schneiter on the left and then crossed ahead of Fletcher to take the lead at gate 4.
Again the split was all important, with the Swiss going right and the Kiwis covering the Brits on the left . . . both out pacing the Swiss to round ahead at gate 5, Burling crossing the finish for a comfortable win. Sebastian Schneiter’s Swiss SailGP Team finished third in their first-ever event final appearance.
Peter Burling and the New Zealand Black Foils team now move to the top of the 2025 season leaderboard with 54 pts.
The leaderboard is now very tight, second are Tom Slingsby and the Australian’s with 52 pts, third Diago Botin and Spain with 51 pts, and fourth the Brits on 50 pts and ruing what might have been.
With more than 20,000 fans attending the event across the weekend, Emirates GBR Driver Dylan Fletcher said: “What an event, the home crowd was amazing and we very nearly got it done. We sailed well and had a solid weekend but there’s lots of jeopardy in SailGP. We gave it our everything and thought we might have had a nibble at the Kiwis at that top gate but unfortunately it just wasn’t enough.”
Emirates GBR Strategist Hannah Mills said the team was “gutted” to not get the win in front of the home crowd. “We are obviously gutted not to win as we felt like we were sailing really well this weekend but we certainly gave it our all,” she said.
