The Mubadala Abu Dhabi 2025 Season Grand Final will unfold this weekend – 29-30 November – with all eyes on current season leaders Emirates GBR.
Dylan Fletcher the driver for the Emirates GBR SailGP team replaced Giles Scott at the wheel for 2025, and it seemed the 2020 Olympic gold medallist could do no wrong, guiding the British team to three podium finishes from the first three events, including a convincing win in Sydney.
Consistency has been Emirates GBR’s hallmark, particularly in recent events. After a near miss in the UK Portsmouth Grand Prix the win in last month’s Spain Sail GP in Cadiz stood out as a defining weekend for the team.
That stunning victory over Pete Burling’s Black Foils confirmed Fetcher and the Emirates GBR team top of the 2025 Season Leaderboard. The Brits go into the final event of 2025 in Abu Dhabi, with a three point lead and all but guaranteed a place in the three-team Championship decider.
The Rolex SailGP Champion’s 2025 Season Grand Final is the culmination of 12 events across the globe, where after one last series of fleet races between 12 national teams, only three will race for the coveted Rolex SailGP Championship trophy – claiming the sport’s top prize of US$2 million (£1.5m).
Also in contention for a place in the three-team final winner-takes-all race are SailGP triple Champions Tom Slingsby’s BONDS Flying Roos, and two time finalist Burling’s Black Foils.
Just outside the top three are the defending champions, Spain’s Los Gallos of Diego Botin, four point adrift with an outside chance of pulling off an upset . . . Again.
Victory for Emirates GBR would complete a major turn around for Fletcher, who drove the British team F50 in SailGP’s first ever season in 2019, before being replaced by Ben Ainslie when he purchased the team for Season 2. Fetcher was alongside Ainslie in the record breaking British challenge for the 2024 America’s Cup and has carried that momentum over to SailGP.
The crew alongside Fletcher features sailing’s top talent, including Olympic gold medallists Hannah Mills strategist, Iain Jensen Wing trimmer and America’s Cup athletes Neil Hunter grinder, Nick Hutton trimmer/grinder, Luke Parkinson flight controller, reserve Ben Cornish and development sailors Ellie Aldridge and Kai Hockley who complete the squad.
A total of $12M USD (£9.2m) prize money is available over the 2025 season. $2M (£1.5m) for the Grand Final winner, and $800,000 (£600,000) available to the top-three placed teams in the Abu Dhabi event final.
Emirates GBR top the prize money leaderboard with $2M (£1.5m) in the bank. New Zealand’s Black Foils has won $1.76M (£1.34m) and the Aussie BONDS Flying Roos and Spain’s Los Gallos have each secured $1.2M (£900,000) to date.
SailGP Grand Final:
Season 1 2019 – 1st AUS Tom Slingsby, 2nd JPN Nathan Outteridge, 3rd CHN Phil Robertson.
Season 2 2021/22 – 1st AUS Tom Slingsby, 2nd JPN Nathan Outteridge, 3rd USA Jimmy Spithill.
Season 3 2022/23 – 1st AUS Tom Slingsby, 2nd NZL Peter Burling, 3rd GBR Ben Ainslie.
Season 4 – 2023/24 – 1st ESP Diego Botin, 2nd AUS Tom Slingsby, 3rd NZL Peter Burling.
Season 5 – 2024/25 – Watch this space . . .
