The Rolex SailGP Championship Circuit returns to the Solent with the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix based at Portsmouth UK on 19 and 20 July 2025.
This is the fourth season of the SailGP circuit and for each event, a well drilled event construction operation swings into action to build an on-site Race Stadium adjacent to the inshore race circuit. This ‘moveable-feast’ has developed to provide a premium hospitality package and après-sail entertainment centre around the unique high speed racing format taking place over two days.
The 12-strong foiling F50 multihull fleet goes head to head across six to seven fleet races. The first three to four fleet races unfold on the first day of the event and the final three take place on the second. After fleet racing, the top three ranked teams on points meet in a winner-takes-all Final to decide the event winner.
Being a sailing event everything hinges on the weather and with it the performance level of the foiling F50 multihulls. Something that has led SailGP League boss Russell Coutts to initiate a continuing programme of rig and foil developments to increase the viable racing window over a range of wind and sea conditions.
The British team is Ben Ainslie’s Emirates Great Britain, now helmed (or driven in SailGP foiling terminology) by Olympic 49er champion Dylan Fletcher, and they will be looking for a bit of home-ground advantage to turn the tide.
After a flying start to the 2025 season, with a run of two second place finishes and a win in Sydney, they have been off the pace and have drifted down the leaderboard, with a 4th in Los Angeles, 7th in San Francisco and an 8th in New York. And are now fourth overall coming into the Portsmouth event.
This is actually Dylan Fletcher’s second SailGP event on the Solent, he was the original British team F50 driver when the first UK SailGP circuit event was held at Cowes in 2019, and was later replaced by a certain Ben Ainslie when he took over the team.
Dylan went on to win 49er Olympic gold and an International Moth World title, and joined Ainslie’s America’s Cup team, he then returned to the British SailGP helm for this season.
For Fletcher, the team’s upcoming home event is a chance to ‘right the wrongs’ of the last two events. “We’re just looking forward to putting on a great show for our home crowd and coming away with a top result as well.”
He is hoping for a ‘typical sea breeze’ coming from the south west ranging between 14 to 19 knots, which would result in ‘spectacular racing’. Emirates GBR’s strategy however is simple. “Our approach is not to over-complicate it – we’ll go back to the basics, do the simple things well and the results will follow.”
Emirates Great Britain Crew from:
Dylan Fletcher
Hannah Mills
Iain Jensen
Luke Parkinson
Nick Hutton
Neil Hunter
Ben Cornish
Kai Hockley
2025 Rolex SailGP Championship League after 6 events
1st Spain – Diego Botin – 46 pts
2nd Australia – Tom Slingsby – 45 pts
3rd New Zealand – Peter Burling – 44 pts
4th Great Britain – Dylan Fletcher – 42 pts
5th Canada – Giles Scott – 38 pts
6th France – Quentin Delapierre – 36 pts
7th Switzerland – Sébastien Schneiter – 20 pts
8th Denmark – Nicolai Sehested – 14 pts
9th Italy – Ruggero Tita – 13 pts
10th Brazil – Martine Grael – 9 pts
11th Germany – Erik Heil – 0 pts
12th United States – Taylor Canfield – 2 pts
The Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix | Portsmouth takes place on July 19/20, with racing from 4pm-5.30pm BST.
