Rolex SailGP Championship’s 2026 Season opener delivered a knockout blow for Peter Burling’s Black Foils.
It took a little over a minute for the drama to amp up as New Zealand’s Black Foils and the Switzerland Sail Grand Prix team collided, ending both teams’ days before they’d even begun.
No athletes were injured in the collision, but both teams had to retire immediately due to the extent of the damage.
The damage to the Black Foils’ F50 was so severe that they will miss the second day’s racing, and now face a mammoth repair job to make the next Grand Prix in Auckland next month.
To add insult to injury they were penalised seven points by the umpires – not the start to 2026 Burling’s team were hoping for.
Burling said his team would regroup once they knew the full extent of the situation.
“We did everything we could to keep clear,” Burling said. “They gybed and kept ramping up the turn-rate straight at us. I’m not really sure what we’re expected to do in that situation. Their bow went through our boat about a meter away from me.”
“I’m definitely pretty shaken up at the moment, and pretty frustrated by the situation, but we’ll have to rebuild from here and see what the situation is going forward.”
Switzerland SailGP driver Sebastien Schneiter is crossing his fingers that his team can make tomorrow’s racing
“It happened really quickly,” Schneiter said. “We gybed, the Kiwis did their best but unfortunately it was too late for them. It was pretty scary.
The SailGP Tech Team will now work round the clock to save the Swiss team’s hopes of scoring points in Perth.
Racing resumes on Sunday, with three fleet races scheduled before the top three teams then enter the winner-takes-all final race, where US$400,000 is up for grabs.
Viewing is an early morning job for Brits with the first start at 05:00 hrs GB (13:00 hrs AUS) on 17 and 18 January, and will be reporting it here on Sailweb.co.uk
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