For day two of the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix in Auckland, SailGP is giving the fleet a little more breathing room – adopting a split-fleet format, designed to keep racing sharp, safe and spectacular for fans.
Following yesterday’s collision between the Black Foils and DS Team France, only 11 boats of the 13 entered will take part in Day 2, but the split-fleet format will still be used to try to avoid any more dangerous incidents.
SailGP likes to be compared with F1 motor racing, but F1 has built an excellent safety record in recent years, something SailGP would do well to get a grip on before there is a fatality . . . Not after!
There has been considerable criticism following the race 3 collision that resulted in two crew members in hospital and two of the F50 rendered unusable for the rest of the event.
Black Foils crew member Louis Sinclair is receiving treatment for compound fractures to both legs but was in a stable condition. While DS Team France crew Manon Audinet is being assessed for abdominal injuries caused by the impact.
How the SailGP split-fleet format works:
Think of it as two parallel battles feeding one grand finale. The fleet is divided into Group A and Group B – sorted based on the current event leaderboard.
Each group races separately – two races each (A, B, A, B) for four total fleet races – and teams score points within their group:
1st place: 5 points
2nd place: 4 points
3rd place: 3 points
4th place: 2 points
5th place: 1 point
6th place: 0 points
Points from the groups will be combined into a single table ranked by the highest points and the top three teams qualify for the Final.
Hopefully it will work better in action than the description suggests!
