A lot of recent media focus is centred on SailGP and the America’s Cup events use of foils . . .
For the America’s Cup it’s should they or shouldn’t they be in electric foiling yachts, and for SailGP its OK they are in foiling yachts but is this really yacht racing and are the format safety rules sufficient?
While the two events feature very different concepts they are joined at the hip.
The America’s Cup is of course the grand daddy of international match racing, as they never let us forget, and books have been written expanding the mythology in minute detail. While SailGP is the wild black sheep of the family, that has come back to haunt them.
The America’s Cup managed perfectly well for over 150+ years as the ultimate status event in a status hungry sport, with the NYYC setting (adjusting) the bar to keep the hoi polloi at bay.
The rot set in with the drive to widen the accessibility of the event, both on the water and amongst the hitherto ignored hoi polloi, who hadn’t really been too interested in the millionaires playthings.
Leading to the Americans losing the Auld Mug (1983) and to extended qualification events and the introduction of multihulls and eventually foils!
One of those early foiling multihull America’s Cup events (2017 AC35) was to be yachting’s Pandora’s Box, now proving to be very difficult to put back in the box.
Two former America’s Cup winners, Russell Coutts and Larry Ellison, took a tweaked foiling AC50 as the basis of their F50 foiling multihull, and rolled out a spectator friendly, stadium sailing event, with a strong resemblance to Formula 1 circuit racing . . . the SailGP Championship circuit.
Launched in late 2018 their F50 took the foiling multihull concept out of its exclusive America’s Cup home and put it front and centre of a race track that it describes as . . .
Athletes on the limit. If they fly the F50 too high or lose control, they could crash. Capsizing is also a constant risk – with the boat spectacularly flipping over if there’s too much power in the wing.
SailGP went from an initial five-race, six-team Season 1 in 2019, to a 13 race, 13 team Season 6 for 2026.
The two-day events now attract upto 20,000 paying spectators to the grandstands that the organisation transports and constructs for each event. With claimed dedicated media viewers averaging 18 million per event in 2025.
This success so ruffled the America’s Cup feathers that they have attempted to adjust the rules of the next Cup AC38 2027.
Using the AC75 foiling monohull design for a third time, with the hull design now frozen at the AC37 time frame and looking to put the event on a regular schedule going forward.
But . . . Foiling monohulls and multihulls go very fast, until they don’t.
When not foiling they are relatively slow and this difference is greatly accentuated in a race scenario, especially in light winds, making a mockery of the accepted concept of yacht racing. Both the America’s Cup and SailGP races have suffered from this problem and received considerable adverse comment for destroying traditional racing norms.
The America’s Cup has a more flexible race format . . . Within the America’s Cup event – a once every 3-4 year event – the regatta programme can build-in lay days as required to avoid the worse conditions. Also having an irregular timescale . . .
SailGP is a very different beast, with a regular programme of 13 events in a season, with each comprising just two days of scheduled racing, and heavily reliant on commercial arrangements, both at the event location and via media productions.
Also to expedite its growth it makes great play of the jeopardy factor via social media which has led to criticism of its safety rules.
The AC monohull yachts were generally of a similar speed and even if one was slowed or becalmed, the other did not excessively outpace it.
With the foiling yachts and the reduced size race circuits, time on the foils is crucial and both AC75 and F50 events have suffered weather effected events.
Both have also suffered crew injuries and major boat damage, for the America’s Cup this has mainly been since introducing foiling mono and multihull yachts.
The immediate problem would seem to be with the SailGP events which have to maintain a tight circuit event programme, while growing their audience, both local and mediawise, and maintaining fully active fleet numbers.
The problem for the America’s Cup is likely to grow if they expand to a more commercial based, regular timetable in the future, if they can overcome the expectations of a 180 years of tradition and history.
But for both the high speed foiling concept is both the attraction and the “Achilles’ heel”.
Related Post . . .
Anyone for Sailing? – SailGP break into mainstream sports world
America’s Cup sailing teams prepare for first taste of AC38 on water action
