Emirates GBR come into New York in second place on the SailGP leaderboard with 35 points, one point ahead of Spain’s Los Gallos in third, while Australia’s BONDS Flying Roos are top on 45 points.
For Dylan Fletcher its time to get back to winning.
Emirates GBR started 2026 as defending Rolex SailGP Champions, and hit the top spot again after the first three events. Then the winning stopped.
Rio was a disaster. Firstly equipment problems and then a seemingly complete tactical melt-down put them last.
Bermuda was something of a fightback but without a result above fifth over seven races, a fourth place overall looked like a bonus. Leaving Dylan to comment, “Even though it’s not the result we wanted, fourth is a good damage-limitation finish.”
Now its New York, and in between Fletcher has helmed the British America’s Cup GB1 team in the first AC38 Preliminary Regatta Sardinia . . . That did not go well.
Sailed in foiling AC40s the British team was hit by several equipment problems which left them bottom of the AC38 Preliminary leaderboard, only finishing three of the eight races.
None of which bodes well for the switch back to the hurly-burly racing of the SailGP circuit events.
When the AC40 was firing on all cylinders Fletcher got it back together. Here on the Hudson River with bigger fleets (13 boats), the more experienced crews and high speed starts, the British team will need to be on top form from the get-go.
And the boat had better be faultless.
“Ultimately, we know we haven’t been performing at the level expected of us at the last two events,” Fletcher said, “at the moment it feels like we are in a good place, so hopefully we can perform well this weekend.”
Emirates GBR Strategist Hannah Mills said: “The conditions are looking full on and with no practice racing at this event, we will be straight into action on race day one on Saturday – but we can’t wait to get stuck in and hopefully deliver some strong results.”
The racing begins with four fleet races on Saturday, and front runners Tom Slingsby and the BONDS Flying Roos will be looking for a third consecutive event victory.
Emirates GBR:
Driver: Dylan Fletcher
Wing trimmer: Stuart Bithell
Flight controller: Luke Parkinson
Grinder: Nick Hutton
Grinder: Neil Hunter
Strategist: Hannah Mills
Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix 30 – 31 May 2026
Race Day/Time:
DAY 1 Saturday 30 MAY 08:30 PM BST
DAY 2 Sunday 31 MAY 08:30 PM BST
