Auckland event cancelled for SailGP

The growth of the SailGP sports league took a hit as Kiwi media report how the Auckland event (March 23-24, 2024) in Season Four has been cancelled due to unavailability of spectators stands for the harbor course. The league had expanded to 13 events in 2023-24 after hosting 11 for Season Three.

The SailGP competition was expected to generate a revenue of $5 million to Auckland, with more than 5,000 people predicted to attend the event. But the league’s vision included Wynyard Point land as a spectator facility and its unavailability proved to be a barrier to holding the event.

While SailGP has not commented on this news, Tātaki Auckland Unlimited chief executive Nick Hill confirmed that SailGP will not be held in Auckland in Season Four.

“We’ve worked hard with Russell Coutts and the SailGP team to find a way to hold the event the way that Russell wants to hold it – that’s in the middle of the harbour, with a stand on the side of the harbour,” said Hill, noting how the land that Coutts wanted to use for that stand – at Wynyard Point – was not available.

Wynyard Point is where an old tank farm was, and while the tanks have been removed, there’s remains a complicated process to hand the land back to the council because of the potential for contamination.

“From a health and safety point of view, until we’ve completed that remediation process – or Eke Panuku has – it’s not safe to assume you could put a stand there,” explained Hill.

The issues with using the land SailGP wanted to use in Auckland were identified months ago, and while other options around the harbor had been explored, none allowed for SailGP to put the event on in a way that they want to.

“When the issues were raised,” Hill explained, “they looked at other options around how they might do it, came back to ‘no, we want Wynyard Point, there’s nothing that matches that in terms of the value to the event’, and that’s when you’re working through, well, what would it take to get that available?”

Hill added, “I think SailGP is quite influenced by F1 and the experience around F1 and they want their sponsors to be able to experience that kind of thing.”

SailGP is in its second year of a four-year deal to host alternative regattas at Lyttelton and Auckland in New Zealand. Rumors have the Auckland event moving to Christchurch on South Island.

SailGP information – YouTube – How to watch

Season Standings (after five of 13 events; results and total points)
1. Australia (Tom Slingsby), 2-3-2-2-3; 43 points
2. Denmark (Nicolai Sehested), 4-2-4-7-2; 36
3. United States (Jimmy Spithill), 9-5-5-3-1; 32
4. Spain (Diego Botin), 5-1-3-6-6; 32
5. Great Britain (Ben Ainslie), 7-6-1-1-8; 32
6. New Zealand (Peter Burling), 1-7-8-DNC/6-4; 30
7. Canada (Phil Robertson), 3-4-10-5-5; 24
8. France (Quintin Delapierre), 6-8-6-4-7; 24
9. Switzerland (Sebastien Schneiter), 8-9-9-9; 11
10. Germany (Erik Heil), 10-10-7-8-9-10; 8
Notes:
• Canada SailGP Team: Docked four points in Season Championship for eight-point penalty at France Sail Grand Prix | Saint-Tropez
• Germany SailGP Team: Docked two points in Season Championship for four-point penalty at Oracle Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix
• New Zealand SailGP Team: Granted six event points for Italy Sail Grand Prix as unable to compete due to wing damage suffered at France Sail Grand Prix.

Season 4 – 2023
June 16-17 – United States Sail Grand Prix | Chicago at Navy Pier
July 22-23 – United States Sail Grand Prix | Los Angeles
September 9-10 – France Sail Grand Prix | Saint-Tropez
September 23-24 – Italy Sail Grand Prix | Taranto
October 14-15 – Spain Sail Grand Prix | Andalucía- Cádiz
December 9-10 – Dubai Sail Grand Prix | Dubai*

Season 4 – 2024
January 13-14 – Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix | Abu Dhabi
February 24-25 – Australia Sail Grand Prix | Sydney
March 23-24 – New Zealand Sail Grand Prix | Auckland
May 4-5 – Bermuda Sail Grand Prix
June 1-2 – Canada Sail Grand Prix | Halifax
June 22-23 – United States Sail Grand Prix | New York
July 13-14 – SailGP Season 4 Grand Final | San Francisco
* Added October 3, 2023

Format for Season 4:
• Teams compete in identical F50 catamarans.
• Each event runs across two days.
• Up to seven qualifying fleet races of approximately 15 minutes may be scheduled for each regatta.
• The top three teams from qualifying advance to a final race to be crowned event champion and earn the largest share of the $300,000.00 USD event prize money purse that’s divided among the top three teams.
• The season ends with the Grand Final, which includes the Championship Final Race for the top three teams in the season standing with the winner claiming the $1m USD prize.

For competition documents, click here.

Established in 2018, SailGP seeks to be an annual, global sports league featuring fan-centric inshore racing among national teams in some of the iconic harbors around the globe.