SailGP: Five things to watch in Auckland

The 14-event schedule for SailGP moves to New Zealand for the second stage of Season 5. From a new venue, new foils, and a larger field, here are five things to watch for when racing gets underway on January 18-19:

Auckland’s debut
The ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix marks SailGP’s first ever event in Auckland, nicknamed the City of Sails. The highly anticipated stop on the 2025 Season calendar will see more than 10,000 fans attend the event to cheer on Peter Burling’s home town heroes, the Black Foils, and high octane racing is expected when the starting gun fires on Waitematā Harbour.

The return of France
After sitting out the first event of the 2025 Season while awaiting a new F50, Quentin Delapierre’s France will be back on the start line when racing gets underway in Auckland. A real contender in high wind conditions, Delapierre’s team will be raring to make their mark on the season leaderboard. Will missing Dubai result in a rusty performance when racing begins, or will they begin the season with a bang?

Twelve teams for the first time
With France rejoining the fleet, Auckland will see 12 teams fighting it out for the event title for the first time. Will season heavyweights New Zealand or Australia storm to victory, or will a fledgling team like Mubadala Brazil or Red Bull Italy rise to the occasion to take their first event win?

Can New Zealand defend its home title?
This marks SailGP’s first ever visit to Auckland, but the Kiwis will be defending their event title won in Christchurch, Season 4. Can they hold off advances from the Aussies and Season 3 Christchurch winners Canada when racing gets underway? Or will home town fans be disappointed when another team picks up the Auckland crown?

The introduction of the T-Foils
Auckland also beckons the fleet-wide roll out of the incoming, cutting-edge T-Foils. These new foils saw the Canada F50 set a new SailGP speed record of 101.98 km/h during testing in San Francisco and are set to supercharge the fleet’s speeds when racing begins.

Racing in Auckland takes place on January 18-19 at 4:00-5:30pm NZDT. For the North American audience, the time conversion has racing on January 17-18 at 10:00-11:30pm EST.

Crew lists: https://sailgp.com/news/24/revealed-full-crew-lists-auckland-debut-confirmed/

Season 5 Leaderboard (after 1 of 14 events)*
1. New Zealand, 10 points
2. Great Britain, 9 points
3. United States, 8 points
4. Spain, 7 points
5. Australia, 6 points
6. Canada, 5 points
7. France, 5 points
8. Denmark, 4 points
9. Germany, 3 points
10. Switzerland, 2 points
11. Brazil, 1 point
12. Italy, 0 points
* Ten of the 12 teams are privately owned, with the league having ownership of New Zealand and Spain.

SailGP information – YouTube – Facebook

Season 5 Schedule – 14 events
2024
November 23-24 – Dubai, UAE

2025
January 18-19 – Auckland, New Zealand
February 8-9 – Sydney, Australia
March 15-16 – Los Angeles, USA
March 22-23 – San Francisco, USA
May 3-4 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
June 7-8 – New York City, USA
July 19-20 – Portsmouth, Great Britain
August 16-17 – Sassnitz, Germany
September 6-7 – Taranto, Italy
September 20-21 – Geneva, Switzerland
October 4-5 – Andalucía – Cádiz, Spain
November 7-8 – Middle East *
November 29-30 – Grand Final – Abu Dhabi, UAE
* Venue to be announced

Format for Season 5:
• Teams compete in identical F50 catamarans.
• Each event runs across two days.
• Five 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 prize purse (amount not confirmed; Season 4 had $400,000.00 USD prize purse with winning team earning $200k at each event).
• 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 a monetary award (amount not confirmed; Season 4 had $2 million USD prize).
• The top team on points ahead of the three-boat Championship Final will get a monetary award (amount not confirmed; Season 4 had a $350,000.00 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.