Canada win at SailGP Los Angeles

The SailGP league held their fourth event of Season 5 in the Port of Los Angeles on March 15-16, with Canada picking up its first event win since Christchurch in Season 3. Skipper Giles Scott led the Northstar squad over league heavyweights New Zealand and Australia.

The win was vindication for the Canadians after they narrowly missed out on victory in Sydney last month, and marks Scott’s first win since taking over the driving seat at the beginning of the season.

The three-boat Final was cagey from the off, with all three boats scrapping for the best position in the start box. But it was Peter Burling’s New Zealand – credited with perfect starts all event – which won the inside line to Mark 1, leaving NorthStar Canada trailing in its wake.

Tom Slingsby’s Australia meanwhile looked shut out from the beginning, trailing over the line and struggling to stay on the foils in the light winds.

A crucial moment unfolded at Gate 2, when leaders New Zealand and NorthStar Canada split the course. As the Canadians executed silky smooth boat handling, the Kiwis struggled to execute clean maneuvers and fell off the foils on the third leg of the shortened six leg Final.

The Canadians moved into first while unforced errors by the Kiwis and Aussies handed them a dominating lead. Despite the capricious, light wind conditions and reduced four person crew configuration, the Canadians racked up the highest fly time of the day in the Final – 99%, as well as the highest average speed of the day – 51.07 km/h.

Speaking from the water after the win, Scott paid tribute to his team. “It’s been an amazing effort from the team this weekend – and all season. We had a good one in Sydney and now to come here and win is awesome for the team, I’m so proud of everyone.”

Avoiding seaweed was a feature throughout the event, with sufficient winds on the first day to keep teams on the foils for four races. However, light winds on day two reduced crew to four with marginal winds on offer for the last three qualifying races.

“I don’t really feel like [four person crew racing] is my forte,” noted Giles, “but we got through it and got some nice splits in that Final.”

Strategist Annie Haeger agreed: “We were out in a five [person] configuration, then we heard six up, and then it was four up, so there was a lot of changing and shifting gears.”

The three teams for the Final was being decided in the final fleet race of the event, with Australia and Great Britain was gunning for the win in the seventh, winning the start and sprint to Mark 1, while Australia slipped into last place.

It looked all over for the Aussies as the British took another race win. But Tom Slingsby’s squad pulled off an incredible 11th hour move, sling-shotting around the outside of the United States at the final turning mark and beating them over the finish line. This meant the Aussies qualified for the Final instead, edging out the Brits by a margin of one point.

The refreshed season standings see Great Britain retain the top spot, followed by Australia and New Zealand, with Season 4 champions Spain in fourth. NorthStar Canada meanwhile moves up into 5th overall.

SailGP information – Los Angeles details – Crew list – YouTube – Facebook

Los Angeles Results
1. Canada, 3-2-5-6-3-3-5-(1)
2. New Zealand, 1-1-9-2-8-2-4-(2)
3. Australia, 10-3-1-3-5-1-7-(3)
4. Great Britain, 4-4-8-7-1-6-1
5. Spain, 2-7-10-4-2-11-6
6. France, 6-9-3-1-4-8-11
7. Germany, 8-5-7-11-7-7-2
8. Italy, 9-6-6-8-11-4-3
9. United States, 7-8-4-5-10-9-8
10. Switzerland, 5-11-11-10-6-5-9
11. Brazil, 11-10-2-9-9-10-10
12. Denmark, 12-12-12-12-12-12-12
Note: Denmark collided with a mark in the first race, disabling their boat.

Season 5 Leaderboard (after 4 of 14 events)
1. Great Britain, 34 points
2. Australia, 32 points
3. New Zealand, 29 points
4. Spain, 26 points
5. Canada, 25 points
6. France, 20 points*
7. Switzerland, 13 points
8. Italy, 10 points
9. Denmark, 9 points**
10. United States, 2 points**
11. Brazil, 0 point**
12. Germany, -2 points**
* France was awarded points for the first two events as their F50 was not available
**Teams receive season penalty points for incidents during practice or racing

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 12-13 – Saint-Tropez, France
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).
• Ten of the 12 teams are privately owned, with the league having ownership of New Zealand and Spain.

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.