Great Britain SailGP Team crowned first event champion

The Great Britain SailGP Team leads the board on the SailGP competition by winning at the Bermuda Sail Grand Prix. This competition presented by Hamilton Princess involves eight teams from different nationalities competing all over the world. The first stop was at Bermuda, and we already know the outcome.

The winning team beat Australia and France in the final. Australia had entered as a clear favourite after winning four out of five fleet races. The Great Britain SailGP Team was able to beat Australia by a four-second difference. Sir Ben Ainslie’s team had just won a single fleet race during the two-day event, but their performance was sublime during the Final, beating Tom Slingsby’s and Billy Besson’s teams.

How is the score for the SailGP?

Now Great Britain is leading the score on the competition followed by the Australian team. Third is Billy Besson’s French team that secured its first podium finish in SailGP. Denmark and Japan ranked sixth and seventh with New Zealand improving from its poor opening day to end the weekend in fifth place.

Spain finished third in both days but missed qualifying for the Final by a single point. They are fourth in the event. This means the score is looking this way:

1. Great Britain - Sir Ben Ainslie - 10pts
2. Australia - Tom Slingsby - 9pts
3. France - Billy Besson - 8pts
4. Spain - Phil Robertson - 7pts 
5. New Zealand - Peter Burling - 6pts 
6. Denmark - Nicolai Sehested - 5pts
7. Japan - Nathan Outteridge - 4pts
8. United States - Jimmy Spithill - 3pts

How did the final race of the Bermuda SailGP go?

The Australian team started strong. They crossed the start line at a flying speed of almost 50 knots. However, it soon became a close race between them and the British team as the French fell behind on the course. Due to some technical issues, Slingby’s crew struggled to make up the distance between them and Ainslie’s team. 

“We had a few boat malfunctions in the last race, but Ben was ahead of us when these happened. We were right on his tail and then had some issues with our board going down.” Said Slingby after the race. “I’m not going to say it’s the reason he beat us as he was in the lead, but it let him get that additional distance on us”. 

Collision between USA and Japan during race four

Huge drama during day two of the Bermuda Sail Grand Prix after the United States and Japan collided. Both teams’ boats became attached and suffered enough damage to rule both teams out of the final.

The incident took place during the first race of day two on the Great Sound. Both Japan and the US team were unable to sail again after damage done to their F50s. Things got even worse for the United States team as moments after the collision their boat capsized in the strong winds.

The F50 eventually got back to its position but had to be removed from the course. On the other side, the Japanese boat suffered difficulties and the hull had to be drained of water. This meant the second race involved six teams instead of eight.

What do the winners have to say about the SailGP?

Great Britain won their most recent SailGP event in February 2020 during the Sydney competition. Skipper Sir Ben Ainslie said “It was a cracking race. It was awesome”.

Credit goes to the team who worked hard during the final. “We worked hard trying to analyse what was going wrong; it was a big team effort. It’s also the big man Neil’s birthday, so we thought we better sign off on a good note.”

The Australian team headed into the Final with 13 points more than the British team. However, as we know the winner-takes-all in this competition and Great Britain ended up being crowned Bermuda Sail Grand Prix champion. 

This Bermuda Sail Grand Prix presented by Hamilton Princess is the first event of the Season 2 of the SailGP. Now, competition continues in Italy in Taranto the 5th and 6th of June.