NZ SailGP team extend season lead

By Christopher Reive

Another event, another trip to the podium.

It’s been a remarkable run for the New Zealand SailGP Team since the end of the European leg of the global foiling league’s schedule.

In Bermuda, the Black Foils competed in their fifth-straight podium race – finishing the weekend in second to slightly stretch out their lead at the top of the season leaderboard.

The last time the Kiwi crew missed out on the podium race was in Spain last October, which was their first event back on the water after a tumultuous September saw the collapse of their wingsail ruling them out of the second day’s racing in France and completely out of Italy’s event.

The podium race in Bermuda, which saw Spain win ahead of New Zealand and Australia, could well have been a preview of the three-boat grand final shootout set for September in July. The result saw Spain – coming into the event third in the standings – improve their lead over fourth-placed Denmark to nine points. They trail Australia in second by just two points, while the Kiwis hold a comfortable 10-point buffer at the top with just three events left on the calendar.

Looking at their results throughout the event, you wouldn’t have known the Black Foils struggled in the starting box for the majority of the weekend’s races.

Only once did they finish outside the top five across the five fleet races – in Monday’s first race when they slightly mistimed their approach and were over the starting line early. That saw them forced to fall to the back of the fleet, and they ultimately finished the race in sixth place.

They did, however, go into Monday sitting fourth on the leaderboard and needing some results to work their way into the podium race, so it wasn’t an ideal way to kick off their day.

It meant a strong result was a must in the final fleet race, and the Black Foils saved their best for last.

For the first time in the five races, the Kiwi boat was among the first over the starting line – without being early - when the race got under way and that set them up nicely for what was to come.

They raced in third for the first couple of legs, but what looked like an indecisive decision around which way to round the third gate turned out to simply be a good judge of conditions as they flew on the upwind leg.

By the time they got to the fourth gate of the five-leg race, they were out at the front of the fleet and had put a decent gap between themselves and the chasing pack.

That was how things finished, with the race win putting the Kiwis into the event final alongside Australia and Spain.

In the showdown between the league’s top three teams, Spain got the better of the start, timing their approach superbly to shoot down the inside of the other boats. The Kiwis had a solid start as well, though, and were hot on the heels of the Spanish throughout the opening legs of the seven-leg final.

But that was where they stayed; the Spanish sailing a perfect race to close out their second event win of the season, with New Zealand and Australia crossing the line a few seconds later.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission