Team Australia has enjoyed a brilliant opening day of the Australia SailGP in Sydney, sitting equal-top on the leaderboard after three of the weekend’s five fleet races.
The first day of the eighth event of season four saw some of the heaviest winds of the campaign, but they were still less than 25 knots southerly forecast earlier in the week.
Teams had been hoping to break the magical 100km/h mark (the previous top speed is 99.94km/h) if a strong southerly buster rolled through, but there was nevertheless plenty of excitement as the field of 10 F50 catamarans did battle on Sydney Harbour.
“A southerly buster and geez, its all going to be on,’’ Canadian skipper Phil Robertson had said in the lead-up of the weekend. “It’s big boy pants weather, it’s going to be on. Buckle up, it’s going to be a wild ride.’’
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So tricky were the conditions that only two teams were able to practice on Friday, meaning most of the team came in cold on Saturday’s racing.
Australia – winners of all three previous SailGP seasons and championship leaders entering this weekend – claimed their first race win of the season, dominating the first fleet race on Saturday to beat Denmark by a minute and five seconds. Top rivals New Zealand were in third.
Legendary skipper Tom Slingsby said after the race: “Perfect way to start, no complaints. It was tough … we sailed really well.
“You saw how it is, you’re on and off the foils, light patches down to five knots and gusts up to 18 knots.”
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The second race start was delayed by seven minutes with Canada struggling with technical issues which eventually saw them unable to start the race at all.
The Australians had a poor start to the race, with Germany and Spain leading the way to the first turn.
Australia were only in eighth at the second turn – of the nine yachts to start the race – but made a sensational recovery to reach fourth by gate three and third by the end of the next downwind leg.
It was a gripping fight with Spain for the lead on the next upwind leg, but the young Spanish team emerged unscathed and held on to win over Australia’s Flying Roo by just five seconds.
Meanwhile there was wild drama behind the leaders as Germany nearly hit a turning marker – and also nearly capsized – as they tried to squeeze past France while going 60km/h, nearly twice as fast as the French.
Germany did not have right of way and were forced to take evasive action.
France recovered to finish fourth, while Germany only managed to finish second-last.
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Spain driver Diego Boutin said: “We were expecting more winds, but for us it’s full on. It’s super hard conditions to sail this boat.”
Canada was unable to fix their technical issues and were rubbed out of the third and final race on Saturday, while Australia enjoyed a horror start to the race as the reached Mark 1 only third-last.
New Zealand’s legendary stand-in skipper Nathan Outteridge stormed up the field to surge into a giant lead at the halfway mark of the race ahead of Germany. Australia reached mark four in fifth, but charged after the turn upwind and finished the race fourth.
Denmark finished second behind New Zealand, with France finishing third just five seconds ahead of Australia.
After the first day of racing, Australia sit equal-top in the event standings with Denmark on 26 points, with New Zealand in second on 24 points. France were fourth on 21 points, with Spain fifth on 20.
There are two more fleet races on Sunday afternoon (from 4pm AEDT) before a winner-takes all final between the top-three-placed teams based on the standings after the five fleet races.
Outteridge said: “Tomorrow’s conditions will probably be quite different, a little bit east and probably a lot lighter.”
He called it “a fantastic day at Sydney Harbour. Where else would you want to be, mate?”
