by Andy Rice @ SailGP
In the final 20 seconds before the start of the Sydney final, hosts Australia and Canada were closest to the start line and looking good to battle it out for the win – with Emirates Great Britain some way back and with a lot of fast sailing to do if they were to overcome the odds and claim an unlikely victory at the KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix.
Tom Slingsby and Giles Scott, the Australia and Canada drivers, engaged in a bit of pre-start kerfuffle, but left a gap between their boats that was just wide enough for Dylan Scott to drive the British boat straight through the middle at high speed.
All weekend Australia had shown an uncanny ability to hit the line at speed and again they were the closest of the three in the Final start, just 4 meters back and only 0.3 seconds late. Canada was slightly further back at 12.3m and 0.8 seconds, and Great Britain a whopping 20.9m and 1.1 seconds short of the line.
On the face of it, those don’t look like race-winning statistics for Emirates GBR.
However in this instance it turned out the most vital statistic of all was boat speed at the start – and here Emirates GBR scored top points. Fletcher had the British boat firing across the line at 71.1kmh, significantly faster than Australia on 61.2kmh and Canada on 60.9kmh.
That boatspeed advantage at the start soon developed into a small lead for GBR by Mark 1. Canada was marginally behind while Slingsby and Australia were slapped with a penalty for those pre-start shenanigans with Scott’s NorthStar crew.
On the first downwind leg Canada suffered a brief touchdown through the jibe, and the Canadians were the only boat not to record a perfect flight time for the 10 minute race – 99% compared with 100% flight time for Great Britain and Australia.
However, Canada’s minor touchdown was nothing compared with the superior wind strength and angle they found on the Shark Island side of the downwind leg. By Mark 2 Canada had overtaken the Brits for the lead and opted for the left side of the upwind leg. Driver Fletcher broke for the right-hand side, looking to create maximum leverage on the Canadians who were a little late to respond to the threat.
It was only a matter of a few seconds but by the time the Canadians tacked on to port to defend their lead, Great Britain was hooking into stronger breeze further to the right-hand side of the race track. When the two converged again near the starboard layline, GBR had regained the advantage and managed to squeeze around the top mark just ahead of Canada.
With Canada breathing down their necks on the final downwind leg, Great Britain could ill-afford any errors. Strategist Hannah Mills called a perfect layline into the final turning mark, Great Britain executing one jibe down the final run. Canada, perhaps in a bid to try something different, jibed slightly earlier although this meant two additional maneuvers to get round the bottom mark.
This left GBR clear to enjoy the final high-speed reach towards the finish line and secure a resounding victory of eight seconds! After such a tight duel with Canada it had looked like an easy win at the finish, but it really wasn’t.
On many of the key stats Canada was the superior performer. For example they sailed the shortest distance – 9837m compared with 9865m for Great Britain and 9935m for Australia; Canada executed just three tacks on the upwind legs compared with five for Great Britain and six for Australia; average velocity made good (VMG) was even marginally better, 39.2kmh for Canada to Great Britain’s 38.2kmh and Australia’s 36.6kmh.
Yet on other measures Canada fell short of the Brits who showed the fastest average boatspeed of 58.5kmh to Canada’s 57.6kmh and Australia’s 56.0kmh. The consolation statistic for Australia was that they clocked the highest peak speed in the final at 87.5kmh, just ahead of Great Britain on 87.0kmh, with Canada someway short on just 80.7kmh.
Overall, both the early Canadian lead-change down the first run and the subsequent overtake by Emirates GBR on the next upwind leg were caused by the teams finding stronger breeze at a more favorable wind angle. The boatspeed and maneuver stats only tell part of a more complex tactical story.
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