NorthStar Canada picked up where they left off, leading the fleet with 35 points after a dynamic first day of the Oracle San Francisco Sail Grand Prix. Driver Giles Scott enjoyed three podium finishes – including two wins – in the first four fleet races of the weekend.
Australia and Spain round out the top three, with 32 and 29 points, respectively. France and New Zealand find themselves in the battle for third – but with work to do – heading into day two with 23 points each.
Reflecting on a standout opening day, Scott said: “We had a really good day today, plenty going on out there, but we kept our noses clean and sailed well.” Commenting on the course – a sailor’s favorite – Scott continued: “It was a day to push today, really nice flat water, almost all teams were pushing as hard as they could. Plenty going on and plenty of calls to make. It’s really nice to be on a bigger course for the first time in a while – stretch your legs, pick a few shifts.”
With three different winners in four races, the height of competition across the fleet was on full display in San Francisco – one of the most tactical venues on the Rolex SailGP Championship calendar. Fleet race one went the way of the French, with driver Quentin Delapierre showing his expertise in top-end conditions. Delapierre executed a flawless start, sweeping across the line in first ahead of Australia and Spain.
Fleet race two got off to a promising start for the Germany SailGP Team presented by Deutsche Bank, but a boundary penalty forced the team to drop back, giving the lead to NorthStar Canada who sailed away with the win. In fleet race three, Spain managed to hold off NorthStar Canada to claim victory, with Australia close behind in third.
In the fourth and final fleet race of the day, a stunning overtake on the final reach saw Canada claim their second win of the day ahead of France in second and New Zealand in third. It was the only podium finish for New Zealand, with driver Peter Burling conceding, “We struggled a little bit out there today. We couldn’t get quite off the start line in good shape, then had a big issue with the wind screen shutting down our boat.”
The U.S. SailGP Team had a difficult start to their second home event, finishing bottom of the event leaderboard after two last-place finishes and two ninths. Grinder and jib trimmer Anna Weis said, “It was great to race in front of the home fans, but we had a pretty tough day. It was kind of frustrating. We held the line a few times quite well, but just made some mistakes around the race course and need to do better tomorrow.”
Thousands turned out to watch the racing on a sunny day along the San Francisco shoreline. Looking ahead to tomorrow, Weis said, “You have to brush it off because you can’t change the past. You can only focus on what you can control and that will be the biggest thing, just doing our jobs well.”
The most exciting racing on water returns tomorrow (Sunday, March 23) at 2:30 p.m. PDT, with three fleet races followed by a winner-takes-all final.
A handful of tickets remain Sunday’s racing, available for purchase at SailGP.com/Tickets.
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