Bad luck costs Tom Slingsby’s Aussie crew $3m SailGP grand final win, Spain wins first title

After a season of mishaps, equipment damage and crashes the bad luck continued for Australia as Spain and an onwater drama deprived them of a historic and lucrative $3m victory in SailGP.

They’ve been on the highlight reel throughout the season for crashes, collisions and controversial penalties and now it will now be a late race drama which ended their bid for a four-peat and $3.2m winners prize Australia will be remembered for in season four of SailGP.

Diego Botin and his Spanish crew raced off with the spoils in the three-boat grand final in San Francisco early Monday on an extraordinary day for Spanish sport after earlier victories at Wimbledon from Carlos Alcatraz, their 2-1 victory over England in the Euros and Sergio Garcia’s LIV Golf Andulacia tournament win.

Interestingly the Spanish were only in the final after their French rivals suffered damage in a collision and incurred a penalty in a lead-up race.

Australian skipper Tom Slingsby and his team were left to lament what might have been when a foil on the left side of their F50 locked up, costing them vital time as they hunted down Spain.

The disaster came less than an hour after the Fying Roo had posted two big wins in the fleet racing to enter the grand final on a high.

Instead it was Spain came through to inflict Australia’s first grand final loss in four season.

The Australians have finished season four in second place.

“That was the way fate had it,’’ Slingsby said. “It’s unfortunate. I’m not going to cry about it.

“It started unbelievably well. I just have to be proud of our team.

“Unfortunately a bit of a tech issue in that final race hurt our chance of overtaking the Spanish.’’

Slingsby said the hydrofoil lock has never failed previously.

“The hydrofoil goes up and down and when they go down they go in a lock. Somehow the board came off the lock,’’ he said.

“We have done thousands of tacks, this week we have done hundreds and it hasn’t happened at all.

“Today I happened in the final, a two million dollar race.

“It was obvious we were the fastest team today. We had a bad bottom mark rounding and fought back and got really close.

“It felt like we has a good change of catching them on the last beat.’’

Diego Botin celebrate on stage after winning the SailGP Season 4.

Dramas and mishaps

In a season of mixed fortunes one of the biggest dramas for the Australians was in Christchurch with the Australians wiped out in a crazy collision.

An emotional Tom Slingsby said he feared he was going to kill a rival sailor in the incident and made an extreme evasive manoeuvre which saw the Flying Roo ploughed into a buoy and sustain damage.

Adding insult to injury, the Australian were later penalised for the move in another blow to their season four bid for victory.

How the day unfolded

Racing with powerful 24m wing in good breeze on the Hudson the Australians won the first race of the day on Monday morning to secure their spot in the final alongside New Zealand leaving France and Spain to fight for the remaining spot in the grand final.

But France, who had a late race collision with the Danish in the first race of the day near the finish, discovered they had snapped their rudder and incurred a hefty penalty, ruling them out of the race for a spot in the finale.

Australia then won the final fleet race to win the San Francisco regatta ahead of the series deciding final.

What’s next

Slingsby, Jason Waterhouse and other Australias sailors will now return to their Americas Cup syndicates for the 37th Cup series in Barcelona.

Slingsby, who won twice with the US Oracle team, is associated with American Magic for the upcoming event as he has duel nationality.

The fifth season of SailGP begins in Dubai in November with a Sydney leg in February.

DAY ONE WRAP: They are close but a “really bad decision’’ in one race and possible mechanical issues have deprived Australia of a guaranteed spot in the $3m SailGP finale after an erratic day of sailing in the San Francisco leg of SailGP.

With two fleet races remaining before the three-boat winner-take-all final, Tom Slingsby and his crew need to nail their starts, post podium finishes and stay out of strife to make the decider after mixed fortunes in their favoured big wind conditions on the opening day of the finale of SailGP season four.

A 5-1-8 scorecard on Sunday wasn’t good enough to guarantee Slingsby and his team a spot beside New Zealand in the finale but consistency in the final two fleet races on Monday will.

Slingsby admitted he made a flawed tactical decision in the third race of the day and just minutes after the Australians had broken through for crucial win.

He also suggested there could be issues with the rudders on the Flying Roo catamaran.

The Australians had the lowest foiling time of any team in the third race of the day.

Team Australia CEO and driver Tom Slingsby celebrating their win back in 2022. The Aussies are chasing a four-peat.

“We were washing out the rudder a bit in the straight lining segment which is a bit odd,’’ Slingsby said.

“It wasn’t a great day. We felt like we could have done good things. We didn;t sail in the first, we had a great second race and I made a really bad decision at the top mark which is on me.

“There’s plenty we can do as a team and individually.’’

Heading into the final two fleet races and finale on Monday, New Zealand leads overall from Australia who are three points clear of France and four clear of Spain.

This means both teams have the potential to leapfrog the Australians who have won the last three grand finals where just the top three boats vie for the $3m bounty.

On the Hudson River early Sunday AEST, the Flying Roo were delivered the conditions they love and generally sail in best but disappointingly finished fifth in the windy first race of the qualifier.

Tom Slingsby crosses the boat in San Francisco, USA. Picture: Samo Vidic/SailGP. Handout image supplied by SailGP

Racing with a smaller wing sail than usual due to the big breeze, there was nowhere to hide for the teams who were reliant on the skills of their trimmers to help provide the extra horsepower needed to edge out rivals.

In Australia’s case that was Newcastle sailor Kyle Langford who played a crucial role in Australia bouncing back to win the second race.

But mistakes proved costly in the third with the Australians finishing 8th in the fleet of 10 in the increasingly tricky and gusty conditions.

The grand final is a 15 minute, winner take all battle which will test the skills metal and composure of each team.

Two more fleet races will be held prior to the finale.

“It’s been a season of highs and lows for us, we sailed so well – the first half of the season we had seven podium in a row and even though we weren’t winning those events we were sailing really well, “ Slingsby said.

“We had a few bumps along the way.

“The way we take our confidences (is) from this venue, our record in the final races – we’ve done really well in that final race in the past.”

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Originally published as Bad luck costs Tom Slingsby’s Aussie crew $3m SailGP grand final win, Spain wins first title