SailGP Auckland: Tom Slingsby’s Australian crew foil Peter Burling’s New Zealand team but on alert

It’s been a while since Australia has dominated New Zealand on the rugby pitch but it's a different story when it comes to super fast sailing as an Aussie crew bent on redemption are showing

Team Australia racing on the opening day of the SailGP regatta. Picture: Phil Walter/Getty Images

It’s been a while since Australia has dominated New Zealand on the rugby pitch but it's a different story when it comes to super fast sailing with the Flying Roo crew stealing the limelight from the Black Foils on home waters on the opening day of the SailGP Auckland regatta in a major surprise.

Beaten for the main prize last season, Tom Slingsby and his Australian crew have come out fighting in the first event of 2025 - and second of the fifth season — to take a big lead in the two-day regatta after the opening four races.

But Slingsby is cognisant of the fact anything could happen in the big breeze forecast for Sunday’s racing and is on high alert.

“We aren’t counting out chickens early. We started well in Dubai (round one) and missed the final,’’ Slingsby said.

“We know mathematically we can still easily miss out on the final.

“The wind is very hyper tomorrow so we have to see what happens. It’s going to be right on the top end of the conditions,

“Tight race track, collisions, capsizes, everything could happen.’’

The fleet racing in Auckland on Saturday.

While the biggest cheers from the grand stand were reserved for Peter Burling and his Kiwi team after their win in the final race of the day, it is the Australian team taking a big lead into the second and final day of racing

Slingsby and his crew, who have dominated every season of SailGP raced bar the last one, are determined to return to the top of the heap this season and went into the second leg of the series in fifth place after New Zealand won the opening leg.

Their form on Saturday showed the rejigged line-up – where UK sailor Chris Draper has replaced Australian star Kyle Langford on the boat – have the potential to do it with the crew leaving the water with an impressive 5-1-1-2 scorecard.

Team GBR rounding a mark close to shore. Picture Phil Walter/Getty Images

This puts them ahead of Great Britain, Spain and New Zealand heading into the second day.

The fleet’s only female skipper, Brazilian Martina Grael clocked the fastest speed of the day of 87.69km/h as the fleet previewed the new T-foils which are expected to see 100km/h broken this season in windier venues.

In a major blow for France an issue with their titanium wingsail connectors could not be fixed in time for them to race.

“It was a tough day out there,’’ Slingsby said.

“It wasn’t super windy, not one thing, but you felt like your were constantly on edge the whole time.

“It’s a tight racetrack, 11 boats, it was really tough sailing.

“We are really happy with today. It was one of those days where things could have snowballed.

“In that first race we were back in ninth or 10th and pulled back and had a fifth so happy with that.’’

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