SailGP season derailed by ‘devastating’ blow amid scrutiny on ‘pretty rough’ penalty

Racing in SailGP is getting more fierce with every event but one team’s season is in trouble after an unlucky crash derailed their season.

SailGP teams have been given a stark reminder of just how quickly their season can be derailed after an unlucky crash ruled Denmark out of the San Francisco Grand Prix.

In last weekend’s event in Los Angeles, the Danish team was forced to retire after their F50 collided with a race mark early in the opening race, causing damage to its foil and board casing, as well as structural damage.

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The consequent damage meant they were unable to compete for the rest of the event and it was deemed too extensive to repair in time for this weekend’s event in San Francisco.

As a result, the Danish team will sit out the San Francisco event and finish bottom of the leaderboard on points in a huge blow for an outfit that had looked seriously competitive in recent times.

“We simply can’t have the boat racing this weekend in San Francisco, it’s not going to be ready, and that’s obviously devastating news for us,” ROCKWOOL Denmark driver Nicolai Sehested said.

“It’s a challenging situation, but it’s not because people haven’t tried. SailGP’s Tech team and our Shore Team have been working super hard to make it happen under the timelines, but a lot of it comes down to a crucial part that’s not yet available on site — the board case.”

SailGP does not have spare board cases at the moment — there are currently two spares midway through production at SailGP Technologies in the UK.

Making matters worse, the umpires handed Denmark a an eight-point season penalty for the incident, putting them back down in ninth in the overall standings — making their hopes of finishing the season in the top three and qualifying for the end of season final extremely slim.

“To be honest, it feels like quite a harsh penalty to pay right now — missing two events, plus getting maximum damage points,” Sehested said.

“We understand the rules are the rules, but it does feel brutal, for missing the mark by 50mm.

“We made a silly mistake but not a dangerous mistake — the equivalent of hitting the wall in Formula 1. In that case, you would put on a new tyre and go racing again.

“Out season is massively at risk of being done before we’ve even gotten to the European leg, so it’s a tough one to swallow for the team.”

San Francisco has been a happy hunting ground for the Aussies in SailGP. Photo: Jason Ludlow for SailGP.

Australia’s driver Tom Slingsby knows all too well how painful and harsh the penalties can be for crashing into a mark, after the Aussies had a similar incident at the New Zealand event last season.

“Poor Denmark, apparently they misjudged that turn by about 50mm,” Slingsby told news.com.au.

“I feel really sorry for them actually. A little mistake like that and they’re really on the back foot this year. It’s going to be very tough for them to make that top three.

“The penalty points are pretty rough. That’s a debate for the future.”

With 12 teams in a fleet that is expected to grow over coming years, teams are trying to find the balance between not crashing into each other while pushing the boundaries in search of victory.

“You’ve got to push as hard as you can but you just can’t over that limit and crash or collision or damage or equipment,” Slingsby said.

“It takes a lot of bravery to race here.

“I’m doing everything I can not to hit the other boats but you do get put in situations where you need to keep the boats apart while still pushing hard to win.

“You need a lot of luck, experience and a wise head on your shoulders to say hey this isn’t the time to push it.”

Australia won the two practice races and look poised to press for a fifth event victory in San Francisco, where the windy course under the Golden Gate Bridge has proved a happy hunting ground.

“We couldn’t have done much better today,” said Slingsby.

“Conditions always change and it’s only practice racing, but it went as well as it could have.”

Australia SailGP Team helmed by Tom Slingsby during a practice session ahead of the Oracle San Francisco Sail Grand Prix. Photo: Jed Jacobsohn for SailGP.

The practice races were held in a split fleet but it will be business as usual for racing on Sunday and Monday (Australian time) with every boat jostling for position on the water.

“Starting is a dark art, it’s black magic,” Slingsby said.

“Sometimes you feel like you’ve just got it and you nail the starts and literally the next day you feel like you couldn’t start at all.”

Australia won the first three seasons of SailGP before being upset by Spain in last year’s grand final race.

New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain and Canada have won the first four events of SailGP season five.

The Aussies won the second event of the season in Auckland and after podium finishes in Sydney and Los Angeles, Slingsby is keen to add another SailGP steering wheel trophy to his collection.

“We’ve love a win,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of fond memories here. We sail well here, we love the conditions, we think we’ve got a good shot at winning this one.

“We’re sailing well, the boat is working well, we’ve just got to put it together on Saturday and Sunday.”

Watch SailGP San Francisco on Kayo Sports

Day 1 Racing: Sunday, 8.30am AEDT

Day 2 Racing: Monday, 8.30am AEDT

Originally published as SailGP season derailed by ‘devastating’ blow amid scrutiny on ‘pretty rough’ penalty