Tom Slingsby beats great mate Nathan Outteridge to win SailGP on Sydney Harbour
Tom Slingsby has defeated an old teammate to steal the thunder on home soil, skippering the Australian team to victory in the opening leg of the new global SailGP series.
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Tom Slingsby has foiled the attempt of an old teammate to steal his thunder on home waters.
Slingsby skippered the Australian team to victory in the opening leg of the new global SailGP series on Sydney Harbour Saturday, holding off a fierce challenge from the Nathan Outteridge skippered Japanese team.
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While they had the teams and the machines, the fleet did not have the winds required for the hi-tech and head-turning F50 foilers to crack the goal of 50 knots.
But the six skippers in the global series gave it a good shake as the pair of Australian Olympic gold medallists duelled for the honour of being the first victors in the new event.
In the end it was the Australian team of Slingsby, Kyle Langford, Jason Waterhouse, Sam Newton and Ky Hurst who prevailed in the match-racing finale with thousands of spectators watching the one-design F50s slice their way up and down their stunning racecourse.
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Powered by a huge wingsail and flying at high speed above the water on hydrofoils, the cats repeatedly hit speeds in excess of 35 knots - around three times the speed of the wind on the final day.
“We have sailed against each other in just about every boat we have sailed the last few years. It’s a good rivalry,” said Slingsby of his former London Olympic teammate Outteridge.
“We will be rivals to the day we retire. But if there was one event we wanted to win it was this one and we were fired up for it. We’re all pretty happy.”
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Slingsby and Outteridge have raced against each other in a multitude of boats, including foiling Moths and the 50-footers raced at the last America’s Cup where Slingsby competed for the US American team and Outteridge skippered the Swedish Artemis team.
“We don’t need more of a rivalry than we have,” Outteridge said. “They (Australia) were on fire all day. But I think we can only improve.”
Outteridge’s Japanese team boasts three Australians with the multiple world 49er skiff champion in charge of seeing Japan comply with the 100 per cent nationality rule by 2022 by developing an elite foiling program.
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Australia, with an abundance of sailing and foiling talent, already honours the nationality rule.
The Sydney opener was hailed a success with organisers now packing the six boats and support structures for transport to the next location.
The inaugural series will visit San Francisco in May, New York in June, the UK in August and France in September where the series will be decided in a two-boat winner take all final.
Officials have yet to determine if the series will return to Australia in its second year but organiser and America’s Cup legend Russell Coutts has indicated the Harbour City is an attractive proposition.
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