Aussies out for redemption as 100km/h barrier under threat in new SailGP era

Australia’s SailGP team is a mission this weekend in New Zealand as the sport introduces a radical change that is set to shake things up.

Australia’s SailGP team is out for redemption in this weekend’s SailGP event in Auckland, a year after an unfortunate crash that summed up their season.

The Aussies won the first three seasons of SailGP and finished second on the points table in season four despite being plagued by technical issues in the back off of the campaign.

Skipper Tom Slingsby was furious when his team was docked penalty points for crashing into a buoy marker on the course in Christchurch that he believed shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

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“Yeah, last year didn’t end the way that we wanted,” Slingsby told news.com.au ahead of SailGP New Zealand in Auckland Harbour.

“Frustrating way to end. We’ve done a lot of events since then. We’ve worked on a lot and hopefully fixed a few things that might prevent that sort of thing from happening again.

“The event has changed, they took some ownership from that and realised they need to keep those marks off the course, which they’ve done ever since then. The racing has been really nice since.”

Australia performed well on the first day of racing on Saturday, finishing on top of the leaderboard following four fleet races that produced a 5-1-2-2 racing record.

The Aussies closed the day with 34 points, six points ahead Emirates Great Britain.

The Flying Roo was in fine form on the first day of SailGP New Zealand in Auckland. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

The leaderboard after Day 1 in Auckland. Photo: SailGP.

Slingsby described the conditions as “an unbelievably tight and tricky race track where you were constantly on edge”.

He said: “We’re really happy with today. It was one of those days where things could have gone south after a tough first race, but we managed to reset and delivered three strong performances with solid starts.”

With a spot in the winner-takes-all final at stake, Slingsby’s crew remains laser-focused on maintaining their lead heading into the decisive day.

“We’re not counting our chickens yet,” he said.

“We know how quickly things can change, as we saw in Dubai when we missed the final by just one point.”

Australia’s SailGP team had a near miss in practice. Photo: Bob Martin for SailGP.

As always, Slingsby and the Aussies are out to win.

“We felt we were one of the strongest teams in (the season opener in) Dubai,” Slingsby said.

“We led for most of the event but unfortunately just missed out on the final, so that was a bit of a frustrating end to Dubai. We’re hoping to at least podium.

“We want to win every event. We’d be lying if we said we didn’t want to win.”

SailGP is entering a new era in season five, with the introduction of Brazil and Italy bringing the fleet to a total of 12 teams.

There are 14 events across the globe, with the grand final to be held in Abu Dhabi in late November, while Geneva, Sassnitz, Rio de Janeiro and the Middle East will host events for the first time.

Australia dominated practice in Auckland winning six races as SailGP experimented with a new format that divides the fleet in preliminary rounds. The new format won’t be implemented this weekend.

“We split the groups into two, and then the top two from each group into a final,” Slingsby explained.

“So six vs six in the races, you do two races in your group and then top two from each go into a final of four. Just testing out a new format that they may use in the future.”

“Testing these new race formats, I think it’s a good thing. Whether they do want to split the fleet or keep it close and keep everyone together.

“I think it allows us to sail in different venues. In tighter venues, you might want to split the fleets and then more open racetracks you might want to put everyone together. I think it’s a good thing.”

Australia performed well in the practice races in New Zealand. Photo: Brett Phibbs for SailGP.

What are SailGP’s new T-foils?

Auckland will be the first venue to see the F-50 boats use the new T-foils in racing, which have been the talk of SailGP over the off-season.

The new foils are designed to make the F-50s easier to sail and allow for higher speeds on the water.

Depending on the conditions, SailGP’s speed record of 101.98km/h set by Canada testing the T-foils could well be broken this year. The race speed record is held by France at 99.94km/h.

Here’s what you need to know about the T-Foils:

- The F50 is fitted with two foils; one descending from each hull; both the L-Foils and T-Foils descend in a vertical shaft.

- L-Foils – which have been in use since SailGP’s inception in 2019 – have a horizontal section at the bottom of this shaft which curves inwards towards the opposite hull.

- The T-Foils meanwhile have two horizontal sections at the bottom of the shaft, one curves inwards but the other curves outwards, away from the F50.

- Constructed from machined titanium and carbon, the high-speed T-Foils also have thinner sections than the L-Foils, reducing drag at high speed.

SailGP boss Russell Coutts said: “These T-Foils are really changing the game - they require a completely different playbook.

“These T-Foils have the potential to mix things up quite a bit because the teams are effectively starting from square one again.”

“They’re really nice,” Slingsby said of the T-foils.

Australia SailGP Team in action in Auckland. Photo: Felix Diemer for SailGP.

“They seem to be a little bit more versatile than the old foils. Very fast. They seem a bit quicker around the racetrack than the old foils. It’s been going really well. I don’t see it affecting racing too much. All the teams have had to figure out how to sail the boat well.

“We’ve had a couple of days practice and all teams went off in different directions with how to set up these new foils. We all seem to be converging on a very similar way in the end, so by race time I think it’ll be a pretty similar form guide in general to what’s been happening. I don’t think foils will make a difference.

The new T-foils are set to shake up SailGP. Photo: Supplied.

“We haven’t had a lot of wind yet. The other day when the Kiwis were training they did 97.5km/h or something, we weren’t out that day. I think we did around 90km/h but in a lot less wind.”

Slingsby added: “Each year SailGP has evolved … whether the technology on the boats is changing, improving, whether it’s the race formats, the amount of teams and venues – every year it’s different to how it was. I think we’ve got to keep that mentality and keep evolving.”

Spain upset New Zealand and Australia in last year’s grand final to win the season four championship, but the Kiwis look like the team to beat after winning the season opening event in Dubai.

Racing at SailGP New Zealand gets underway on Saturday and Sunday at 2pm AEDT.