Tom Slingsby’s Australian crew beaten for SailGP Sydney crown after drama-packed, high-speed regatta

A pair of Australians were part of a major sting in the SailGP Sydney event – they just weren’t racing on the Aussie boat on a very expensive day of controversy and drama on Sydney Harbour

It was a rare but mighty costly mistake that deprived the Australian SailGP team of a $638,000 payday and left the crew shattered at not being able to defend their regatta title on home waters.

The late notice of the starting penalty by race officials in the finale of the two-day world sailing event has caused considerable consternation in sailing circle but skipper Tom Slingsby has taken responsibility for the error and the aftermath on the chin.

“It was a brutal way to finish such a good weekend for us,’’ said Slingsby, who grew up racing on Sydney Harbour and was inspired to become an Olympian watching the worlds best race at the Sydney Olympics back in 2000 from a vantage pont on Bradleys Head.

“I think the penalty was really late. Usually they tell you if you have a penalty straight away and they told us halfway, three quarters of the way along the reach which definitely affects the way you position yourself but that’s not the reason we lost.

“Could the final have gone differently, maybe, but I’m not going to blame the umpires. We didn’t sail well enough in the final race and that’s why we lost.’’

Spectators on Shark Island backing g the Aussies.

Despite the Australians finishing top three in every one of the eight races sailed, Dylan Fletcher’s Great Britain crew – which includes Australians Iain Jensen and Luke Parkinson – instead were declared overall winners of the SailGP Sydney event on Sunday afternoon with their victory in the winner-take-all final..

Jensen and Slingsby, who both grew up on the NSW Central Coats, also won gold medals at the same 2012 London Olympics in the Laser and 49er skiff classes respectively with Parkinson also a renown ocean racer.

The racing was run over two days on Sydney Harbour.

In the Sydney event Canada finished second and Slingsby and his Flying Roos team third after their untimely penalty for being too close to their Canadian rivals in the wind-up to the start in tricky conditions on the harbour.

The Australians, who barely put a foot wrong all weekend until the finale, gave it their all but were unable to make up time lost in the shortcourse final and were forced to settle for third place in the event.

But their consistency across the weekend has seen them lifted into second place overall in the 14-event series which boasts almost $20m in prizemoney and a grand final later this year worth around $3.18m.

“We are sailing so well, top three in eight races but a third in the last one hurts,’’ Slingsby said.

“We didn’t sail well in that last race, that’s a lot on me. I shouldn't have got that penalty. I was just a second late turning up.’’

Overall Great Britain leads the SailGP season after three events and with nine still to sail, from Australia, Spain, New Zealand, Denmark and Canada.

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Originally published as Tom Slingsby’s Australian crew beaten for SailGP Sydney crown after drama-packed, high-speed regatta