It was not to be for Dylan Fletcher’s Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team as Peter Burling’s Black Foils clinched victory in Portsmouth, bumping New Zealand to the top of the 2025 Season leaderboard. Fletcher came away with a respectable second-place, while Sebastian Schneiter’s Swiss SailGP Team finished third in the team’s first-ever event final.
Taking to the winners’ podium, Burling commended his team’s performance: “It was nice racing out there. We were riding some pretty challenging conditions, and to pull off today, as a group, we're super pleased. Going into the European series as the winners is something we're really proud of, and we’re looking forward to continuing to build on that. I’m really pleased with the way we fought today.”
In a showdown on the Solent, Burling’s team showed the fleet just who’s back in charge, after the nail-biting three-boat final had Switzerland, Emirates GBR and New Zealand all jostling for the top spot throughout the duration of the shortened-course sprint final. It marks the second time New Zealand has stolen the Brits’ home victory – Burling beat Sir Ben Ainslie in Plymouth in Season 3.
Emirates GBR Hannah Mills reflected: “Obviously, we're pretty gutted not to win. We felt like this weekend, everyone was sailing so well, so to not quite manage to do it in the final is obviously super disappointing. But I think as a team, we're just so proud of how we bounced back after a couple of rough events. And just to do it here, we're so very proud – we heard how loud it was, it was amazing.”
Despite finishing last in the final – stopped in the final moments of the race due to technical issues on board – Seb Schneiter’s Switzerland still had plenty to celebrate. Throughout the day, the team held their own against Tom Slingsby’s BONDS Flying Roos, hunting down the Swiss in a tight battle for third.
Schneiter said, “I’m super proud and happy to make our first final - I think we deserve it. We worked really hard as a team, and we sailed well all weekend. It's a shame to end up having to stop that final with some technical issues, but we had an awesome start - we showed up, we were there, and now I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.”
Perhaps the most impressive comeback story of the weekend was the France SailGP Team’s return to the startline after a major wing incident ruled them out of Saturday’s racing. An overnight repair job from the SailGP Tech Team put France back on the startline just 24 hours later, and straight onto the racecourse - the team picked up 19 points for the weekend and two podium finishes – a first and second in fleet races 6 and 7, respectively.
Driver Quentin Delapierre’s France said, “Happy to get out racing but super strange to get directly onto the racetrack after docking out at 50 knots… pretty scary! If we weren’t in racing mode, we’d be thinking too much about the wing failure and what can happen, so it was cool to get those three races, but unfortunately, a really bad result for us. It is what it is and the season isn’t over.”
All 12 national teams battled choppy waters, racecourse obstacles and a number of technical issues forcing speedy, pit-lane repairs. Australia missed out on their second-consecutive event final – a result driver Tom Slingsby said he was “not happy” about – while usual heavyweights Spain also finished sixth on the weekend leaderboard. With the results tallied, New Zealand moves into the top spot on the overall championship standings, bumping Australia to second and Spain to third. Emirates GBR remains in fourth, but has closed the gap – now just one point away from the podium group.
Record crowds turned out to watch the action on the Solent, with 20,000 ticketed fans attending the two-day event, plus thousands more watching from the water and from natural surrounding vantages. After racing ended, the Southsea Race Stadium transformed once again into an epic shoreline party, with international DJ superstar, Pete Tong, taking to the mainstage for SailGP’s Après-Sail celebrations.
The most exciting racing on water heads to its next European destination for the first-ever Germany event in the global championship’s history – taking place in Sassnitz on August 16-17, 2025.
