The BONDS Flying Roos top the event leaderboard with 25 points after the opening day of SailGP in Geneva. All 12 international teams battled shifty, light conditions, with those able to stay up on the foils and nail the manoeuvres finding themselves still in the hunt heading into day two.
The first three fleet races of the weekend saw three different winners – New Zealand, Australia and France. Emirates GBR are in second with 23 points, while the Switzerland SailGP Team find themselves in third with 18 points – a result driver Sébastien Schneiter called, “one of our best days so far this season” on “a typical Swiss lake day.”
Fleet race one went the way of the Black Foils, with driver Peter Burling holding his lead against ROCKWOOL Denmark and Emirates GBR, who finished second and third, respectively. The rest of the day wasn’t as successful for the season leaders; however, they went on to finish fifth in race three and 11th in race four.
Reflecting on a mixed day for the Kiwi crew, Burling said, “A little bit frustrating to finish the day off in that kind of manner, with a lot of little mistakes and a few technical issues just creeping into that last race. We were 90% of the way there today, but that last 10% really let us down. A combination of little mistakes that did a lot of damage.”
The U.S. SailGP Team were disqualified in race one, handed down a black flag penalty for barging on the start line, while Australia – also penalised in the start for on-course side (early start) – picked their way back from last to finish fourth overall.
In fleet race two, Australia led the fleet to victory, followed by Switzerland in second and Emirates GBR in third. Consistency was the name of the game for the team, who picked up fourth, first and third-place finishes across the day.
Driver Tom Slingsby said, “It was just snakes and ladders out there and it was never over. We had huge overtaking lanes and it worked for us a couple of times. We got a bit lucky a few times, so I’m thankful for that.”
Looking ahead to Sunday, Slingsby continued, “There’s a lot to learn, obviously. We made a lot of mistakes today and had some bad starts. It’d be nice if we pull it off again this time. We want to race tomorrow, we want to have a good day, and we want to get some points back on our rival teams.”
France celebrated a spectacular performance in the third and final fleet race of the day, flying across the start line to pick up speed, eventually finishing a full minute ahead of the rest of the fleet. It was a welcome victory for Driver Quentin Delapierre, bouncing back from a disappointing sixth-place finish last weekend at home.
Using the new light-air rudders and T-Foils package in racing for the very first time, teams were also forced to adapt to having just three crew members on board, as opposed to six. The configuration change – made to reduce weight in light, southwesterly breeze – meant half the sailors were doing all the same jobs (driving and flying the boat, plus trimming the wing,) adding an additional nuance on a high-pressure opening day.
With a changing forecast and chance of thunderstorms, tomorrow’s racing has been brought forward to begin at 2:00 p.m. CEST. Two fleet races will be followed by the winner-takes-all three-boat Final. And for Schneiter, it’s another chance to make his mark at home – and hopefully earn a spot in his first event final.
Geneva SailGP leaderboard
“It was amazing to see so many people on the water and on shore,” Schneiter said "It was totally unexpected, and the passion from the Swiss people is something we’re not used to seeing. We cannot wait for tomorrow to live that again – it’s going to go by so quickly, but we will really enjoy it.”
