Tom Slingsby’s Bonds Flying Roos claimed their fifth SailGP event victory of the 2026 season in Sassnitz on Sunday (August 23), beating NorthStar Canada and Spain’s Los Gallos in a light-air final on the Baltic.
The victory stretched Australia’s lead in the Rolex SailGP Championship to 14 points with four events remaining, after a weekend that also produced a new SailGP speed record and two race victories for the German home team.
Nearly 15,000 spectators attended across the two-day ROCKWOOL Germany Sail Grand Prix, the ninth event of the 2026 season.
Australia Makes Final Count
Slingsby’s crew reached the four-boat final alongside Giles Scott’s NorthStar Canada, Diego Botín’s Los Gallos and Peter Burling’s Black Foils.
With the breeze fading and conditions deteriorating, Australia made the strongest start, rounding the first mark ahead of NorthStar and New Zealand.
Baltic Battle – Australia’s Bonds Flying Roos race alongside Sweden’s Artemis Racing, Emirates GBR and NorthStar Canada during a tightly fought second day of the Germany Sail Grand Prix in Sassnitz. Photo: Ricardo Pinto
Spain recovered from fourth to challenge, passing the Black Foils at gate four, but Australia had established enough of a lead to remain clear and record its fifth event victory of the season.
“We definitely had to work for it, but that Final just came out firing,” Slingsby said. “There was massive déjà vu heading into it when the wind started shutting down. In race one we went from first to last, and then in the Final the wind started shutting down again.
“But we learned a lot of lessons in that first race about how to get the boat boiling and find the breeze quickly, and we managed to stay boiling all the way around the track.”
Behind Australia, the closing metres developed into a low-speed contest as NorthStar, Los Gallos and the Black Foils all came off their foils.
New Zealand received a penalty for failing to keep clear of Spain, allowing NorthStar to take second and Los Gallos third. The Black Foils finished fourth.
Germany Wins Again for Home Crowd
Sunday’s racing bore little resemblance to Saturday’s record-breaking conditions, when France reached 107.63 km/h, setting a new SailGP outright speed record. Heavy rain and a patchy, gusting breeze dominated the second day instead.
Germany, driven by Erik Kosegarten-Heil, made the best of the conditions in one of the qualifying races, keeping the F50 foiling while rivals stalled and finishing around 600 metres ahead of NorthStar.
Home Charge – Erik Kosegarten-Heil’s Germany SailGP Team leads the fleet on the Baltic during Sunday’s racing in Sassnitz, where the home crew scored a second successive race victory. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand
“It was great,” Kosegarten-Heil said. “We saw the breeze coming, and we were lucky that everyone on the other side was completely falling off the foils. “So we had a kind of easy race, just staying on the foils, which was a nice moment for the home crowd and for us.”
It gave Germany back-to-back race victories during its home SailGP weekend.
The Black Foils also took a qualifying race win to secure their first final appearance of the 2026 season. Burling said the fourth-place finish was nevertheless difficult to accept.
“When your worst race of the event is the last one, it definitely hurts,” he said. “I think the team took another step up this weekend. We performed really well in the qualifying series and got ourselves into the Final.”
Flying Roos Build 14-Point Cushion
Nathan Outteridge’s Artemis Racing missed the event final, but a strong weekend moved the Swedish team into the championship top three.
Reigning champions Emirates GBR endured a more difficult regatta, finishing ninth in Sassnitz. Dylan Fletcher’s British team are now level on championship points with the US SailGP Team and sit 30 points behind Australia.
Victory Salute – Tom Slingsby’s Bonds Flying Roos celebrate their fifth SailGP event win of the 2026 season after crossing the finish at Sassnitz, a victory that extended Australia’s championship lead to 14 points. Photo: Felix Diemer
For Slingsby, the fifth victory of 2026 leaves the Flying Roos in control of the championship with four events remaining.
“Momentum’s a hell of a thing,” Slingsby said. “We’re stoked to be going into three events back to back to back with a lot of momentum.”
The 2026 SailGP season continues with the Spain SailGP in Valencia on September 5-6, followed by Geneva on September 19-20 and the final two events in the UAE in November.
