Outteridge drew a penalty and was last to
start, but then sailed straight through the fleet
to lead at the very first windward mark. He
went on to win, and took Race Three as well,
with Australia second both times.
Despite the ultra-fluky and often
dangerous conditions, SailGP’s own people
commented that these two teams were “heads
and shoulders” above the rest of the fleet.
They had already dominated the generally
light airs Sydney and more mixed San
Francisco events, after which Yacht Style said
the series had become a virtual Aussie match
race. There are only two more venues this
summer, in Cowes and Marseilles, before the
winner claims a US$1 million purse, pocket-
money for the sailors’ golfing colleagues
playing in Connecticut nearby.
In New York the already short course was
shortened again for Day Two, but by this time
the wind had dropped, and there was much
frustration during drifting matches around marks.
Rome Kirby got up to win Race 5 in front
of his home crowd, but Australia (Japan) and
Australia (Australia) had easily done enough
to go into the final Race 6 AC-style match-up,
which they did in Sydney and San Francisco too.
Slingsby appeared to have a leeward
overlap on Outteridge at the start, but for some
reason the on-water judges penalised him,
allowing Outteridge to take a lead that he never
relinquished, aided and abetted by picking a
making tack in the still unsettled airs.
Going into Cowes 10-11 August and
finally Marseilles 20-22 September, the leader
board after New York is Japan 140 points,
Australia 139 points, and the rest are not
really in the hunt with Britain 106, America
105, and China and France on 93 points.
The SailGP series itself is the brainchild ofAmerican billionaire and Oracle IT founder Larry
Ellison and his much-aligned Kiwi yachting
sidekick Sir Russell Coutts, who has represented
New Zealand, Switzerland and America.
Together they won the America’s Cup
in Valencia, and remarkably defended it in
San Francisco, and in Bermuda in 2017, but
lost there 7-1 to a determined Emirates New
Zealand team.
Instead of challenging again, Ellison launched
his own perhaps competing SailGP series, using
largely the same F50s of the Bermuda AC. He is
meeting a lot of the circuit and team expenses,
and putting up the prize money.
Critics could argue that strictures thus
arising lead to the situation in New York,
where pre and post-race time was awfully
tight. In other circumstances, racing on Day
One may have been postponed, but New York
is New York.
The sheer welter of paid professional
sailors involved in these so-called national
challenge events may also bear closer
examination.
In the 34th America’s Cup in San Francisco
in 2013, for example, the ultimate match was
between America and New Zealand, but the
“Americans” were Aussie skipper Jimmy
Spithill, with an afterguard of Tom Slingsby,
Kyle Langford still with him in New York,
and Briton Sir Ben Ainslie. One of the only
Americans aboard was...Rome Kirby.
Spithill lived in Auckland, New Zealand,
in the very same street as New Zealand’s
skipper, Dean Barker, who helmed the 35th
America’s Cup entry for Japan, while Spithill
this time lost for America.
Fast forward, and the SailGP
commentators mention that Nathan Outteridge
was Tom Slingsby’s best man at his wedding.
C’est la vie?Japan’s Aussie afterguard and Australia’s entry were once more “head and shoulders” above the other F50sFrench F50 almost turns turtle. Said Slingsby: “I have never sailed in conditions like this”