departing for Australia that evening.
“I think he’s heartbroken,” Gibbs jokes. “This one meant a lot to him.”
Agnese is only 25 and still acclimating to life as a pro sailor on
the big stage.
“Life is good right now,” he says. “The boats are really fun to sail
and we all get along pretty well. The banter is always good, that’s
for sure.”
Agnese is from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and earned his stripes on
the World Match Race Tour and the Extreme Sailing Series—so he,
too, has experience with sailing circuits such as SailGP.
“As you can see, we have a massive operation here,” he says. “The
shore team comes a few days earlier to set up the containers and
tents and stu, and then we show up a few days later and chip
in where we can. They had us painting the inside of the container
with hand-brushes the other day. You can see the parts that Riley
painted because of the streak marks.”
Gibbs lobs a wad of tape toward Agnese, who ducks as it
sails past.
“In all honesty, though, when it’s go-time, we all do a good job of
switching on,” Agnese adds. “Especially on the water, we’re pretty
good about being ecient with our time.”BACK
on the water, the team’s radio signal is now live
and the breeze reaches a mellow 18 knots. With
the heavy-air jib up and the boat finally underway, Gibbs forces
camber into the wing sail, and in an instant, they’re foiling across
San Francisco Bay at full noise. Watching the F50 bear away down-
wind and outrun the dual 300 horsepower engines on our RIB is like
waving goodbye to a friend on a train that has long left the sta-
tion. On a boat that is expected to exceed 50 knots, skimming atop
the waves on a foil that can withstand more than 2 tons of down-
force, the skill and intelligence required to operate these machines
eclipses anything they’ve experienced. Grinder heart rates rarely
drop below 180 beats per minute during a typical outing, and the
sailors themselves burn more than 4,500 calories during a practice
session—even more on a race day.
“This is the highest level of technology in the sport, hands
down,” says grinder Dan Morris, a product of other professional sail-
ing leagues. As the eldest member of the U.S. SailGP team at 31,
he’s put in his time with the World Match Race Tour, the Extreme
Sailing Series and the Superfoiler Grand Prix in Australia. He’s alsomoonlighting with the America’s Cup challenger, American Magic.
Morris is a portrait of the American blue-collar sailor. Hailing from
the Midwest, he climbed the professional sailing ranks one owner-
driver gig at a time. His teammates call him the “silverback” because
of his pued-up pectorals and massive biceps. He looks as though
he could rip someone’s arms clean o, yet his degree in naval archi-
tecture and marine engineering from the University of Michigan also
makes him one of the most important members of the team when
it comes to interpreting the flood of data that comes o the boat
every time the team goes for a sail.
“One of the coolest aspects for me is analyzing all the numbers
coming in,” he says, “which is unlike anything else I’ve done.”
SailGP teams openly share information. Unlike the America’s
Cup, where secrecy and deception are staples of the game, there’s
nothing to hide on the SailGP circuit.
“Everyone can see what you’re doing in real time,” Morris says.
“Unlike some of the other boats we sail, where we depend on eye-
balling things and trusting gut-feelings to figure out what’s fast,
with these boats, everything is supported by hard data, right down
to the very moment a button is pushed.”
There’s a steep learning curve for all teams involved, which will