SailGP Singapore 2023: Championship leaders Australia lead

The inaugural Singapore Sail Grand Prix (Sail GP) kicked off this weekend, 14 & 15 January 2023, against the island city’s spectacular skyline, with the Season 3 championship leaders, Australia, ending the first day of action in the lead, having clinched second spot in both of the races.

Credit: SailGP

A sell-out race

The event was a sell-out race, attracting sailing fans from all walks of life thronging the beach and the surrounding precinct. There ranged from friends, families and young couples to older groups, all enjoying the food and the beer.

New Zealand and United States win the two individual races

The first race was won by New Zealand while the United States won the second race.

The first day of racing action had seen light wind conditions and the nine F50s raced with the 29-meter wing and four athletes instead of the usual six onboard.

Two races had been held instead of the scheduled three because of the wind conditions, or lack thereof.

A good day for Australia, Canada and Great Britain

Said Australian driver Tom Slingsby, “I definitely don’t think I’m a light wind specialist, but we did do really well today, we had two good starts. There’s room to improve tomorrow – we still made plenty of mistakes out there and coughed up a couple of positions – at times but we’re really happy that the day was a good one.”

Finishing in joint second spot in the day’s standings were Team Canada and Team Great Britain.

Canada were pleased with today’s result and driver Phil Robertson was visibly happy at how the day had panned out after seeing indifferent results in recent races.

He said, “Everyone is sailing in the same conditions so you’ve just got to beat them in what you get. The sailors we’ve got are quite adaptable and you’ve got to learn how to adapt, so it was a good day for us.”

Credit: SailGP

Likewise for Team Great Britain, who are happy about their Day One performance and being four points behind leaders Australia.

Said Sir Ben Ainslie of Great Britain, “It was a really tough day, hot and not much wind but it is just as challenging as when we go fast if not more challenging. It’s just as intense in many ways but the team did a good job.”

Outside the top three, Denmark are in fourth and Switzerland and Spain are out of the running, having not managed anything better than a sixth placed finish in each of the two races. France, who find themselves propping up the leaderboard, looked a far cry from their recent good form of late.