Great Britain dominate SailGP leaderboard after day one of Portsmouth event

New York Times

19-07-2025

It was a nervous performance by the British team in front of a home crowd on day one of the Great Britain Sail Grand Prix in Portsmouth. But if nerves are what's required to turn in such a barnstorming, leaderboard-topping performance, Dylan Fletcher will happily embrace the butterflies churning in his stomach.
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The British crew were the only team to get all their scores in the top three of each of today's four short races. For the 10,000 fans in the 16-metre high temporary stadium on Southsea Beach, this was exactly the performance they had paid their tickets for.
Fletcher acknowledged the presence of the crowd certainly made its psychological impact on him, strategist Hannah Mills and the rest of the British crew. 'Hannah and I were just discussing on the way in after racing, just how nervous we felt, probably the most we've felt for quite a long time,' Fletcher told The Athletic. 'I was actually really buzzing to feel the nerves, I think maybe they helped. So it's something we need to bring more of to the other events.'
The 12 teams had to contend with a very tight race course strewn with a lot of permanent furniture at the busy entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, not least the cylindrical Spitbank Fort, built in 1859 to defend against a perceived naval threat from France. Today, however, there was no threat from the French as Quentin Delapierre's team suffered catastrophic damage to their wing sail. This put them out of action even before racing began.
Instead, the closest threat to Britain's dominant day one performance going into Sunday will be Switzerland who sailed out of their skin to hold second overall. Perhaps the lift in the Swiss team was partly down to a recent pep talk that skipper Sebastian Schneiter enjoyed with Roger Federer, when the tennis legend shared his wisdom on embracing pressure on the big stage.
Holding third after winning the last race of the afternoon are Tom Slingsby's Australians. The teams from the American continent seem out of sorts in this first of five events in Europe, with the United States, Canada and Brazil all languishing on an equal 10 points at the wrong end of the scoreboard.
Stronger winds are forecast for Sunday afternoon, which will make Portsmouth's unfeasibly tight race course even more challenging. Dylan Fletcher should have no problem summoning the nerves that worked so well for him today.
(Main image: Felix Diemer for SailGP)