Spain leads New Zealand at New York Sail Grand Prix after sparing winds, rainy first day
NEW YORK — Spain leads at the halfway stage of the New York Sail Grand Prix after three wacky races in rain, strong currents and fickle light winds.
While New Zealand scored the biggest bragging points of the day by lapping the fleet in the last race, Pete Burling's team would happily have traded that outrageous moment of Kiwi glory for the more consistent performance displayed by Diego Botín and the Spaniards.
Your @emirates Frequent Flier on Day 1 of the #NewYorkSGP was @sailgpnzl 🇳🇿#SailGP pic.twitter.com/GGRuWeo0gr
— SailGP (@SailGP) June 7, 2025
The wind was in short supply on the Hudson River, so the race committee instructed each of the 12 teams to slash the standard crew of six to three for race one, although this would later be increased to four crew for races two and three.
Fewer crew on board meant a lighter all-up weight and a better prospect of hydrofoiling for the fleet of identical F50s, but also required much higher levels of multitasking for those left manning the ship.
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Nailing a fast launch out of the start was more critical than ever in the marginal foiling conditions. Botín's crew propelled the Spanish boat out of the start of the first race and into an early lead at mark one, which they would extend to the finish. Even more impressive was the Spanish team's ability to weave a path through the traffic after some lackluster starts to races two and three.
Saturday scores of 1,4,3 give the Spanish a healthy five-point buffer over the best of the rest, who are more closely bunched.
'I don't know what we did so well today, to be honest,' said Botín. 'It was so hectic out there. These boats are so complicated to sail, and if you add the conditions we had today with puffiness and the waves from the strong current, it was all super tricky.'
In second place are the Danish, with the French on equal points in third, a point ahead of fourth-placed New Zealand, who somehow emerged mostly unscathed from a highly inconsistent day. The Kiwis finished second from last in the middle race, only to rebound with a resounding victory in the third race of the afternoon.
Burling's crew burst into an early lead and managed to keep their F50 on the foils while a good chunk of the fleet was virtually becalmed in their wake.
Most of the fleet were still drifting toward the bottom of the course, unable to get flying, while Burling managed to maintain his delicate momentum on the foils to come fizzing past his hapless rivals and fully lap the whole fleet.
This is the first time anyone has achieved this feat in five seasons of SailGP.
After today's drizzly drift-off, all 12 teams hope that a better forecast of brighter skies and stronger breeze for Sunday will provide a faster and more predictable race track for the conclusion of competition in New York.
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