Canada wins Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix as favored rivals falter
LOS ANGELES — 'Yes we CAN!' And yes they did. The Canadians' victory at the Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix was good news not only for Giles Scott's quietly efficient team, but for all the underdogs in the 12-boat fleet.
Heading into the three-boat final, a winner-takes-all race lasting barely eight minutes, most experts would have picked New Zealand or Australia to take the title in L.A.
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And yet that would be unfair to Canada, which nearly won on Australia's Sydney Harbour a few weeks earlier. On that occasion, Scott's team gave away the lead through a slight tactical misjudgment, opening the door for Great Britain to seize the moment and grab the win.
This time the Canadians left it to their more experienced rivals to make uncharacteristic errors. Australia's Tom Slingsby — the most experienced F50 driver on the tour — has been nailing his starts, hitting the line at pace and scoring top of the stats at the previous two events in Auckland and Sydney.
But on Sunday, the Aussies' starting prowess evaporated in the L.A. sunshine, particularly in the final, when the 'Flying Roos' fell off the hydrofoils and massively mistimed their run into the start line. New Zealand narrowly led Canada out of the start, both F50s foiling at speed towards Mark One. Australia was left far behind, dead in the water, struggling to summon the pace to hop onto the hydrofoils.
While Saturday's four fleet races had been a full-on, high-speed blast around the racetrack, Sunday's much softer breeze made it extremely challenging for the F50s to get up on to the hydrofoils. And even when they did manage to get foiling, every maneuver was fraught with risk, far too easy to fall off the foils as your rivals flew by.
Winners are grinners 😊#LosAngelesSGP #SailGP pic.twitter.com/K92k6FS27B
— SailGP (@SailGP) March 17, 2025
With the wind in such short supply, the race committee ordered all teams to leave two of their crew on the dock. Reducing personnel from six to four takes weight out of the boat and increases the likelihood of getting the F50 foiling in marginal conditions.
However, reducing the crews also forced the four remaining team members to take on a much greater workload. While there is usually a dedicated flight controller managing the smooth passage above the water's surface, on Sunday the driver had to manage the flying as well as the driving. Small wonder it's so hard to keep these delicate craft in the air on a fickle day of soft wind.
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New Zealand held a lead over Canada on the first downwind leg, until it rode up a little too high and its foil lost grip with the water, allowing Canada to rally. Finishing second to the Canadians after some costly errors, Peter Burling said: 'We had one big vent [ventilation and loss of control on the hydrofoil] which cost us about 100 meters on the upwind leg, which is a real shame. If I could do it all again, there's a few things I'd do slightly differently, but really happy nonetheless.'
While Australia, winner of the first three seasons of SailGP, made a big mistake on the start line, and New Zealand, the dominant performer across Season 4, made mistakes on the race course, Canada kept its errors to a minimum. The Canadians not only achieved the highest speed of the day at 51.07 kmph, but also the best flight time in the final, successfully keeping above the water for 99 percent of the eight-minute race.
Flying high on Super Sunday 🤩
Your @emirates fly-time for day two of the #LosAngelesSGP went the way of @sailgpcan 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/NDlEHPydeu
— SailGP (@SailGP) March 17, 2025
Scott should feel proud of the flight time statistic. A double Olympic gold medalist in the slow singlehanded dinghy called the Finn, the British driver of the Canadian team knows he's still playing catchup on rival drivers like Slingsby and Burling, who have clocked up more 'air miles' on these flying F50s than anyone.
'Having to run the flight control on a day like today, it's something that I'm still getting my head around,' said Scott. 'It's no surprise that the drivers who have been in the league the longest are the most comfortable flying the boat on a marginal foiling day. The biggest priority on a day like today is staying fast and staying on the foil.'
SailGP CEO Russell Coutts has said it is important for the underdogs to show they can compete, and he emphasized that on Sunday.
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'The Canadians have been improving all season,' he said. 'They came close in Australia and they finally got the victory here. Fantastic result, thoroughly deserved it, beating two high-quality teams in Australia and New Zealand. So well done, Canada.'
Despite Sunday's result, Britain still tops the overall championship standings after four of 13 events in Season 5. The Brits' lead, however, is down to just two points ahead of second-place Australia, with New Zealand rising to third in the rankings.
Canada improved to fifth overall, just a point behind the Season 4 champions from Spain, who had a lackluster weekend. Scott sounds quietly confident that the best is yet to come from Canada. 'We're on a trajectory, we're learning, we're getting better every day.'
(Photo courtesy of Jed Jacobsohn for SailGP.
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