New Zealand surges to top spot, U.S. in seventh after first day at Rolex Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix
LOS ANGELES — Saturday proved to be a critical moment for the United States SailGP Team to show its doubters wrong.
Competing in front of a home crowd on the opening day of racing at the Rolex Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix, Taylor Canfield and his all-American crew needed to banish the ghost of Sydney Harbour last month. A capsize on practice race day in Sydney put the Americans out of the competition even before it began, so Saturday marked their shot at redemption and an opportunity to show they can mix it with the best in the world.
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SailGP saw 12 teams on one start line for the first time Saturday, and within the confines of the breakwater in the Port of Los Angeles, the racetrack would be congested, possibly the tightest yet seen.
After four frenetic two-lap races, the U.S. finished in seventh place. It's not stellar, but it's no disaster, either. The team sits only one point behind two of the most fancied teams: last season's outright champions from Spain and this season's current leader, Great Britain.
12 boats on the water at the #LosAngelesSGP 🤩 pic.twitter.com/EQdsIVgKxK
— SailGP (@SailGP) March 15, 2025
Asked to pinpoint what pleased him most about Saturday's performance, U.S. driver Canfield said: 'I can't remember which race it was, it might even have been our worst result of the day, but I think we passed, like, three boats on the final beat (the upwind leg of the course before the finish). So to be mixing it up and being able to pass boats on the track is what we're going for.'
Passing lanes are always in short supply on such a high-traffic race course, so Canfield was right to be focused on this part of the game.
Australia was the biggest climber of the day after an uncharacteristically poor start. Tom Slingsby blamed a shockingly bad start in Race 1 on catching kelp around the team's foils just before the gun fired, leaving the Australian F50 floundering and struggling to get moving while the rest of the fleet hydrofoiled its way toward Mark 1.
Subsequent starts weren't much of an improvement.
'That's on me,' Slingsby said. 'I just wasn't picking good positions, and we were getting boxed out when other people were taking the spot I was aiming for. We'd be saying, 'Let's pull the trigger here,' and then it would just take too long to get on the foils, for whatever reason.'
Even so, Australia somehow ended up in third place by the end of the session. If ever there's a measure of a great sailing team, it's the ability to weave a path through all the dirty air flowing off the back of the boats ahead and make consistent gains through the fleet. If Slingsby started poorly, he finished spectacularly, notably when a last-gasp overtake saw the Aussies steal the winner's gun from Mubadala Brazil.
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Brazil's Martine Grael, the first-ever female driver in SailGP, looked destined to take her first win until Slingsby spoiled her team's celebrations.
The impressively consistent Canada finished second, with New Zealand back to its best, ruling the race to Mark 1 and sitting atop the leaderboard.
For the brief period it raced, Rockwool Denmark notched the highest peak speed of 85.33 km/h, only to come crashing down when it collided with one of the turning marks at the bottom of the race course during Race 1. The Danes ground to a sudden and bone-crunching stop when their T-foil appeared to catch something under the water.
OUCH 😬
The moment @SailGPDEN hit a race mark, thankfully no injuries to report, but the team is ruled out of racing for day 1 of the #LosAngelesSGP pic.twitter.com/O4wSVXKc86
— SailGP (@SailGP) March 15, 2025
For their unforced error, the Danes were slapped with a painful 12-point penalty, although driver Nicolai Sehested was keen to investigate alternative causes.
'I want to make 100 percent sure what happened before we reach any conclusions. On the software, we're quite far away from the mark, so we're trying to figure out whether we hit the mark or if we hit something else in the water.'
Sehested said he's keeping his fingers crossed that the damage to the boat can be repaired overnight in time for Sunday's racing.
(Photo courtesy of Jason Ludlow for SailGP)
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