Latest news with #Sassnitz
Reuters
9 hours ago
- Sport
- Reuters
France edge rivals in thriller to win SailGP Germany
SASSNITZ, Germany, Aug 17 (Reuters) - France secured their first SailGP victory of the year as Quentin Delapierre's team won the Germany Sail Grand Prix on Sunday, edging a nail-biting three-boat duel on the calm waters of Sassnitz. In a gripping finale that came down to the final metres, France kept their composure to edge out Australia and Britain, who finished second and third respectively. The French combined bold tactics with precision, sustaining their foiling speed while their opponents struggled to keep pace in Sail GP's thrilling fifth season. "It's an amazing feeling," said Delapierre, who picked up his first event win since the third season. "It's been a while since we won a Grand Prix - it's a super nice feeling. It was super shifty out there but we just enjoyed it. "It was super good fun; a good game playing with the shifts and the pressure. It will be a good memory." Flawless execution proved decisive as the race boiled down to who could stay on the foils, with France crossing first to lift the SailGP Germany title. Dylan Fletcher's Britain crew were forced out of race four in Sassnitz on Saturday after a collision with the U.S. team but returned to the start line following overnight repairs. Brazil missed the race after Friday's collision with France , which sent Delapierre to hospital for checks and disrupted their preparations for the Grand Prix. Australia lead the overall championship table level on 61 points with New Zealand. Britain are third with 58 points. The next round is in Saint-Tropez from September 12-13.
New York Times
9 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
France wins Germany Sail Grand Pix just days after driver is released from hospital
From the hospital and a crash that threatened their participation to spraying champagne on the podium. Somehow, Quentin Delapierre steered the French team to the unlikeliest of victories at the Germany Sail Grand Prix in Sassnitz on Sunday. On Friday, during a wild and windy practice session, Delapierre suffered a face-plant into the cockpit of the French F50 catamaran after their carbon-fiber rudder exploded off the back of the boat and high into the air. After being released from hospital with a clean bill of health, Delapierre set sail on a tricky course that threw all kinds of curve balls at the fleet over the weekend. Advertisement Where Saturday had been a test of nerve in strong, gusty winds that saw the F50s break new records for high-speed sailing, Sunday was a much more subtle game in lighter, patchy breeze. Even on their largest 24m wingsails, the teams were struggling to thread their way around a treacherous race course that made it very difficult to achieve 100 percent flying time above the water. Like the French, the British could have been forgiven for suffering from some kind of trauma after the violent collision with the U.S. team which took them out of action on the final day of Saturday's session. The SailGP repair team pulled an all-nighter to get the British boat back into race-ready form. Feeling guilty for their error in causing the collision, Taylor Canfield's crew donated a chunk of the U.S. boat as a like-for-like replacement that could be grafted into the broken British boat, effectively enabling Dylan Fletcher and his crew to go racing on Sunday. Fletcher made the most of it and executed brilliantly throughout the day. The other teams will be looking back at the footage of Sunday's three fleet races and asking themselves why they didn't attempt the same simple approach to the all-vital start. Time and again the British were nearly always last into the start box, turning late into the bottom end of the starting error and making a late, but well-timed, charge towards the leeward end of the line. It didn't work perfectly every time but Fletcher's red boat was always fighting for the front places. In the opening race, the French seized the early lead but a misjudgement at the bottom of the course saw them fall off the foils while the British swept into the lead. In the next race, the Australians stole Britain's early lead halfway through but Fletcher's team executed a brilliant jibe around the inside of Tom Slingsby's team to regain the lead and hold off the Aussies by just three seconds at the finish. Advertisement In the final fleet race, Sebastien Schneiter, who got married just a weekend earlier, steered Switzerland to victory, although nowhere close to a place in the final. Behind the Swiss, the British secured their spot in the final with a second place, followed by the ever-consistent Australians in third, easily good enough to put Slingsby through to the final in pole position. Further back, the battle for the minor places would be critical to see who would grab that third spot in the final, and France's fourth place was sufficient to push Delapierre ahead of the Germans. Having led overnight, the usually consistent Kiwis just couldn't hit their stride — Pete Burling never managing to get the Black Foils out in the front row of the start. In the final, Britain yet again dominated the start, using their leeward-end approach to block out the Australians and outgun the French, who started at the top end of the line. The British led comfortably at the bottom gate and looked to have their rivals well under control, yet France found an extra waft of wind to ghost their way out from beneath the leaders and out into the front. The Australians also found their way around the British who, after such an imposing performance throughout the afternoon, were left with little to show for it. As the TV commentators observed, it had been a game of Snakes & Ladders all afternoon, and Fletcher probably had a right to feel hard done by for sliding down the leaderboard at just the wrong moment. 'Having dominated the day it just didn't go our way in that last race,' Fletcher, speaking live onboard, said soon after racing. 'It's pretty painful, I'm not going to lie.' The disconsolate British floated across the finish in third behind the Australians, with the jubilant French claiming their first event victory of the season. 'Playing with the [wind] shifts and the pressure, that was a good fun game and will be a good memory,' smiled the ever unflappable French driver Delapierre. Advertisement Sunday's result sees Australia reclaim top of the season leaderboard, albeit tied on 61 points with the New Zealanders who are relegated to second overall. Britain moves to third overall on 58 points, with Spain just two points further behind. The French looked good for an event win for much of the season and this mature performance in Germany sets Delapierre's crew up perfectly for a strong showing at the next event in front of their home crowd in St Tropez next month. Sunday's racing was thrilling for its unpredictability and the strong test of tactical nous and boat handling skill. But after Saturday's collision between the U.S and Britain, and Friday's catastrophic technical failures on the French and the Brazilian boats, there are some serious questions about technical reliability and human safety yet to be addressed. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
Reuters
11 hours ago
- Sport
- Reuters
France edge rivals to win SailGP Germany
SASSNITZ, Germany, Aug 17 (Reuters) - France secured their first SailGP victory of the year as Quentin Delapierre's team won the Germany Sail Grand Prix on Sunday, edging a nail-biting three-boat duel on the calm waters of Sassnitz. In a gripping finale that came down to the final metres, France kept their composure to edge out Australia and Britain, who finished second and third respectively. The French combined bold tactics with precision, sustaining their foiling speed while their opponents struggled to keep pace. Flawless execution proved decisive as the race boiled down to who could stay on the foils, with France crossing first to lift the SailGP Germany title. Dylan Fletcher's Britain crew were forced out of race four in Sassnitz on Saturday after a collision with the U.S. team but returned to the start line following overnight repairs. Brazil did not race after a crash on Friday. Australia lead the overall championship table level on 61 points with New Zealand. Britain are third with 58 points. The next round is in Saint-Tropez from September 12-13.
New York Times
a day ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Germany Sail Grand Prix: United States, Great Britain collision mars dramatic opening day
A collision between the American and British teams marred the end of a dramatic opening day of competition at the Germany Sail Grand Prix Sassnitz. On a converging port v starboard tack collision course on the upwind leg on the fourth and final race, Taylor Canfield's U.S. team failed to spot Dylan Fletcher's British red F50 until the very last moment. Even the British strategist Hannah Mills could see disaster unfolding as the American boat ploughed on towards the back of their F50. Advertisement 'They're not doing anything … head up, head up, head up,' she told her driver Fletcher with growing alarm as she sought to minimize the impending impact. The collision snapped off the first couple of metres of the Americans' left-side hull and caused enough damage to the back of the British boat to take them out of the race. After a scary practice outing on Friday, with major damage to the French and Brazilian boats, this collision was the last thing anyone wanted for the first day of racing proper. OH NO 😬 A massive incident to end Day 1 in Sassnitz as @sailgpusa hit @EmiratesGBRSGP 😱 The US team will receive -12 event points for this incident and we are thankful to report all athletes are safe and accounted for ⛵️ — SailGP (@SailGP) August 16, 2025 Twenty-four hours earlier a T-foil rudder ripped off the back of the French boat as driver Quentin Delapierre was executing a high-speed bear-away manoeuvre during one of the practice races. Fortunately the large chunk of fly-away carbon-fiber foil soared high into the air but nowhere close to the French crew. However, Delapierre was flung forwards violently by the rapid deceleration and suffered a nasty face-plant into the boat's cockpit. He was taken to hospital and later signed off as fit to go racing on Saturday. It was worse for the Brazilians as — just seconds after the French incident — the front cross-beam of their F50 snapped and the catamaran collapsed into its constituent pieces, with the wingsail falling to the water. To the surprise of many, no one was seriously injured in either incident. This put the Brazilians out of action for the weekend while SailGP's boat repairers worked feverishly throughout the night to get the French back on the water for Saturday. The boatbuilders are facing another all-nighter if they're to get the Americans and British back up and running for Sunday's concluding races. Advertisement With all that had happened the day before, another strong-breeze forecast brought some trepidation for the sailors as they headed out for four races in shifty, gusty wind conditions. A critical difference was that the F50s were today equipped with the shortest, smallest 18-metre wingsails, a significant reduction in sail area and power compared with the 24-metre monster wings on the practice day. Great Britain shot out to an early lead in race one although were caught out by the Germans in the closing stages, Erik Heil's team wowing the home crowds with a race victory, their first since the opening event of the season in Dubai last November. The U.S. team came across the line in third place, Taylor Canfield's best showing in a while. Fletcher's crew made amends in the next race, the British making good gains in the gusts on the downwind leg to haul their way past early leaders Spain. At this point in the day, Britain were flying high with a good lead at the top of the rankings. The start of race three was Denmark's time to shine, Nicolai Sehested spearing his F50 around the first mark to a speed of 103.93 kmh — a new SailGP speed record, eclipsing the 99.97kmh previously held by France. The combination of the T-foils, the new lower-drag set of foils for this season, combined with the small and low-drag 18-metre wingsails, was pushing the boats to high numbers all afternoon until the breeze started to drop for the fourth and final race. Australia would go on to win race three ahead of the Danes, and Tom Slingsby pushed arch rival Pete Burling and the New Zealanders for victory in the final race. The Kiwis held on to win ahead of Slingsby, but in the overall standings it's the Australians who hold top spot at the end of a hectic day with an eight point lead over New Zealand who are pretty much on equal points with the next three teams — France, Germany and Spain. Sunday's final three fleet races get underway at 3.30pm local time in Germany, after which the top three teams will go forward to the sudden-death final to decide who wins in Sassnitz. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
