Australia’s SailGP team repeated their performance from February in Sydney as they raced to victory against Japan in the US debut of the event this weekend.
Thousands were in attendance at the Marina Yacht Club Peninsula Race Village to see Olympic gold medalist Tom Slingsby and his team extend their lead after the second leg of the stadium yacht racing series, launched by America’s Cup winners Larry Ellison and Sir Russel Coutts.
The Australian team had struggled in training ahead of the meet in San Francisco and were disappointed by their performance in the first day’s racing on Saturday 4 May, which saw Japan dominate with three wins.
But the final races on Sunday 5 May saw the Japanese boat stymied by a software issue that meant they were ‘sailing blind’ around the course, while the Aussies capitalised to go two points up in the overall rankings — one step closer to the series prize of $1 million.
“We’re stoked, it’s no secret that we struggled all week,” said Slingsby after the event. “Nathan Outteridge and his [Japan] team were better, but we kept saying we are going to come back. We left it late, but we did come back and won the match race and then the event.”
The next event is scheduled for 21-22 June in New York, where Great Britain will be looking to climb up from their solid third place overall following their first race win this weekend.
