Now that America's Cup news and gossip has ebbed you'll have to tune into SailGP. The first event in Bermuda is only 33 days away. This is just the second season of racing. Most of your favourite AC75 skippers are back at the helm, but this time in one design boats!
sailgp.com

edit : SailGP should have GP in caps, but of course you can't edit the thread title.

Day 1: Bermuda replay

Good one Brent. The replay is quite OK if you don't know the result.

Spoiler alert! At 1.03 you can see Nathan Outteridge talking up the wing ding.

Even if you know the results, watching fleet racing F50s in sunny Bermuda is fantastic

I almost fell off my chair when I saw the tagged speeds of 75kn but realised they had used incorrect kn designation for kilometre readings! Extremely exciting racing too. Aus looking the goods

At one point the 3 ex AC75 skippers were running last, 2nd last and third last!

Mozzy sails has interesting background on events. 1.5 tonnes of downforce from the windward rudder!

Select to expand quote

sausage said..
I almost fell off my chair when I saw the tagged speeds of 75kn but realised they had used incorrect kn designation for kilometre readings! Extremely exciting racing too. Aus looking the goods

That had me confused as well.
it's way more exciting then the americas cup to watch.

in an interview I saw last week, they were talking about breaking 80 knots and who would be first?

deceptive if they meant kms/hour.

Select to expand quote

crustysailor said..
in an interview I saw last week, they were talking about breaking 80 knots and who would be first?

deceptive if they meant kms/hour.

I would say they were talking about Kilometres per hour
The world record for speed sailing is 65.45. Knots over 500 meters and 55.32knot over the Nautical Mile

I don't think they where trying to be deceptive just presenters are not really that smart.

If you haven't watched the 1 1/2 hr replay yet you're probably not going to. Here's a 6 minute version of SailGP Bermuda. Next round Italy 5th June.

Interest for this event seems to have waned amongst the seabreezers. The fourth round is on this weekend. America's Cup Skippers are back in action. This time in identical boats! Ben Ainslie and the crew from Great Britain clipped 53 knots in practice.
sailgp.com/news/sailgp-lineup-full-strength-aarhus-denmark-sail-grand-prix/

I wonder how much an event loses interest when it gets too far away from what the potential viewers can relate to. The most-watched events in sports are the ones that Joe and Joanna Average can see themselves doing in some way; kicking a football, riding a bike, etc. There is also F1, but it's an anomaly in that the ratings aren't all that good considering the $$$$$$$$$ going into it, and the fact that most adults can drive.

I sometimes sail fairly quick cats (F18s) a bit (we have one and we tend to win the old-boat class in NSW events when we turn up, but rarely use it otherwise) and sometimes sail against foiling A Class cats, but the GP boats are so far different that it's a lot like watching a different sport, and one that I'll never do. That takes it a long way out of the sort of thing that I can relate to. I like to be able to feel what the people I'm watching are feeling, pretty much. Other people have different tastes and that's fine.

It's odd, but as a very keen life-long sailor and a short-term mediocre racing cyclist, these days I'd rather watch a major cycling event than a major sailing event. I love watching the replays of Tom winning his Olympic medal in Lasers because I know what he's doing and how it feels, but watching him win on a big foiling cat is a different story.

The other thing is that promoting this part of sailing excludes the vast majority of sailors. If you sail in Canberra, the northern NSW rivers, lots of Melbourne, most English clubs, most American clubs, most European clubs etc you probably can't sail a foiler. If the sport is excluding most of the grass roots from the end of the sport that they are promoting, it gives some of us a nasty taste. The kids at the club I'm running won't be able to get into that sort of sailing for a long while, if ever. Showing them something they cannot attain is a turn-off for them.

St. Tropez event this weekend, Sept 11-12. The Danish event was great, fluckey winds caused havoc. AUS snuck into the final then romped away to win the event when GB-Sir Ben lost the plot when penalised. Biggest sailing dummy spit I've seen on the water in years.
Also Switzerland has been announced as the next team to join racing next season.

SailGP events come and go with out much interest generated here on seabreeze. (unlike the America's Cup). It's close racing, a windy one in Spain on the weekend. The Australian team skippered by Tom Slingsby leads the championship,. Next event in Sydney.

Reckon the Spanish event was the best of the season so far. F50s are beasts, have SYD booked!

how was that upwind leg of Slingsby in race 5 for the win. Masterclass

I watched a little bit of it, but I think the lack of interest is just due to the fact that there isn't really a story around it at all? And the media coverage seems pretty lackluster.

America's Cup had it all, massive build up, piles of speculation around which team had the best technical solution, dynamics within teams i.e. different boat management schemes (two captains vs 1, different roles on diff boats), usual legal shots between teams, bragging rights and massive egos on the line. And all the media coverage to go with it, including the excellent technical analysis from Mozzy Sails, which really elevated the experience I think for anyone who was semi interested.

SailGP, they are all on one design boats so there's really nothing technical to get interested about. One design should make for good racing, and I think it does for the sailors, but for spectators, there is no story there, where are the rivalries? Its just a bunch of good sailors ripping around a course, with their mates, maybe some big $$ sponsors but really nothing on the line. Is there even any commentators? The wrap up videos are just a bunch of video cuts which give no context as to who is leading, who's losing, who has anything on the line. The whole series really just seems to lack any personality.

What you need is some commentating like this:
And technical analysis like this:

I think the fact that its unattainable for your everyman pretty much has nothing to do with it. Just take things like F1 for example.

Loving it

Im loving it too.
after spending 20 years sailing, i've come to the conclusion that sailing will never hold greater public interest, no matter how exciting it gets. As much as the boats have big money spent on them and running the series costs squillions, It'll always be the little excerpt tacked onto the end of the sport section of the news. "Look at these things go" after 20 min about teams kicking an inflated pig skin around a field and how many points theyre ahead by, and "such and such is moving to this team next year" etc etc.

Sydney event on this weekend for those who are interested.

only 6 left in race 3

Should be a good one tomorrow. Big noreaster forecast. They should be able to fix team Japan's boat overnight.

Even the top skippers make mistakes i suppose.


Lost a bow but maybe all the mechanical bits are intact and a quick repair is possible?

Would be a miraculous effort to have the damage repaired. There's a lot of creasing and fractures beyond the rip in both directions, not to mention all the water ingress. You'd either need a new bow section to fit or make a temporary mold and rebuild between the two seperated parts... and have it all cured. Pressures on the shore crew and whoever can help out.

Select to expand quote

And just found this

Wow!!!
OK with these boats things happen so fast pretty start but jeez always eyes downwind

I know an ex board builder who was involved in building these boats but that's impossible to fix overnight.
Back to the factory for rebuild using mould or complete new side.

Fair call with Team GP having to withdraw

Bring on today's racing

Are there bulkheads or floatation inside the hull? That's a pretty big hole, was it in danger of sinking?

Should they have a spare boat? It's an expensive event but the probability of damage in close racing is pretty high. Or they could let Japan race in GB's boat if it wasn't damaged too badly?

Select to expand quote

Ian K said..
Should they have a spare boat? It's an expensive event but the probability of damage in close racing is pretty high. Or they could let Japan race in GB's boat if it wasn't damaged too badly?

I believe GB have offered their boat to Japan.

Good move by GB. However a competition like this needs a bad boy. And Ben Ainslie is the best they've got. Maybe if he has to, Nathan could sit it out in the commentry box?