Five things to watch out for at Portsmouth SailGP

Here are five things to watch out for this weekend as 13 F50s line up for competition at the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix in Portsmouth.

Not wanting to put the commentator’s curse on the weekend, but right now the forecast for Portsmouth looks fantastic. Warm air temperature, but not too hot, and moderate to strong south-westerly breezes blowing across the Solent.

And with the racing set to run in the late afternoon, the F50s will be competing on a flood tide, which means the sea state should be fairly flat and manageable. If it had been wind against tide, sea state could have been more than a bit challenging.

The wind and water gods seem to be smiling on SailGP this weekend.

After the switcharound experiment by the Brazilian team in Halifax last month, with strategist Paul Goodison taking over the wheel while Martine Grael called the shots around the race track, the double Olympic gold medallist from Brazil is back in the driving seat and ‘Goody’ back to strategy. What will they – and the rest of the Brazilian team – have learned from the experiment?

Meanwhile, great to see that Leigh McMillan is back with the French team this weekend after his injury from the Auckland crash back in February. The British sailor is not quite ready to step back on board for racing however, with Moth World Champion Enzo Belanger building up his experience in the wing trimmer’s role for skipper Quentin Delapierre.

And, by the way, congratulations to one of the investment partners in DS Automobiles Team France: a certain Kylian Mbappé, recent winner of the Golden Boot at the FIFA World Cup.

It won’t please Danish skipper Nicolai Sehested to learn that it’s split fleets again for Portsmouth, and most likely for the foreseeable future in SailGP competition.

While Sehested has been an outspoken critic of the format, most sailors in the league – at least the ones that we’ve interviewed – seem to accept that overall, split fleets are probably the right decision to reduce congestion on an increasingly crowded race track.

Who will make the most of the opportunities from racing in the smaller fleets, and who will be all at sixes and sevens?

It’s not often that the sailors get the chance to really let rip on the F50 for a straight-line blast for any more than a few seconds before they’re into the next manoeuvre as they approach the tight boundaries of the SailGP race track.

But because space around Portsmouth is so limited, the tech base for the 13 teams is a long way away, closer to Southampton. This year the F50s are stabled out of Fawley on the edge of the New Forest and at the entrance to Southampton Water. That means the crews will need to deliver the F50s 11 nautical miles along the Solent to the race area in front of Southsea Beach.

Not that they’ll be complaining, quite the opposite. With the fun forecast, this should be an exhilarating 20-minute gallop from the paddock across to the race course, and then back home again once racing is done for the day.

Last but not least, there’s The Foil’s first ever live podcast taking place at 9am on Sunday morning. Come and meet regular podcasters Andy Rice and Freddie Carr, who’ll be fresh off the plane from Lanzarote after some wild and windy TP52 racing.

The Foil’s social media guru and 8-Metre tactician Lewis Smith will be host for the 45-minute show taking place at the Musto store in Gunwharf Quays. Tickets for the event are pretty much maxed out but there might still be a bit of space if you’re lucky. Click here to secure your free tickets.