Four races, four different winners from day one in Rio

After a six-week break, SailGP’s South American debut was met in Rio with light, changeable foiling conditions, making it a tough day for the wing trimmers and flight controllers.

Before racing even got underway, all eyes were on driver Martine Grael and the Mubadala Brazil SailGP Team as their F50 remained on the dock as the rest of the fleet warmed up. The home team ended up missing the first two races due to a communications failure on board, which rendered the boat invisible on the umpire system, as well as other systems.

Brazil aside, 11 other teams graced the startline, with Team France returning for the first time after their shocking crash with the Black Foils in Auckland, who sit out of another event.

Race one held the most thrilling start of the day with a huge speed differential as teams chose between the dexterous non-foiling approach and the breakneck foiling time-on-distance run.

Artemis, clearly inspired by their namesake, held back in the start box before rocketing towards the line at the gun with a huge speed delta to the rest of the fleet.

It turned out to be the winning move as the Swedes continued to lead the pack before splashing down at the finish to secure the lead of the first race.

Joining them on the high-speed start mission were Spain and Great Britain. The Spaniards held their own in the first half of the race before it started to unravel for them in the last two legs, finishing the race in sixth.

As tough as the tumble down the pack for Spain was to watch, Emirates Great Britain had it tougher. The championship podium sitters were forced to retire due to a fault shortly after the start, which looked to make things difficult for them throughout the day.

It was a bit of Déjà vu for the start of the second race, as Artemis and Los Gallos lined up in identical positions to the race prior. Although this time, the rest of the fleet had warmed up with 10 out of the 11 teams finding a gap on the start line, the Germans being the exception.

Los Gallos was one of the only boats that remained on the foil around mark one, and it paid. Botin’s team extended into a big lead by mark two and were uncatchable all the way until the last leg. A sticky H2 (two hulls in the water) tack by the Season Four Champions brought Nathan Outteridge and his team into touching distance right at the last breath, but it wasn’t enough.

Los Gallos driver Diego Botin said, “It’s very tricky and with 12 boats the game changes a lot. We need to stay very focused.”

Wing trimmer Trittel went on to say, “I don’t think it’s easy for anyone today…the gusts on the big wing are massive, so getting a clear start is one of the keys today.”

Despite the awful start, Erik Heil’s Germany Deutsche Bank converted a terrible start into a third place. The Rio 2016 Olympic Bronze medallist clearly managing to recall some of his secrets.

Is Rio plagued by technical faults? With the originally scheduled 2025 event cancelled to facilitate wingsail repairs, the last thing SailGP needed was the home heroes missing. After sitting out of the first two races, Martine Grael and her team were back on the startline for race three. I’m sure there may have been a few hairs torn out in the process of getting the home favourites back on the race course so quickly.

With an extra boat and a slight drop in wind speed, the start was more congested, with all the teams starting H1 (one hull in the water) at the time of the gun.

Phil Robertson’s Italy made it work. The team led for nearly the entire race to win their first race of the season. 

Phil said, "There’s not a lot of patterns. There are a lot of hills throwing that wind around a lot. When you’re in front, it’s just as hard as when you’re behind.”

With such a changeable race course, maybe it was the benefit of having grinder Will Ryan on board, who won an Olympic Silver medal on the very same waters back in 2016.

Sweden led the standings, with USA and Australia trailing going into the final race of the day.

By the fourth, the breeze dropped off further with foiling becoming more marginal and manoeuvres becoming more costly.

It was Australia and USA who got the jump on the fleet, managing to get on the foil just before mark one. The Aussies gybed early and extended to keep themselves in clean air with USA touching down and tumbling back into the mid-pack.

It looked a sure-fire win for the Flying Roos – until a significant right shift brought the chasing pack into touching distance.

The gybes on the second-to-last leg were the defining moves. Australia committed to the H2 gybe whereas Germany pulled off a wonder foiling gybe that propelled them into the lead gifting the team its first Season 6 race win.

It went from bad to worse for Australia, as a penalty infringement on the Swiss (who were racing the previous leg) dropped them even further back. Slingby’s team had to hand-brake turn the F50 to slow down in time for the line just to serve the penalty.

What looked like it was a nailed-on race win for the Aussies turned into a still respectable third-place finish.

Four races produced four different winners in the changeable conditions and despite not winning any of them, Australia lead USA and Artemis after day 1.

There must be something anchoring the Aussies’ performances in Rio as an Australian driver featured on the podium in each race. Outteridge for Artemis in the first two races and Slingsby for the Flying Roos in the races three and four.

Tomorrow’s forecast looks windier than today’s. We know to expect the same shifty and changeable conditions, with heavy reliance on the wing trimmers, but with more foiling time and less speed differential across the fleet.

Race 1
1 Sweden
2 Australia
3 USA
4 France
5 Spain
6 Germany
7 Italy
8 Denmark
9 Switzerland
10 Canada
DNF Great Britain
DNS Brazil

Race 2
1 Spain
2 Sweden
3 Germany
4 USA
5 Canada
6 Great Britain
7 Italy
8 Australia
9 France
10 Switzerland
11 Denmark
DNS Brazil

Race 3
1 Italy
2 Denmark
3 Australia
4 France
5 USA
6 Sweden
7 Switzerland
8 Spain
9 Germany
10 Brazil
11 Great Britain
12 Canada

Race 4
1 Germany
2 Denmark
3 Australia
4 Canada
5 USA
6 Spain
7 Italy
8 Brazil
9 Sweden
10 France
11 Switzerland
12 Great Britain

Rio GP standings so far
1 Australia 28
2 USA 27
3 Sweden 26
4 Germany 25
5 Spain 24
6 Italy 22
7 Denmark 21
8 France 17
9 Canada 14
10 Brazil 14
11 Switzerland 7
12 Great Britain 5