Freddie Carr: Why the Aussies rule in SailGP

Let’s talk about the Australia SailGP Team – and just how impressive their form has been in season six of SailGP.

But to understand this current run, you have to zoom out. Look at SailGP as a league in its entirety and the picture becomes pretty clear: this purple patch should surprise absolutely no one.

Yes, they currently sit top of the season six leaderboard. But the reality is you don’t have to dig far into the history books to see that under the guidance of Tom Slingsby, Australia have been the benchmark team in SailGP since day one.

The stats make that case pretty quickly. 

They won the first three seasons of SailGP, completing a three-peat that, for as long as this league exists, will be incredibly hard to match. As the fleet has grown, the standard has risen dramatically. The margins are tighter, the depth is stronger and dominance of that kind feels far harder to sustain. Which only makes what Australia achieved in those early years even more impressive.

Across those first three seasons, they completed the double every single time — topping the season standings and then converting it when it mattered by winning the Grand Final.

There were 24 SailGP events in those opening three seasons. Australia made the final in 20 of them and won 12 – a 50% strike rate across the first half of the league’s existence.

Yes, the fleets were slightly smaller in those early years and the spread of talent wasn’t what it is today. But even with that context, those numbers are absurd.

Season 4, in 2024, was the first year Australia looked human. For the first time, Slingsby’s team didn’t dominate the league. They finished second in the season standings behind the New Zealand, and then came up short in the Grand Final against Spain. 

Even in that Grand Final, they were right in the fight. Australia had their nose in front briefly on the first upwind, looking poised to put real pressure on the Spanish. But Spain shut the door with an aggressive covering tack and from there controlled the race brilliantly.

Australia still had one final opportunity on the last upwind – a chance to launch one more attack and potentially steal it. But a missed board lock at exactly the wrong moment killed the manoeuvre, and with it, their hopes of making it four titles in a row.

Spain went on to claim a thoroughly deserved victory, but Australia were a technical error away from potentially writing yet another chapter in SailGP history.

For 10 of the other teams in the league, those results would have been celebrated as a superb season. Slingsby and crew reaching nine out of 13 finals that year! For Australia, it felt like an off-year. That tells you everything about the standards they’ve set in SailGP.

The off-season between season four and season five brought the first real shake-up to what had been a remarkably settled Australian line-up. By this stage, Tash Bryant had fully cemented herself as the team strategist – earning the trust and confidence of Slingsby and becoming an integral part of the afterguard setup we still see today.

But the headline change was the departure of Kyle Langford. The wing trimmer through the first four seasons, and a huge part of Australia’s dominance, Langford left the team he had built so much success with to join Red Bull Italy under the leadership of Jimmy Spithill.

The Bonds Flying Roos moved quickly, bringing in Chris Draper – a hugely experienced operator with Olympic campaigns, America’s Cup pedigree and SailGP experience stretching back to the league’s earliest days.

On paper, it was a significant change in the engine room. In reality, it barely dented their standards. Australia remained right at the sharp end all season, reaching a fifth consecutive Grand Final in Abu Dhabi at the close of season five.

The year ended with Australia falling at the final hurdle once again — this time to a red-hot Emirates Great Britain, with Dylan Fletcher right in the middle of the kind of purple patch we’d only really seen before from Slingsby and the Australians themselves.

Slingsby absolutely nailed the start in the Grand Final, looping in from above the line and leading at Mark 1. But then fortune swung. On the first upwind, Australia turned left from the bottom gate towards the grandstand, ran out of pressure, and dropped off the foil. Great Britain were handed the opening.

The British response was superb. A brilliant leeward mark rounding created the leverage they needed, they took control, and from there sailed away to the season five title. That one must have really stung for Slingsby. Back-to-back Grand Final defeats after setting the benchmark for so long.

And there was another subplot quietly brewing. On board that British boat as wing trimmer was Iain Jensen – a proud Australian who was about to switch allegiances and return home, joining Slingsby and the Bonds Flying Roos for season six.

The addition of Jensen to the roster feels like the final piece that has taken Australia back to the force we saw in those dominant early seasons – while retaining all the edge and resilience they built through seasons four and five.

Through five events this season, the Bonds Flying Roos have made four of the five finals and won three of them. That is outrageous form – and a serious warning shot to the rest of the fleet.

What stands out most is their upwind pace. Right now, this team looks a step ahead of the chasing pack. Slingsby, Waterhouse and Jensen are consistently able to roll the F50 to windward more aggressively than anyone else in the fleet, converting that mode into pure boat speed.

Behind them, Tash Bryant now has the confidence and authority to call the big shots in the big moments, and the crew looks in complete sync.

And at the front of the boat, there’s the continuity that underpins it all. Sam Newton and Kinley Fowler have raced every single SailGP event for Australia since day one. That kind of consistency matters. And just consider this: there have been 55 finals in SailGP history, Australia have been in 39 of them – so 70%. Astonishing.

Right now, this Australian team is as complete as anything we’ve seen in SailGP.  Just to frame how hot they are in season six, the numbers are ridiculous. Across five events, Australia have started 32 fleet races. In 22 of those, they’ve finished on the podium. Only 10 times have they finished outside the top three.

And the headline stat? They’ve won 11 of those 32 races. That means one in every three races the Australians start, they win. In a league where the margins are tighter than they’ve ever been, that is properly dominant.

Stand up, Australia.