Los Gallos pip Artemis to win SailGP’s first four-boat final

Spain’s Los Gallos scored their first win of the 2026 SailGP season after coming out on top in a drag race to the finish line with Artemis Sweden, in the league’s first fourth-boat final at the Canada Sail Grand Prix.

Switzerland finished third after the team’s best performance of the season. Meanwhile, the streak of three consecutive wins for Australia’s Bonds Flying Roos came to an end in Halifax. But fourth place consolidates the team’s lead at the top of the series’ points standings.

Sunday began with two more races apiece for Groups A and B, with the top two in each progessing to the four-boat final. The race window was brought forward a couple of hours to make the most of the breeze blowing over Halifax, and the crews were trimmed from six to five, racing the F50s with the bigger 27.5m wings fitted.

Group A: Australia, Spain, France, Denmark, Canada, Brazil and New Zealand

Group B: Great Britain, USA, Sweden, Germany, Italy and Switzerland

There was one less boat on the water, though. Emirates GBR nosedived during their warm-up laps and damaged their wing badly enough to rule them out of the day's racing. So, we’re still waiting for all 13 boats to complete a race weekend, but by the end of a far more exciting Sunday it was Diego Botín's Los Gallos who raced superbly to claim their first event win of the season. Here's how it unfolded…

Group B got Sunday under way in Halifax, and with the Brits sitting it out it was five boats scrapping for the two final spots and a little more room on the race course.

Artemis made the most of it. Nathan Outteridge nailed his time-on-distance at the favoured bottom end of the line, wound the F50 up to full foiling speed and led at mark one, with Taylor Canfield's USA tucked into second and Italy third.

But that third position unravelled quickly for the Italians. At the bottom gate, overpowered like the rest of the fleet on the big wings and fickle breeze, Phil Robertson failed to give Germany room to keep clear and was handed the penalty, dropping them to the back.

Meanwhile, Outteridge was in total command, threading in front of Canfield at each gate to keep the Americans at bay. Artemis crossed first, the USA 13 seconds back, before Erik Heil slingshotted Germany cleanly past the Swiss on the inside for third. A 2-1-1 score left Artemis looking a safe bet for the final, with the Swiss second in the group and the Americans needing a strong result to displace them.

Race 3B
1 Sweden
2 United States
3 Germany
4 Switzerland
5 Italy
DNS Great Britain

Group A's opener brought seven boats to the line, and Los Gallos lit the fuse. Diego Botín threaded the needle between France and the Flying Roos with a start so aggressive it looked like a penalty waiting to happen. But chief umpire Craig Mitchell judged it clean, and the Spanish powered down the first reach at 75kmh to round mark one in front, the Black Foils hot on their heels.

By gate three the home crowd had something to roar about, NorthStar Canada climbing into second. There was less cheer aboard Mubadala Brazil, who clipped a mark and damaged a board badly enough to retire, later given a 4-point penalty. A bruising first event for Paul Goodison as driver.

Up front, Spain simply sailed their own race to take the win. “It was a very nice start,” Botín said afterwards. “Obviously high risk for us, but we pulled it off.”

Behind, Tom Slingsby's Roos leaned hard on NorthStar, never letting the Canadians settle, but the home team held firm to take second, 18 seconds behind Spain, with Australia third and the Black Foils fourth.

Race 3A
1 Spain
2 Canada
3 Australia
4 New Zealand
5 France
6 Denmark
DNF Brazil

Explora Swiss had most of the start line to themselves and made it count, Seb Schneiter timing his run off the favoured top end to win the reach to mark one, another sharp showing from the Swiss crew finding their groove in Halifax and sitting second in the group after three races. Taylor Canfield's USA rounded close behind, with Red Bull Italy third and quick to split away on the second leg.

By gate three the Swiss and the Americans rounded at the exact same second, locked together at the front. But Schneiter sailed a few hundred metres too far down leg four and that was the opening Canfield needed, handing the USA a lead they wouldn't surrender.

Explora Swiss took second, enough to seal their first final since Portsmouth last year. Group leaders Artemis, meanwhile, sat at the back of the fleet throughout, though it cost them nothing, their spot in the final already wrapped up. A late penalty for Erik Heil’s Germany gifted Italy third.

Race 4B
1 United States
2 Switzerland
3 Italy
4 Germany
5 Sweden

Tom Slingsby struck again, a flawless start carrying Australia to mark one in front with the Black Foils giving chase. Spain were left at the back, their final chances in peril, while for NorthStar Canada an OCS dropped them to the back, heartbreak in front of their home crowd.

For this race, the Black Foils had to keep Los Gallos boxed with a boat in between them to take the final spot. At gate three the Spanish tried to round ahead, but Pete Burling held them off, and Rockwool Denmark arrived at the same moment, tangled into the contest, giving the Kiwis exactly what they needed. But it didn’t last for long, Los Gallos quickly clawing back the position.

Canada, meanwhile, had recovered superbly, hauling back from their penalty to second by leg five. Slingsby's Roos did what they usually do and won, with the home team splashing down across the line in second.

But behind was where the real drama unfolded, as Burling threw every match-racing trick he had at the Spanish, attempting to slow them down and let Denmark slip ahead. It came down to the line, three boats inside a second, and just half a metre in it: Los Gallos pipped Rockwool by 50cm to take fourth, the Black Foils third, the Danes fifth.

Burling gave it his all, but it wasn't quite enough. Spain were through.

Race 4A
1 Australia
2 Canada
3 New Zealand
4 Spain
5 Denmark
6 France
DNS Brazil

All four boats hit the line side by side, but it was Diego Botín's Los Gallos who executed best, squeezing below Artemis to find the gust on the shoreline and edge round mark one ahead of Explora Swiss.

Behind, Australia and Sweden split the moment they could. At gate two, Nathan Outteridge pulled off a foiling round-up then a tack straight out of the mark to peel away into clear air. Nervy, hard to execute, and it worked, lifting Artemis from fourth to second by the leg's end.

Outteridge made the same move at the next leeward mark, splitting the course to briefly nose in front before Botín crossed back ahead. On the penultimate leg the two diverged once more, the whole race now coming down to a single question – which side had the wind.

Botín read it right, and Los Gallos held control to take their first event win of 2026, Artemis just behind them in second.

Then a surprise at the last mark, Explora Swiss rounding past the Flying Roos to snatch third and bump Slingsby's Australians off the podium entirely.

Final
1 Spain
2 Sweden
3 Switzerland
4 Australia

So, after a string of finals this season, it was at last an event win for Botín's Los Gallos. A bitter one for Outteridge's Artemis, who had a maiden win within their grasp and let it slip.

The Flying Roos, meanwhile, had their three-event run broken. Slingsby is fallible after all. Not that their fourth place dents them much: they still sit comfortably atop the season standings on 62 points, 18 clear of GBR and Spain each with 44.

Further down the order it's a far less settled picture, with plenty of points up for grabs in the rest of Season 6. Next up the fleet heads to the Great Britain Sail Grand Prix in Portsmouth on 25–26 July.

For the Canada Sail Grand Prix results and standings, click here.