SailGP Team United States

DJ Khaled, DeAndre Hopkins and Gary Vee walk into a sailing league. It’s not a joke – it's the United States SailGP Team’s investor deck. At the core are tech investors Ryan and Margaret McKillen, Avenue Sports Fund, and CEO–co-owner Mike Buckley, surrounded by a cast of NFL hitters, Olympic royalty, actors, DJs and serial entrepreneurs. The Lady Liberty F50 comes with VIP chase boats, curated walk-ins and a hospitality operation that feels closer to an NBA playoff night than a traditional regatta. Buckley’s mission is to build the team into a travelling sports-and-media property that happens to race 50-knot foiling cats, and in commercial terms the Americans already sit near the front row. They’re the proof-of-concept for SailGP’s belief that elite sailing can live in the same universe as mainstream U.S. sport and entertainment.

The results sheet has far less swagger. As a founding team of SailGP, the high-water mark is third overall under Jimmy Spithill in Season 2. Since then, the results curve has bent the wrong way: their first event win in Saint-Tropez, followed by a fade through Season 3 and into a full reboot mid-Season 4 under Buckley and Taylor Canfield. The new regime went all-in on an all-American philosophy, insisting on homegrown talent instead of renting in battle-hardened guns from overseas. It’s a clean story for sponsors and investors, but a brutal way to learn in a championship dominated by crews who already know how to live on the edge of 50 knots. Finishing last in Season 5, behind newcomers Italy and Brazil, is an uncomfortable look for a founding franchise.

Taylor Canfield remains at the wheel for Season 6, his seven world titles in match racing proving he can handle high-pressure situations. When conditions keep everyone off the foils – as they did in Abu Dhabi for a fifth-place finish – the Americans can live with the fleet. When the breeze builds, however, the lack of deep high-speed expertise shows up in scrappy manoeuvres and costly mistakes. Season 5 was a penalty-laden disaster punctuated by the Sydney capsize that ended their weekend before it began. Twenty-four event points and 18 season points docked tells its own story about boat-handling struggles and repeat rules violations.

The late-season signing of Harry Melges IV signals intent to sharpen the operation. Melges – 2021 U.S. Rolex Yachtsman of the Year and 2025 TP52 world champion – brings credentials that align with the all-American philosophy while adding genuine high-performance pedigree. Whether that extra talent translates to tidier boat-handling and fewer umpire visits will determine if Team USA starts moving from glossy pitch deck to genuine threat. Russell Coutts knows better than anyone that a major market like the USA stuck at the back is bad for business, which makes Season 6 a critical year for proving the project has legs beyond the celebrity investor list.