SailGP: Black Foils excited ahead of Sunday's Grand Final
by Jodie Bakewell-White 14 Jul 21:02 BST
NZ SailGP Team - the Black Foils - Race Day 1 - SailGP Season 4 Grand Final in San Francisco, USA. July 13, 2024 © Jed Jacobsohn/SailGP
The Black Foils kept out of trouble on a gusty day one of SailGP on San Francisco Bay where tomorrow they’re set to race the hotly anticipated Season 4 Grand Final.
All ten F50s took to the Bay in strong wind conditions today, powered by 18-metre wings and high speed foils, for three fleet races in front of a crowd of more than 3000 watching from the purpose-built Race Stadium at Marina Green.
The kiwis came away with a trio of 4th places and driver Peter Burling says the team are feeling “really excited.”
“It was an awesome first day here in San Francisco, right at the upper end of the wind limit and it looks exactly the same tomorrow so I assume we will be back on the same configuration.
“It was a bit of an up and down day for us. We didn't get off the line that well in the first race and had a good comeback to get to fourth. Then it felt like the next two races we were right at the front and then dropped back to fourth.”
“A few more mistakes than we would normally make, but we’re really pleased with how we pushed the boat around the race track. We found the edge at times, and we’re looking forward to tomorrow.”
Tactician Josh Junior, who plays a key role in the Black Foils coaching booth alongside Ray Davies, described the day, “It was pretty exciting on day one of racing here in San Fran. It was really dynamic, shifty and gusty with quite a bit of wind.”
“We’re on the little wings, and the fast foils so the boats are super dynamic out there… with all the puffs it's really hard to sail these boats well. We saw across the whole fleet teams making mistakes and doing some things well – we made a couple and we did some things really, really well,” he added.
France were the standout team on day one signalling their intent to claim a spot in the Grand Final, after going 1-3-3 on the water today. New Zealand’s closest rivals Australia had mixed results with a win in race 2, but a 5th and an 8th in the other two races. After today they’re behind New Zealand in the pointscore for this event which reads France, Great Britain, Denmark, New Zealand, Australia.
Tomorrow’s schedule has two more fleet races for all ten teams after which it will be determined who earns a spot in the Grand Final, alongside New Zealand.
Only the three highest ranked teams in the season leaderboard will progress to the winner-takes-all Grand Final where they will go head-to-head to be crowned the SailGP champion.
The most exciting racing on water returns for Championship Sunday and the conclusion of SailGP Season 4 with race start set for 2:30pm Sunday local time (9:30am Monday NZT).
Fans in New Zealand can watch live on ThreeNow from 09:30am Monday or catch delayed coverage on Three from 4:30pm on Monday - or see the Youtube coverage .