From Hollywood to the Golden Gate - Emirates GBR ready to deliver in first-ever back-to-back battle
by Emirates GBR SailGP Team 22 Mar 06:47 GMT
22-23 March 2025
The SailGP fleet last raced in San Francisco in July 2024 © Ricardo Pinto for SailGP
Emirates GBR is gearing up for the second installment of SailGP's first-ever double-header, the Oracle San Francisco Sail Grand Prix on 22-23 March.
The crew will be looking to carry on the momentum built up in Los Angeles last weekend (15-16 March), where they won two races on the final day. In an agonising turn of events after the strong performance, Emirates GBR missed out on the three-boat final by just one point, marking the first event of the 2025 Season that the crew has not podiumed. Despite this, the team still sits top of the season leaderboard, but with Australia just two points behind, it's all to race for this weekend.
Emirates GBR Driver Dylan Fletcher said: "It was incredibly disappointing to miss out on the final in L.A, but the team is incredibly motivated going into the racing in San Francisco. Our strategy for this season is to remain consistent and put on solid performances to ideally get into the finals or be in that top five at each event. There is of course pressure to perform but I certainly love the pressure and for me it's a privilege to be in this position and feel it."
Set against the backdrop of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco is one of the most iconic venues?on the 2025 Season calendar. Unlike the tight track of L.A., the racecourse of San Francisco is wide open, with plenty of opportunities for overtakes when fleet racing gets under way. San Francisco's conditions traditionally consist of high winds with strong currents, favoring the most experienced teams. However, this weekend's forecast looks more moderate, which could open up the field to a greater number of teams. Already out of the running for this event is ROCKWOOL Denmark SailGP Team, who will not be racing after crashing into a mark and sustaining damage to their F50 on Race Day 1 in L.A.
While SailGP teams are competing against each other on the water, they're also competing off the water - in SailGP's Impact League. A world-first, the Impact League rewards the teams' positive environmental and social actions across the race calendar. All teams are audited at each event and there are also four Focus Areas across the season, waste reduction, accelerating inclusion, climate action and breaking boundaries. Teams have to submit projects on these areas and are judged by a panel of industry experts.
In the first Focus Area of the 2025 Season - Race to Zero Waste - Emirates GBR came second for the team's collaboration with its partners to extend the lifecycle of its branded materials. With Spinlock, the team created partner logo applications using velcro patches, eliminating the need to manufacture entirely new lifejackets when sponsorships evolve and new brand application is required. So far this has saved 3.8M litres of water and avoided 1,818 Kilograms of CO2. When new commercial partners came on-board, Emirates GBR decided to rebrand existing kit and do so locally at SailGP events to avoid transporting kit to and from the UK. This reduced emissions by 94%, saved 1.7M litres of water and saved 5,000 KG of carbon being emitted. Judges praised Emirates GBR for its "impressive" projects which were an example to other sports and teams about what is possible. The panel said it was "extraordinarily close" between Emirates GBR and the winners, Mubadala Brazil who organised a clean-up of Pompeda Island in Guanabara Bay.
Emirates GBR's race crew for the Oracle San Francisco Sail Grand Prix remains unchanged from L.A, with Dylan Fletcher as Driver, Hannah Mills as Strategist, Luke Parkinson as Flight Controller, Iain Jensen as Wing Trimmer, Neil Hunter and Nick Hutton as Grinders, Ellie Aldridge as Reserve Strategist, Ben Cornish as Reserve Grinder and Performance Analyst, and Kai Hockley as Development Sailor.
Racing takes place from 21:30 GMT and UK viewers can watch the action live on TNT Sports 4 and Discovery+.