Public apology to Russell Coutts
From sailing journalists everywhere...
With only four teams able to race and then a match race between two for the opening day in the Big Apple, the New York stage of SailGP opened with chaos and uncertainty for the spectators and teams alike.
No practice day on Friday, three boats racing on Saturday, a three-boat pile-up on Sunday – SailGP’s Big Apple weekend did not go according to plan. Despite all the chaos, season-leaders the Bonds Flying Roos took their third consecutive win after a superb battle with Emirates Team GBR in the final.
The Rolex SailGP Championship returns to Bermuda this weekend for the fifth stop of the 2026 season, with the Apex Group Bermuda Sail Grand Prix promising some of the most compelling racing of the year as the leaderboard begins to take real shape.
The US SailGP Team’s event win last weekend in Sydney was more than just a big result. After a bruising Season 5 and months of criticism, the Americans have started Season 6 looking sharper, calmer, and faster around the racecourse. According to the US skipper, there is plenty more yet to come.
Maybe it was the 07:30 start time in Europe. Maybe it was the light winds on Sydney Harbour turning racing into a driftathon. Or maybe it was that I was watching in between bingeing episodes of Drive to Survive. Whatever the reason, I found myself yawning my way through both days of SailGP Sydney.
This weekend’s third event of the 2026 SailGP season in Sydney, Australia will see the 11 foiling F50 catamarans race as a single fleet as the event organisers look to put the Auckland France/New Zealand crash in the rear-view mirror.
This weekend’s SailGP event in Sydney, Australia looks set for near-perfect wind conditions for F50 racing, with forecasts for the Sydney Harbour racecourse adjacent to Shark Island calling for easterly winds in the eight-to-13 knot range on Saturday and slightly stronger northeasterlies on Sunday.
The initial findings from a technical review carried out by SailGP into the cause of the high speed crash between the New Zealand and French F50 catamarans at the last event in Auckland recently have ruled out any system failures aboard the Kiwi boat.
This weekend’s crash between the French and New Zealand boats competing in the Auckland SailGP event has set the sailing world alight online, as sailing fans around the world weighed in with their opinions on the shocking incident that saw both boats badly damaged and two sailors hospitalised.
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