Six different winners from day one of the Great Britain Sail Grand Prix, yet the dominant Australians of this season never even had a sniff of the lead in Portsmouth.
The breeze was blowing a stiff 16 to 18 knots from the south west, sometimes gusting higher, putting a high premium on solid boat handling. It should have been a day for Tom Slingsby and the Flying Roos to shine, yet the Australians were made to look ordinary.
Following the split-fleet experiment that was first trialled in Halifax a month ago, the race organizers divided the 13 teams into a Group A of seven, and a Group B of six. It would be hard going to cram in six back-to-back races into the 90-minute broadcast window, but with the wind blowing strongly and reliably onto Southsea Beach, it was an action-packed session.
New Zealand came out on top of Group A with an ever-improving scoreline of 4,2,1. It was wing trimmer Blair Tuke’s 37th birthday, although Peter Burling had forgotten to get his long-time sidekick a present. “I didn’t actually purchase him anything,” Burling told The Athletic. “Maybe the win in the last race, and we got him a few ice creams for after racing.”
It has been a torrid year for Burling and his team, with two major collisions in the first two events of the season. It could have been a third Saturday, but for some quick thinking to avoid the Italian boat by Burling.
“We got a little nervous there,” he said. “We had the inside overlap and thought they [the Italians] were going to shut the door on us at the mark, so we decided to take the conservative route, swing out behind them, and see what developed. The umpires called it our way in the end.”
Despite lying second overnight in Group A behind the Kiwis, Giles Scott and the Canadians will be ruing a missed opportunity in the second race. They led the first race from start to finish, and then did the same in race two until the dying moments of the final run downwind. Diego Botin and the Spanish had managed to roll past the Canadians and stole their wind.
A neat double-jibe by Spain at the final turning mark scooted them into the lead, while the Canadian boat lost speed and fell off the foils. They sat helpless as boat after boat swept past, relegating Canada to a horrible fifth place. A recovery to second in the last race of the afternoon was a decent consolation prize for Scott and the Canadians.
Spectators watch from the grandstand as Australia cross the finish line. (Gary Oakley for SailGP)
In Group B, the Swedish and the Americans emerged as the top two performers, with Switzerland not far behind.
Dylan Fletcher and Britain endured a horrible opening to their campaign in front of thousands of cheering fans. They were fourth and sixth in the first two heats, but a stunning victory in the last race put the British on seven points, six behind overall leaders Sweden on 13.
“We had to deliver in that last race if we wanted to have any opportunity going into tomorrow (Sunday),” he told The Athletic. “We were getting frustrated with ourselves. We weren’t adapting well enough for the starts, but finally managed to deliver a good start in the last race.”
One of Portsmouth’s unique challenges is just how much ‘furniture’ is scattered around the race course. An array of pillars, permanent marks, the imposing Napoleonic-era Spitbank Fort, as well as the comings-and-goings of ferries and even the hovercraft going back and forth between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. It gives the teams a lot to think about when they’re flying around on their F50s at close to 60 mph (100 km/h).
Overtaking opportunities were in short supply, although Sweden’s skipper Nathan Outteridge disagreed: “The sun was out, heaps of people came to watch, and the racing was exciting. The obstacles are a big challenge. The event wants the boats close to the spectators, but sometimes that makes it a one-way track, and if you’re not starting well, it’s really hard to get back into the race.”
Championship leaders Australia are favorites to win this event, and why not, considering how they have dominated 2026 so far this season? So, can they still take out overall victory on Sunday? “We can still win, but we need a few things to go our way,” skipper Slingsby said. “We didn’t have a great day, so a couple of teams have built a jump on us.
“Everyone was sailing at a super high level. Usually in those conditions, we can work our way through the fleet using our boat speed or boat handling, but we just couldn’t do that. No one was making mistakes; the boats ahead were going fast and sailing the right way.
“It makes our job simple: go out and win.”
