New Zealand Finishes Second At The Range Rover France Sail Grand Prix

SAINT-TROPEZ, FRANCE | 11 SEP 2022 CEST - New Zealand has missed out on the hat trick but still secured a spot on the podium, finishing second at the Range Rover France Sail Grand Prix. Jimmy Spithill’s American crew took the event win - launching the start of what Spithill called the team’s “comeback in the season.”

New Zealand remains second on the Season 3 leaderboard with 41 points, now just one point behind Australia (42 points). Great Britain is back in the game in third with 34 points after being unable to compete at the ROCKWOOL Denmark Sail Grand Prix due to significant boat damage sustained in training.

On a day that could not have been more different from the gusty winds and top speeds of day one, all nine teams found themselves battling tricky conditions - rolling out the 29-metre wing to try to find the best wind in a day where gusts rarely surpassed 10 kilometres per hour.

Conditions meant there was only one points-scoring race: the first of the day (fleet race four), which saw New Zealand finish second behind the United States. Great Britain finished third and the Swiss team - driven by Nathan Outteridge - finished fourth. The Australians finished seventh, knocking the two-time SailGP champions out of the podium race for the second-consecutive event.

Race five was abandoned when none of the nine teams were able to cross the finish line in the time allotted by race management - a fortunate incident for the USA and New Zealand who finished eighth and ninth respectively. The planned sixth fleet race of the weekend was called off due to light winds, so it was straight to the winner-takes-all final for top-ranked teams New Zealand, USA and Great Britain.

With three boats on the line, New Zealand copped a penalty for an early start but managed to fight back to finish second behind the USA in first and Great Britain in third.

Driver Peter Burling said, “It was definitely not good to get OCS (on course side) - everyone knows how important it is in those finals to lead at mark one. We spent a lot of time trying to get rid of the penalty after that, which was a little bit frustrating.”

But Strategist Jo Aleh said in conditions like today, slowing down isn’t always an option.

“We were pretty patient but maybe not quite patient enough. Once you start, that’s it. Once you’re going at that pace if we’d slowed it, it would have been no good. So, you win some you lose some on that - you’ve just got to commit,” Aleh said.

Reflecting on the weekend, Burling said, “As a group we’re really proud … We’re really happy with the way we sailed yesterday, getting a couple of wins on the board. Pretty happy with the way we sailed the first race today. That second one got abandoned - it wasn’t our finest hour but we were happy with the way we performed in the final.”

Crowned event winners, Spithill said it was a “really, really great result” for the entire team after a day one that “set the standard” for the fleet.

The Americans have faced criticism recently for their performance in the championship so far this season after being a podium fixture in Season 2. During prize giving, Spithill said he was proud of how his team had responded to date, “There’s been a lot of noise and a lot of narrative outside the team about whether we should keep making different changes and about [bringing in] different people. I’m really proud of the team because we just didn’t let any of that stuff affect us,” he said.

With only two weeks to go until the next event, it won’t be long until fans can watch Amokura fly again on the stunning waters of Cádiz in the Andalucia region of southwestern Spain. Racing kicks off Saturday 24 September CEST / Sunday 25 September NZT.

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