Photo credit: Javier Salinas
This weekend the Black Foils will race on San Francisco Bay aiming to cap off a brilliant season so far and claim their
first SailGP Season crown by winning the SailGP Season 4 Grand Final.
Black Foils Driver Peter Burling says, “All season long San Fran has been the goal to get here and be the top performing
team going into this event and put it all together in the Final. It looks like it’s going to be good weather, good
breeze and excited to get racing.”
It’s all on for the conclusion of SailGP’s record 13-event season and the New Zealand team go into the event hot
favourites off the back of a win in New York City just three weeks ago and with a commanding 15-point lead on the season leaderboard over reigning and three-time champions Australia.
Asked if the team could break the Australian’s SailGP’s run of success Burling said, “We’re just here to try and let the
performance on the water do the talking. It’s going to be a hell of a battle come that last race for sure and we’re
super excited to have that opportunity.”
Australia’s driver Tom Slingsby conceded that the Black Foils are coming in strong; “The Kiwis and the Aussies have an
amazing rivalry in every sport we do for sure, and it does sting a little more when you lose to the Kiwis. They’ve been
the form team and they’ve really come home strong this second part of the season.”
The event promises two days of action-packed and boundary-breaking racing in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, with
SailGP’s ten national teams going head-to-head for the ultimate, Championship deciding glory.
Saturday’s schedule includes three ten-boat fleet races, with two more on Sunday to determine the outcome of the San
Francisco Sail Grand Prix and the season leaderboard. From there, only the top three go straight into the most important
race of the season… the winner-takes-all Season 4 Grand Final.
There’s strong interest in whether the Black Foils will play it safe in the five fleet races or push hard. “We won’t be
any more conservative this weekend than we have all season. We’ll be going out there to try and build momentum through
these first races. The worst thing to do would be to back off and not be ready come that final so we’re going to be
pushing hard the whole way.”
All ten F50s are on the water today for practice racing with an excellent forecast for the weekend of typical San
Francisco south-south easterly breeze building through the day into a consistent, moderate to strong wind strength.
SailGP Season 4 Grand Final San Francisco begins tomorrow in front of a packed stadium on Marina Green with racing on
Saturday 13 July starting at 2:30 pm local time.
For New Zealand fans racing is live on ThreeNow at 9:30 am NZT Sunday and Monday with delayed coverage on Three at
4:30pm NZT Sunday and Monday.