Great Britain SailGP Team at Marseille SailGP Season 1 Grand Final - Practice Race
by Leslie Ryan 19 Sep 2019 22:17 BST
20-22 September 2019
Great Britain SailGP Team at Marseille SailGP Season 1 Grand Final © Mark Lloyd
The training days here in Marseille have mostly been light and shifty and our British guys have seen everything from one knot to 12 knots over the last three days on the water which seemed to pay off for today's four practice races where they posted some solid results and seemed to foil quicker and higher than many of their competitors around the race track.
However, those conditions are not at all reflective of the windy and challenging conditions forecast to kick in for race week-end. But training days are always valuable and the team are making best use of any time on the water and especially the chance to line up with the other five teams.
"Today was a light and marginal training day but it's still always great to get 4 races in against the other teams," commented Dylan Fletcher, Skipper of the British team, "It gave us the best preparation to move into the final race week-end of the season. There is more wind forecast tomorrow so conditions will be very different but we had some good starting practice today which carries over. Today also showed how much closer the racing action will be now that it's the end of the season, for sure we will see the tightest racing ever over the next few days and any mistakes will be costly. We had a great day with strong performances and are looking forward to the real action tomorrow."
The Marseille SailGP Season 1 Grand Final event is going to offer some thrilling action over the next three days with sailing's biggest prize purse up for grabs, along with the incredible new SailGP Championship trophy. The British team are embracing the race for a podium position and focusing on delivering some solid race results after disappointing events in New York and Cowes.
The free SailGP Fan Zone at the J4 Esplanade will feature big screens and commentary, concessions, the SailGP Fan Shop, the trophy presentation on Sunday and athlete appearances. So to all of our British fans out here in Marseille, come on down and cheer on the team and to those back home, tune in to BT Sport and follow the gripping action over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.