SailGP: Brits top leaderboard after inconsistent breeze makes for a challenging Day 1
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 12 Sep 16:15 BST
New Zealand crosses Great Britain - Race Day 1 - Rockwool France SailGP - Saint Tropez - September 12, 2025 © Felix Diemer/SailGP
Emirates GBR topped the Rockwool SailGP France leaderboard after the first day of racing in Saint Tropez.
The squirrely 15-18kt breeze was distorted by the surrounding high terrain, channeling the pressure and direction, caused some dramatic switching of places, that had appeared to be relatively safe. The nature of the breeze opened up plenty of opportunity for aggressive tactics, with fortune often rewarding the brave.
Major windshifts in the starting box in the final seconds of the start caused some real problems, prompting a mass bailout in the final race of the day, with five teams being caught above the layline for Mark 1 at start-time. The French initially read the situation well executing aggressive high speed start-line approach across the face of the fast approaching fleet. However the French also got caught by the shift having to luff, with a flapping jib in the final seconds of the start.
"We were really happy with how the first three races unfolded," said Black Foils skipper Peter Burling. "It felt like we got pretty unlucky on a couple of them - just with the way the puffs filled in."
"The last race, was super tricky, with that massive right hand pressure in the middle and just nothing in the back of the startbox. But we're really happy with our progress."
Australia looked to get the best of the start but were called over by a matter of millimeters and were forced to drop to the back of the 12 boat fleet. Tom Slingsby and friends did very well to recover to finish 4th.
The Dylan Fletcher skippered British team tops the points table with 31pts, followed by the Black Foils (NZL) on 30pts, with Spain (Diego Botin) in third with 25pts.
Aside from a 10th placing in the first race of the day, the German team (Eric Heil) were consistent with a 5,5,2 scorecard in the remaining three races.
Australia (Tom Slingsby) got off to a flying start winning the opening race, but blotted their copybook in the next two races, scoring two 10th places, but was able to recover in the final race of the day to place 5th on the leaderboard with 19pts. Also on 19pts but with a more level scorecard is the Quentin Delapierre skippered French team after scoring 6,9,4,6.
Red Bull Italy, skippered by double Olympic Gold medalist Ruggero Tita, scored their first race win in Season 5. They sailed well to win Race 3, recovering well from a dramatic foil revealing nosedive in the opening race of the day.
With three races set down for the Final Day, the top two teams start the day with a margin of over 10pts over the Australian and French teams, which is a big gap to close in just three races. It would seem that the third place in the Final will be a four way contest between Spain, Germany, France and Australia.
Moderate to fresh winds are expected again for Saturday's racing.
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