Ewan McGregor joins Emirates GBR for 'one hell of sailing lesson' in New York
by Emirates GBR SailGP Team 31 May 16:34 BST
30 May 2026
Ewan McGregor joins Emirates GBR for ‘one hell of sailing lesson' on-board F50 race boat at the New York Sail Grand Prix © J. Green
The Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team hosted Scottish acting legend Ewan McGregor and his close friend Eric Strickland for a high-speed sailing session aboard their F50 race boat at the New York Sail Grand Prix on Saturday.
The childhood friends stepped aboard the 50ft foiling catamaran, which reaches speeds of 100km/h, after the first day of racing at the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix. McGregor and Strickland took on the Emirates GBR Sixth Sailor Experience as part of their preparation for an upcoming transatlantic sailing adventure, which will be documented in the series True Wind. The documentary is being directed by David Alexanian and ELIXIR FILMS, the team previously behind the acclaimed Long Way Round, Long Way Down, Long Way Up and Long Way Home series.
McGregor and Strickland each joined Emirates GBR Driver Dylan Fletcher MBE, Wing Trimmer Stuart Bithell MBE, Flight Controller Luke Parkinson and Grinders Nick Hutton and Neil Hunter on-board the F50, and hit speeds of over 90km/h.
"It's like an extraordinary adrenaline rush," McGregor said of his Sixth Sailor Experience with Emirates GBR.
"Just the speed and the G-force in the corners, the speed is amazing. You realise immediately you've got no ides whare you're doing - especially running across the boat, it's the first time you've done anything like that in your life, but I got a bit better at it each time. It was one hell of a sailing lesson - I loved it, I had such a great time."
The Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix is the sixth stop of the Rolex SailGP Championship's 2026 Season, which sees 13 teams competing at iconic venues around the world. Emirates GBR is the current reigning champion, after claiming victory at the 2025 Season Grand Final in Abu Dhabi in November. The British team, which has Sir Ben Ainslie as CEO, currently sits second on the 2026 Season leaderboard on 35 points, one point ahead of Spain's Los Gallos in third while Australia's BONDS Flying Roos are first on 45 points.
The New York racecourse is one the most iconic on the calendar, with teams racing on the Hudson River against a backdrop of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. On Saturday, the venue presented some of the most challenging conditions ever experienced in SailGP, with a wind speed of about 40km/h, strong river currents and tightly compressed race boundaries. Due to the high winds, the craning of the F50 race boats into the Hudson was impacted, and only four boats were able to make it on the water. The craning process was completed in championship standings order, which meant Australia's BONDS Flying Roos, Emirates GBR, Spain's Los Gallos and USA were those on the water. While four boats made it on to the Hudson, only three raced as the Aussies suffered a nosedive during practice laps and sustained damage to their F50 which rendered them out of the racing.
Three races took place on Saturday, with Emirates GBR securing a scorecard of 1-2-2. With conditions set to be much lighter for race day two on Sunday, it should be back to normal service, with three full fleet races before the top three teams progress to the winner-takes-all event final.
Emirates GBR Driver Dylan Fletcher MBE said: "It was super difficult conditions out there but it was great to get some racing in. We felt like we started well but unfortunately let the Spanish slip past us."
Speaking about the special guests onboard the F50 after racing, Fletcher said the experience was "awesome".
"It was awesome to get Ewan McGregor onboard, he was absolutely stoked and it was top end conditions but he was taking it all in. He was absolutely ripping it, we had him on the wheel of the F50 and he was crossing the boat at 90+ km/h. There was certainly plenty of G-force and we were throwing it around the corners. Sailing with Ewan McGregor was certainly not anything I thought I'd be doing when I was ripping around with on my Laser Pico on Pitsford Reservoir as a kid."
Race day two of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix kicks off at 20:30 BST on Sunday, with all the action available to watch live in the UK on TNT Sports 3.