SailGP: USA snatches win in Valencia
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 6 Sep 15:07 BST
USA wins Final - Day 2 - Spain Sail Grand Prix - Valencia - September 6, 2026 © Benjamin Rosewall/SailGP
Light winds held the trump card on the Final day of racing in Spain Sail Grand Prix, Valencia.
The start of racing was delayed by 25 minutes in what should have been two more qualifying races, as race managers waited for the breeze to settle and freshen. It did neither, peaking at 7.5kts, and often less, resulting in each Group only sailing one race of just four legs, including the sprint off the start and a short reach to the finish.
The shortened series meant that fancied teams who had got themselves buried in the mid-range or worse on the overnight leaderboard had little chance to recover and make the Final.
Once again, light winds and marginal foiling conditions played into the hands of the match racers, with the two top practitioners, Phil Robertson (Red Bull Italy) and Taylor Canfield (SailGP USA), topping their Group scores, and looked set to go head-to-head in the Final.
However, Robertson was too early for the start of the Final and had to drop back to complete his penalty.
He fought back to make contact with the two leaders, Tom Slingsby (Bonds Flying Roos) and Taylor Canfield (USA), who swapped the lead going up the fourth leg of the Final. The final play came just short of the top mark as Canfield returned Slingsby's play to the same place on the third leg.
This time it was Canfield who came in foiling on starboard tack, picked his moment to tack for the mark, just ahead of Slingsby on port and made the final mark with just enough lead to be able to defend on the reach to the finish line, with the Australian team crossing 11 seconds after the USA.
The Bonds Flying Roos finished just 5 seconds ahead of a fast-finishing Italian team.
Group Racing Points after Day 2 and four races completed:
Group A: USA 15pts; DEN 14pts; ESP 14pts; GER 7pts; CAN 5pts; FRA 5pts
Group B: ITA 15pts; AUS 12pts; GBR 11pts; SUI 8pts; SWE 6 pts; NZL 5pts; BRA 3pts
Final: USA 10pts; AUS 9pts; ITA 8pts; DEN 7pts; ESP 6pts; GBR 5pts; SUI 4pts; GER 3pts; SWE 2pts; CAN 1pt; NZL0pts; FRA 0pts; BRA 0pts