The New Zealand SailGP team will look to claim the season title in San Francisco this weekend. Photo / Ricardo Pinto / SailGP

SailGP Grand Final: All you need to know as Kiwis eye maiden title

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Author: Christopher Reive,
Publish Date: Sat, 6 May 2023, 2:17pm

Season three of SailGP reaches its climax on the waters of San Francisco this weekend, with one team set to claim the US$1 million prize.

While each stop on the circuit usually consists of five fleet races and a podium race – in which the top three teams on the event leaderboard after the five races contest for the top spot – there is no podium race for the San Francisco event.

The event itself is decided by the fleet races. The standings at the end of the fifth race dictate where each team places for the event, and their points are added to the overall standings. Once those points are added, the top three teams on the overall ladder will return to the water to compete in a stand-alone shootout for the season title.

So, it is the same format as every other event, but rather than the top three teams for the event going in to contest an event title in the last race of the weekend, the top three teams overall will contest the season title instead.

Heading into the final event of the season, Australia – the two-time defending SailGP champions – holds a big lead at the top of the table, and only an un-sailable vessel can prevent them from contesting the three-way shootout.

The Kiwis sit second, 11 points behind Australia. On 73 points, they sit four above France and five above Great Britain. With 10 points being awarded to the event-winner (the team at the top of the leaderboard after five fleet races) and descending in value, with the ninth-placed team getting two, the Kiwis do have some work to do to ensure they are in the final race, but should feel confident about their position.

It likely shapes up as a five-race series between France and Great Britain to decide who the final team in the US$1m race will be. A tiebreaker for SailGP’s season leaderboard will mean the team who performed best in the most recent event goes ahead, which could be a factor in San Francisco.

How have the Kiwi crew sailed this season?

After a heavily disrupted debut in season two, the Kiwis’ sophomore outing has seen drastic improvements in their performance. Not only have they shown pace on the one-design F50 foiling catamaran, but they have also been consistent onboard.

Likely aided by the fact that almost everyone in the team is also involved with Team New Zealand’s current America’s Cup campaign, the group has made the most of their time together and become one of the fleet’s best units.

The Kiwis have won more races than any other team this season with 16; Australia are the closest team with 11. Both teams have won three events each. However, Australia holds a commanding lead in the standings as New Zealand were twice docked points for on-water incidents – losing two season points at each of the Dubai and Singapore stops.

The New Zealanders bring a settled group into San Francisco, with Peter Burling at the helm, Blair Tuke on wing trimming duties, Liv Mackay in the strategist role, Andy Maloney as the flight controller, and Josh Junior, Marcus Hansen and Louis Sinclair providing the power on the grinding pedestals.

Heading into this weekend’s season finale, Burling said a lot had changed for the team since last season’s event in San Francisco.

“Last year in San Fran, we had effectively decided we’d be better off putting our efforts into trying to improve the team rather than trying to win a particular event.

“It’s a pretty unique race format where you get such a limited training time that essentially every time you change something significant with how you’re operating the boat, it takes a lot of time to get back to where you were. Now, a lot of the time, you’re going backwards to hopefully go further forwards in the long term.

“This time around, we’ve got a steady line-up, we’re really happy with how we’ve been sailing the boat; just making some minor tweaks and just looking forward to trying to put together the best performance we can.”

One title has already been decided this weekend, with Denmark dethroning the Kiwis as champions of SailGP’s Impact League, which judges the teams on several categories around conservation and promoting the sport.

Equation for the Kiwis to confirm their place in the Grand Final race

If New Zealand finish ninth (75 total season points): France would overtake them by finishing fifth or higher; Great Britain would do so finishing fourth or higher.

Eighth: France would overtake them by finishing fourth or higher; Great Britain third.

Seventh: France would overtake them by finishing third or higher; Great Britain would do so with a top-two finish.

Sixth: France would overtake them by finishing in the top two; Great Britain would need to be the top team after the five fleet races to surpass the Kiwis.

Fifth: France would overtake them with an event win; Great Britain would be unable to do so.

Fourth: The Kiwis would finish the season in second place regardless of where any other team finished the San Francisco event and would go on to the final race.

How to watch

SailGP’s final event of the season will be broadcast live on Sky Sport 2 and on the Sky Sport Now app from 9.30am on Sunday (the first three fleet races) and Monday (two fleet races and the stand-alone Grand Final race). The racing will also be streaming live on the SailGP YouTube channel.