SailGP San Francisco

I had the opportunity to experience the F50 (50 feet long) foiling catamarans up close and personal at the recent Sail Grand Prix (SailGP) in San Francisco on May 3rd. Watching the racing online is great to behold but seeing the racing up close in person was exhilarating. The speeds they were hitting from 40 to 45 knots (46-51 mph) was insan. These boats while racing are literally only feets apart particularly at the start of each race, during marke roundings, or when crossing each other when heading up wind at 50 mph. Incredible boat handling skills.

See full race videos at the bottom of this page!

I was on one of the official SailGP cruise boats, right on the edge of the course where no other spectator boats were allowed. So the view was great. I talked to a lot of people on the cruise boat and was surprised how many on board have never sailed, or were new to sailing. For me this was exciting to realize so many were interested in sailing that otherwise may not have been. Most indicated they had seen the boats racing on youtube and were very interested in seeing them in person. Not a single person I talked to was disappointed they had come. You could hear people wooing and owing at the sight of these high speed F50's racing. Besides having food included in the price of the ticket to be on board, the boat had live video on several TV's and persons on board giving racing/sailing commentary as the races were taking place. Very well run I might add.

I was rooting for Team USA to improve since the last series that took place in Australia. The whole team is new to foiling and all are the youngest sailors in the series, all are American. The goal is for each team from each country to only have sailors from that country, currently  that is not the case as some countries do not have enough sailors trained to sail these boats, but eventually it will happen. So for the Americans it has been a big learning curve for them. In Australia they finished in last place but after all the racing in San Francisco they are now in 4th place. Team Australia and Team Japan (7 team members, 4 from Aus, one from NZ, 2 from Japan, skipper is Aus) are the big guns with with the most experience foiling and are older. So Team USA has their work cut out for them but based on this race series results it appears they are up to the task.

My evaluation of Team USA in Australia before the San Francisco regatta is that they did not have the pace and seemed to not be using the course to their advantage, tacking to much, etc. This time they looked well oiled and not making big mistakes. There only issue is that they just did not quite have the speed that Teams like Japan and Australia had. Being just a knot of speed slower is hugge disadvantage.

Another improved team was Team Great Britain (GBR), they were all that was in the way of Team USA from getting into 3rd place. My prediction is that Team GBR and USA will not only push each other in the next series but give the big guns a run for their money. Team China (skipper is from NZ, with 2 from Aus, 1 from France, 3 from China) and Team France were well back in the pack but had some good starts. China the day before the racing started damaged their wing sail in a nose dive, so that may have had an affect on their performance (maybe the wing sail was not perfect) and confidence. I certainly expect both teams to step it up a lot with the next races to take place in New York Harbor on June 21.

Many sailors who seem to not be fans of multihulls and these F50's have expressed their doubts that these sailboats will put on an exciting and tactical races, and only be a drag race. What has been shown is the opposite with close racing, many position changes, including a high level of athleticism not required of other slower sailing disciplines. See the following videos and visit sailgp.com website for continuous updates and news, etc.

The following is a video and pics from my cell phone, along with sailgp videos

For some reason I lost most of my videos on my phone but here is one short 14 sec. video

Here is a video taken from a ferry in San Fran showing Team China blasting past

Here is an official race video you can watch to see races from start to finish