At the conclusion of two days racing on Sydney Harbour where Ben Ainslie’s SailGP Team GBR won the event, Bow Caddy spoke with Ben Ainslie, Tom Slingsby, Nathan Outteridge, Phil Robertson, Rome Kirby and Nicolai Sehested as well as Leo Takahashi to get their views on the regatta.

Congratulations to Ben Ainslie, skipper of the SailGP Great Britain Team on winning the first round of season 2 of SailGP, taking out 4 of the 5 fleet races and beating Australia in the match race.

Ben Ainslie talks about the differences in intensity between SailGP and America’s Cup racing and describes SailGP as some of the most enjoyable competition he has been involved with.

Tom Slingsby’s Team Australia made a strong comeback on Day 2 of the regatta to take second place in the fleet race series, putting them up against Ben Anslie’s Team Great Britain in the match race. Tom talks about how the team improved on the second race day and describes the technical issues that resulted in a penalty at the start of the Match race.

Nathan Outteridge’s Team Japan just missed out on the chance to compete in the match race by a narrow margin but they are pleased with the performance of their new team giving them a solid third place in tough competition. He talks about the impacts of wing and foil wash on close quarters racing.

Leo Takahashi, the new flight controller for Team Japan talks about his rapid rise to the senior ranks of the crew which resulted in a pleasing third place for the team. He is looking forward to taking on the heavier winds of San Francisco in the next event.

Phil Robertson’s Team Spain were happy with placing second three times in the five fleet races setting them up for fourth place overall in the regatta. With an all new team except for Phil, it was an remarkable performance which could have been even better had it not been for their penalty count of 9 points over the event.

Rome Kirby’s Team USA put in a solid performance for the first round in season two of Sail GP placing fifth in the event. They are looking forward to the next round of the series in their home country.

Nicolai Sehested, skippering the totally new Danish team placed sixth in the event having had very little on-boat experience. They are looking forward to reviewing their performance and getting to grips with more consistency in their manoeuvres.

Having focused all their efforts on the specific conditions of the Sydney event, they will now need to refocus on the more demanding San Francisco conditions.

by Bow Caddy Media