Australia takes victory in inaugural SailGP grand final

Skipper Tom Slingsby went head-to-head with fellow Australian Nathan Outtridge, the skipper of Team Japan, on the Marseille course. Flukey winds meant the final race to decide the series almost didn’t happen, and Australia – sailing blind with next to no electronics – drew a penalty pre-start for entering the start box too early.

Team Australia, second over the line at the start, spent the first part of the race chasing down Team Japan before taking advantage of a wind shift on the course late in the race to tack ahead of Japan and clinch the win.

At one point late in the race, the boats almost touched as they crossed tacks.

“I like to think that Australia has some of the best sailors in the world; to be able to cement our country as the champions in the first inaugural season SailGP season is a huge honour,” Slingsby said after the race.

“Throughout the race we were behind after we received a penalty at the pre-start, but we
kept fighting as only Aussies can,” he said.

“And when we got the opportunity to overtake Japan, we took it and sailed away for the win.”

The $US1 million ($A1.5 million) will be split between sailing and shore team members.

Outtridge said Team Australia made fewer mistakes on the course, which handed them the title.

“He [Slingsby] made one mistake, we took the lead, we made another mistake, he took the lead, he didn’t make another one,” Outtridge said in a post-race interview.

“That’s how it went. It’s amazing that you can spend all year fighting each other and have lots of little battles, and it comes down to two errors.”

SailGP Season 2 will open on February 28-29, 2020 in Sydney, allowing Slingsby to start the season defending the championship title on his home waters.