Sailing-Bigger and Faster, SailGP Back where it all Began In Sydney

By Nick Mulvenney

SYDNEY, Feb 7 (Reuters) – SailGP go back to where it all began in Sydney this weekend and 6 years on from the inaugural race, co-founder Russell Coutts sees a bright future for the innovative global sailing league.

An Olympic champion and skipper of three Americas Cup-winning boats, Coutts partnered with Larry Ellison, the billionaire creator of the Oracle software application company, to launch the series with 6 teams all owned by the league.

While the inaugural season which started in Sydney in February 2019 included simply 5 rounds, this weekend’s race will be the third round of 13 the now 12-strong fleet will contest on the 2025-26 schedule.

„It’s just incredible, in fact, the uptake and number of events now,“ SailGP chief executive Coutts told Reuters at the Sydney Opera House on Friday.

„We’re certainly sitting at 13, and aiming to increase that over the next seasons to someplace around 20. If you compare that to Formula One that has 24, that’s sort of where we wish to get to. So yeah, the future looks excellent.“

The concept of Formula One on water is implicit in the league’s name and wiki.rrtn.org the contrast is not far from the mark when the world’s finest sailors press the F50 hindering catamarans to their limitations at what are awesome speeds for waterborne vessels.

„We didn’t set out to just attract the devoted sailing fan, we attempt to make this sport understandable and explainable for all sports fans,“ Coutts included.

„Most of our fans are not avid sailors, and that’s one of the reasons that we have actually grown so quickly. We are appealing to individuals that simply like viewing a race, they don’t need to comprehend anything about sailboats.“

A bumper crowd of 25,000 ticketed fans ended up to see Tom Slingsby’s Australia team win the 2nd round of the series in Auckland last month.

„I believe you’ll see several of our occasions this year now like that, perhaps even topping that,“ said Coutts, a 62-year-old New Zealander.

„The most important thing is the fans viewing on broadcast … however the fan experience on site is likewise extremely crucial. We want fans to come and have a fun time and see some excellent racing.“

Technological development is integral to SailGP and numerous countless information points are communicated from the boats to the Oracle Cloud for using race organisers, teams and to assist broadcasters enhance the audience experience.

360 DEGREE VIEW

Coutts is excited about some more coming online as Artificial Intelligence is significantly employed to work through the mountain of data.

„The big development for us going forward is the 360 degree view from on board the boat, with listening to the group comms,“ he said.

„The audience will be taken on board and ride together with the Australian team in a race, and be able to look around any place they want. That’s the future.“

There have, gdprhub.eu naturally, been challenges over the 6 years with the second season interrupted by the COVID pandemic and chessdatabase.science race days still sometimes at the grace of wind conditions.

A scarcity of F50s suggested the French team was unable to contend at this year’s season-opening race in Dubai and damage to the boat once they got it ruled them out of the Auckland leg.

The complete fleet of 12 boats will therefore race for the very first time this weekend and iwatex.com one of the most pleasing elements for Coutts is that all but one of the teams are, or galgbtqhistoryproject.org quickly will be, independently owned or run.

„These groups are now offering for $50 million, I would never ever have forecasted that this early on,“ said Coutts, who plans to bring another couple of groups on board next year.

„We knew that that was the entire method the model was established, that team owners would have the ability to trade their teams and ideally earn money out of it, however I didn’t believe we ‘d attain it this early. That’s been a great surprise.“ (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Michael Perry)