Sailing: New Zealand likely to benefit from Sail GP expansion plans

The SailGP fleet in action in Denmark. Photo / SailGP

By Matt Brown in Copenhagen

Sail GP CEO Sir Russell Coutts has dropped a broad hint New Zealand is likely to host two events on the foiling F50 catamaran series in the not-too-distant future.

Christchurch makes its debut in March as the penultimate leg of series three, an 11-race series, and will alternate with Auckland as part of a four-year deal.

But speaking to the Herald following the conclusion of round four in Copenhagen Coutts outlined his vision for rapid expansion that will see at least 13 and possibly 15 events held in season four in 2023-24.

SailGP will have a brief hiatus during the America's Cup and Olympics in 2024 before ramping up further with plans for as many as 20 events and 16 teams involved by season six in 2026.

Coincidentally the Auckland/Christchurch deal in its existing form ends in 2026, by which time both cities could potentially host an event in the same season.

Coutts says given the rate of expansion and time frames it would be logical to hold events in Auckland and Christchurch with a two-weeks between them.

"Absolutely, the fact that we have our assets containerised means we can ship pretty quickly either by road or sea. In that case, it would be by road. So, let's say we have an event in Auckland, and then we have an event in Christchurch, we could do that with a two-week gap."

"We are seeing demand growing and there are many venues that we are in discussion with, and there are multiple venues and countries that want to host SailGP events. So, we will definitely move to that sort of format in the future. No doubt."

Sail GP has expanded steadily since its debut season in 2019 where there were just five events and six teams. It was postponed a year due to the Covid pandemic but expanded to eight events and eight teams including New Zealand's debut in season two. This season there are nine teams with the addition of Switzerland and Canada while Japan has dropped out and there are 11 race venues.

"The ultimate aim is to have 16 teams in two parallel leagues with cross events, a little bit like you see in some of the tours like golf where they have major events yet might have a US Tour, European Tour etc but in the big events the top players come together. It's similar to the eastern and western conferences in some of the US Sports where they have their playoffs and Grand Finals," Coutts said.

A more condensed season is also on the cards in order to retain fan engagement and create appointment viewing. This season after the Spanish event in Cadiz on September 24-25, the next event in Dubai is not until the middle of November before a two-month gap before the event in Singapore in mid-January. There are four week breaks before the Sydney and Christchurch events and another two months before the season finale in San Francisco. Coutts acknowledges that's not ideal.

"If we could wave a magic wand today, we'd have an event every two weeks because then your fans that are following SailGP just like the fans that follow motorsport, they might not know where an event is, but they know it's on every second weekend. So, they search for it and therefore follow it. We have to get to that stage in the future and that's one of the thoughts behind having two parallel leagues," Coutts explained.

"There's a lot of efficiencies with that as well in terms of moving containers around the world, costs and logistics, being able to pack events into a tighter schedule. So, I could see a time in the future where, in the Southern Hemisphere, you have multiple events, in Australia and New Zealand, instead of only having one event per season, you might have two events in some of those countries. You then might go to North America and do four or five events there."

Coutts says they are in active discussions with half a dozen venues clamouring to be part of the circuit. It's thought there could be an additional round of the series held in the United States, in Europe and potentially the Middle East where Dubai debuts this season.

The 10th boat is close to be completed at the Sail GP Technologies factory in Warkworth north of Auckland with construction of the 11th boat underway. Time frames for the boat builds are typically six months.

"So potentially there could be two more teams on the circuit next season," Coutts said.

"One of the reasons why Japan really got dropped was because not only had they not had commercial success, but there just wasn't a strong pipeline of discussions going on in Japan either. Whereas many of the other markets, particularly some of these teams that are vying to get into the league, they'll come fully funded, perhaps even profitable from day one, which is what you want. With a diverse group of partners, ultimately, you want a diverse group of partners so that if you lose one, over time, you can replace it, and the whole thing doesn't stop while you're finding a replacement," Coutts said.