The rebuild is underway.
Over the coming weeks, SailGP will race the clock to get the Black Foils’ F50 catamaran Amokura back on the water in time for the league’s Auckland regatta.
The vessel’s transom was ripped off after a crash with Switzerland in the opening race of the season in Perth last weekend, which ruled the Kiwis out of action for the rest of the weekend.
With the Auckland event just four weeks later, on February 14 and 15, the league has a tight turnaround to fix the damage. However, SailGP chief executive Sir Russell Coutts was confident the home team would be ready to race on the Waitemata Harbour.
“We’re working a 24-hour shift in the UK right now to build the parts and we expect those to be air freighted in time to meet the boat when it arrives here in New Zealand," Coutts said.
“We have a location and the repairs will be done at a New Zealand boat building facility so everything is on track for the Black Foils to make it onto the start line for the event here.”
With the construction of the league’s 14th boat well underway, there was initial consideration that parts might have been taken from that vessel to repair that of the Kiwis. While the league will move to 14 teams in 2027, boat 14 is expected to join the fleet this year with an existing team and one of the older F50s will be made available for the newly announced training base at the American Magic facility in Pensacola, Florida.
However, with the new boat almost finished, Coutts said the decision was made that there was no real advantage in taking parts back off it.
“By working the 24-hour shift, we’re able to build the new parts without butchering boat 14, so that was the preferred option.”
All going well, Auckland will be the first time the league will see 13 teams on the water together. In Perth, the Spanish team were unable to compete after their boat was damaged during training earlier in the week.
While the league is expecting to move to a split-fleet format for racing in 2027, the all-in racing made for tight racecourses this season – as seen in the Perth regatta.
“There were some mistakes made by some of the athletes and there was a collision. Occasionally, you’re going to get that. I think our safety protocols are right at the top and we want to continue in that way,” Coutts said.
“Yes, it is going to be a tight racecourse, it’s going to be congested, and they’ll be fighting for their spots.”
In a hugely competitive league and teams battling for maximum points, Artemis Sweden driver Nathan Outteridge said teams would be pushing the boat-on-boat situations.
“The boats are really fast, and everyone’s punching into little gaps. If you give an inch, you’ll get passed by a few boats,” Outteridge said. “That’s one thing we were saying at the start of the day, just do whatever you can to not have an incident like that and just keep chipping away.”
Outteridge, who returned to SailGP at the helm of the league newcomers, said the playing field felt much smaller now than his most recent appearance in the league in 2024, and stressed the importance of staying out of trouble during racing.
“We’ve got courses that are shorter than they used to be with more boats. It might look good as a spectator, but it feels a bit gnarly when you’re out there racing in the pack and the boats would just love to stretch their legs and go a bit faster, but I appreciate the grandstands are on land and the space is on the water. So, unless they can build the grandstands to go further up the side of the track, it’s probably not going to get longer.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.