SailGP Cadiz: Black Foils ride SailGP rollercoaster to sit third in Spain

On an unpredictable day of racing, the Black Foils made their mark.

Dealing with light, patchy wind on top of a bumpy sea state in SailGP’s return to Cadiz in Spain, results were all over the place across the 12-team fleet.

But in their bid to solidify their position in the top three for the season, the Black Foils traded good for bad to sit third after the opening four races.

The New Zealand crew finished 11th, second, sixth and third across the day, sitting 10 points back from regatta leaders Denmark (32).

Great Britain - currently second on the season leaderboard - also had a strong day, sitting second with 31 points.

Importantly for the Black Foils, they had a better day on the water than the Spanish, who are the only team that can realistically force their way into the top three come November’s grand final.

Things got off to a bad start for the Kiwis as they were forced out of position in the pre-start after being pushed wide by Denmark. That saw the Kiwis have to put the brakes on and be on the back foot early.

On a day when passing lanes were tough to find, that made things tricky for the Kiwis and they finished next to last - beating only the Spanish over the finish line.

They bounced back straight away, with a fast start in race two seeing them sailing among the leaders of the fleet. They were able to sail a clean race and finish in second.

An issue on board in race three saw what could have been another great result turn into a mid-table finish, after they held the lead early before falling off the foils near the second gate.

But the Black Foils were able to finish the day with a strong result; a third-placed finish setting them up nicely to cement their position on the podium on the second day of racing.

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.