SailGP Christchurch: From Denmark to New Zealand, now Switzerland for Nathan Outteridge

From rival to teammate, back to rival again.

The New Zealand SailGP Team’s relationship with driver Nathan Outteridge has been a complicated one in recent events.

A teammate to many of the Kiwi team in the America’s Cup world, Outteridge will sail the rest of the SailGP season at the helm of the Swiss boat as regular driver Sebastien Schneiter is stepping away to focus on his Olympics campaign.

After sailing the last two SailGP events for Denmark and New Zealand respectively, Outteridge will have his name on the side of a third boat in as many regattas in Christchurch this weekend.

While they’re back to being rivals in the SailGP arena, Black Foils strategist Liv Mackay told Newstalk ZB it had been beneficial to have Outteridge answer the call when regular helmsman Peter Burling was unavailable to race in Sydney.

“Every event we learn so much. We get so little time on the water that everything is so valuable and with Nathan helming, it was great,” Mackay said.

“We learnt a lot from him as a team and that whole dynamic and we had a few positional changes within the team other than Nathan, so it was a big success obviously, other than the final, for us in Sydney and we feel really strong coming into this event.”

It does, however, raise the question around just how much of their playbook teams should share with replacement drivers if the arrangement is short-term.

Outteridge has been an advisor for the Swiss team over the last couple of seasons and spent time at the helm with them this last year too. He’s also been very vocal about his desire to find a fulltime drive for season five.

SailGP is contested on one-design boats. Sailing data is collected from every vessel and is readily available to all teams. If a team find something that gives them an edge on the field - as the Kiwis and Australians seem to have done - they would want to keep that close to their chest.

With Outteridge now sailing the final five events of season four, Mackay said it felt like there had been something of a trade-off in information during last month’s regatta in Sydney, where they finished third.

“Every bit of IP or difference that you have as a team is very protected. The guys sail with Nathan quite a lot outside of SailGP so there’s obviously a lot of shared knowledge there, but of course we want to be ahead of everyone in SailGP.

“We’re here to win, so there was a fine balance but we equally probably learned quite a bit from Nath as he did from us, so it was a really valuable regatta for us.”

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