SailGP Germany: Black Foils finish fourth in Sassnitz, France claim first win of the season

The Black Foils will have to go back to the drawing board.

In an eventful weekend of racing in SailGP’s debut event in Germany, the New Zealand crew were unable to continue their recent run of form, settling for a fourth-placed finish in Sassnitz. France won the event, claiming their first title of the season.

It was an impressive turnaround for Quentin Delapierre and his crew. In practice racing on Saturday morning (NZT), the French boat was damaged, with the rudder snapping off in a high-speed nosedive.

Delapierre was transported to a local hospital after the crash to be assessed for injuries, but was cleared and was able to join his team on the starting line for the beginning of fleet racing.

“It’s high and lows. It’s an amazing feeling for the team. It’s been a while that we didn’t win a grand prix so it’s a super nice feeling,” Delapierre said.

For the Black Foils, it was a case of poor starts costing the team as they started all three fleet races on the second day of racing on the back foot. That saw them fall down the leaderboard after sitting second following the opening day of action.

The day saw just 10 teams competing as the United States joined Brazil on the sidelines with a damaged boat.

The Americans blew the nose off one of their hulls of their F50 catamaran in a collision with Great Britain in the last race on day one. The crash came as they failed to give room to the Brits, who had the right of way on starboard tack.

The collision caused damage to both vessels, however the shore team were able to repair the British boat overnight and get it back onto the starting line.

The Americans weren’t in such a fortunate position with the damage their boat sustained, and they were also penalised 12 event points and eight season points for causing the incident.

It seemed there were no ill effects of the damage caused to the British boat, either, as Dylan Fletcher and his team won two of the three fleet races this morning, finishing second to Switzerland in the third.

It was a different day in terms of the conditions, with lighter, more patchy winds making for a testing racecourse with plenty of potential for error.

The Black Foils found themselves chasing the fleet in all three races as they were consistently slow off the starting line.

While they did find their way through the fleet throughout the day, a ninth and two fifth-placed finishes weren’t enough to see them through to the podium race.

It’s the first time in the last three events that the Black Foils have missed the podium race, and it also saw them lose their spot at the top of the season leaderboard.

The event saw things tighten up at the top in that regard, as France beat Australia and Great Britain in the podium race.

The French went into the event sitting in sixth, with the Australians in second and the British in third. After the results in Germany, Australia take over the top spot - level on 61 points with the Black Foils - with Great Britain staying in third, three points back, and France moving up to fifth.

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