SailGP Germany: SailGP speed record broken, Black Foils in contention in Sassnitz

The Black Foils consistently found themselves chasing the fleet on the opening day of racing in Germany. Photo / SailGP

Ahead of the opening day of SailGP’s debut event in Germany, it seemed as though the league’s speed record might come under threat.

With the wind towards the top end of the range, the fleet were set up in their high-speed configurations, including the use of the 18m wingsail for the first time this season.

It took until the third race of the day, but a new SailGP speed record was eventually set, with Denmark hitting 103.93kmh as they veered away from the first mark.

With high speeds and patchy winds making things tricky, there were mixed results across the fleet. For New Zealand’s Black Foils, results of fifth, fourth, 10th and first left them sitting second on the event leaderboard at the end of the day.

“It was super tight racing all day; really snakes and ladders,” Black Foils strategist Liv Mackay said.

“It’s always good to take the race win but it was all to play for all day. It’s very interesting out there.”

There were four different winners across as many races, with Germany, Great Britain and Australia also picking up victories. Australia were the most consistent team of the day and held an eight-point lead at the top of the standings.

The United States and Great Britain will be racing the clock to return to the water on day two after both boats were damaged in a collision late in race four. The Americans were the team in the wrong, ploughing into the side of the British, who had the right of way.

Both teams were forced to retire from the race and will now race against time to get back on the starting line tomorrow. The USA were penalised 12 event points and 8 season points for the incident.

The fleet were already down to 11 boats for the regatta after the Brazilian team’s boat suffered major damage in practice racing, while France were able to get back on the starting line after their boat was damaged in practice as well.

For the Black Foils, it was largely a case of chasing the fleet as they were consistently a bit slow off the mark at the start.

For the most part, they were able to claw their way up through the fleet to limit the damage, with plenty of opportunities to make moves in the Sassnitz conditions.

It wasn’t until the last race of the day that the Kiwis finally nailed their start, and they made it count.

“It was nice to finally get one good one,” Black Foils driver Peter Burling said.

“I was finding it a bit tough all day [but] finally got some space up top so we could let it rip, which was nice.”

The teams will have all to play for when racing resumes tomorrow, with three more fleet races scheduled before the top three teams contest the event title.

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