With experience has come opportunity for Brad Farrand.
After his debut season in SailGP with Italy, the Kiwi sailor is on the move for the new campaign as he joins Swedish entry Artemis for season six.
It was a move for which Farrand ticked all the right boxes.
Artemis have put together a strong team for their inaugural season with every member having experience on the F50 foiling catamarans. But Farrand is a known quantity to the Artemis group, sailing with them in the RC44 class. He has also lived in Sweden for the past five years with his partner Karin Moen and their two children.
With his residency status and ability to speak the language, Farrand qualifies to sail with Artemis in SailGP as a Swedish national.
“There were rumours that the Swedish team was happening and then sure enough later through the year I found out that it was happening for sure when they asked if I’d be interested,” he told the Herald.
“Obviously I’ve been sailing with the Italians and it was a little bit of a tough move to make, but it was good overall because I think I had a great time with the Italians but I kind of felt like a natural choice to go across to the Swedes.”
Farrand will move into a new role on the F50 with Artemis, shifting from the G1 backwards-facing grinding position to the G2 where he will face forward, trim the jib and be able to assist with tactical decisions where necessary.
He will link up with Team New Zealand America’s Cup sailors and SailGP veterans Nathan Outteridge (driver) and Chris Draper (wing trimmer) on board.
Outteridge and Draper have already raced together in SailGP as part of the now-defunct Japanese team who finished second in season two.
Fellow Swedes Julia Gross (strategist, Italy) and Julius Hallstrom (grinder, Denmark) have also been signed. The team is yet to announce their flight controller.
While it will be the second-straight season that Farrand has joined a rookie team, he expected the experience in their ranks would make things a lot smoother.
“One of the learnings was we didn’t have that many experienced people on board the F50, or I should say F50 experienced people,” Farrand said, reflecting on his time with the Italian team.
“We had [wing trimmer] Kyle Langford. He was great, but it was a bit hard on him to be able to teach the whole team how to sail the boat, because the rest of us hadn’t sailed them before.
“It was a steep learning curve for everybody and the difference between that and what we’ve got this year with the Swedish team is ... everybody on board has had F50 experience at a very high level.
“We learned that it’s pretty tough to teach everybody how to sail the F50, but if you’ve got the experience already, hopefully [we’ll] be a force to be reckoned with straight off the bat.”
The Swedish group have already had their first opportunity to sail the F50s in preparation for season six, with some days on the water available to them after the grand final in Abu Dhabi last week.
They will, however, be thrust into different conditions in their first regatta when the new season commences in Perth in mid-January.
“The thing with SailGP is it’s really hard to get good quality practice time and Abu Dhabi was good for that, but the conditions we had in Abu Dhabi were basically sailing with training wheels on compared to what it’s going to be like in Perth where we’re going to have swell and big breeze.
“It was good to get that team dynamic dialled in Abu Dhabi, but we’re going to be lacking those training days in Perth. I think we will get a couple of training days, but yeah, you’ll always take as many as you can, but that’s just the nature of the beast of SailGP.”
Sweden
Nathan Outteridge – driver (free agent)
Chris Draper – wing trimmer (Australia)
Brad Farrand – grinder/jib trimmer (Italy)
Julia Gross – strategist (Italy)
Julius Hallstrom – grinder (Denmark)
Australia
Iain Jensen – wing trimmer (Great Britain
Great Britain
Stuart Bithell – wing trimmer (Germany)
Brazil
Rasmus Kostner – flight controller (Denmark)
Italy
Phil Robertson – driver (free agent)
Jana Germani – strategist (free agent)
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.