When the Black Foils begin their campaign at this weekend’s SailGP regatta in France, it will be the start of a challenge unlike any other they have faced on the circuit so far.
After the global foiling league had its first back-to-back events earlier in the season with theevents in Los Angeles and San Francisco, this weekend’s racing in Saint-Tropez is the first of three regattas in four weeks.
The fleet will travel from France to Switzerland for next week’s event on Lake Geneva, before venturing down to Cadiz, Spain, for racing the first weekend in October.
“I’m quite happy going back-to-back. I like the intensity,” Black Foils strategist Liv Mackay said.
“We don’t get a lot of sailing time on the F50, so every time you’re on the boat, you’re still learning a lot and I think that, given that time together as a team, you really make a big jump. When we had LA and San Fran, for us, I feel like we grew a lot as a team actually in San Fran.
“We got fourth there, but we felt like we were so close again to the final and that had been previously a challenging venue for us. You’ve definitely got to manage yourself well and with your energy, but I think any challenge is a good one. Adding Cadiz in there a couple of weeks after Geneva is also going to be a new dynamic as well.”
Coming into Saint-Tropez, the Black Foils sit second on the overall leaderboard. Photo / SailGP
While the run is a first for the league, it is also a four-week stretch that will see the best teams emerge from the pack. The three regattas are the last before the season finale in Abu Dhabi in late November, after which the top three teams in the season standings will race for the title.
Coming into Saint-Tropez, the Black Foils sit second on the overall leaderboard.
With 61 points, they’re level with leaders Australia, however, the Flying Roos had a better finish than their Kiwi rivals in Sassnitz.
For the Kiwis, it was a tough event. However, aside from the regatta in Sydney where they finished eighth, the NZ crew has done a superb job of damage limitation. Sydney is the only event in which they have finished outside the top five, with two wins, two seconds, two fourths and a fifth.
“It’s an exciting time from a performance perspective,” Mackay said of the stretch ahead.
“Right now, these previous few weeks, it’s been [about] doing a lot of work around the learnings from Sassnitz [Germany], which was quite a challenging event for us.
“So really digging in deep there, but also trying to top up the energy, especially these last few days, just going into these four weeks, because, yes, we have a couple of days off here and there, but the events are really quite intense. They take a lot out of you.
“It’s really important to go into it fresh, which we all are, and ready to get into these three more or less back-to-back events.”
Top-end conditions are forecast, with practice racing called off last night due to high winds. The full 12-team fleet is expected to be back in action in France this weekend, with Brazil and USA having their boats repaired after damage ruled them out of some or all racing in Germany.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
