SailGP Sydney: New Zealand SailGP Team finish third after blowing start in Sydney final

Sometimes one mistake is all it takes to derail a race.

Unfortunately for the New Zealand SailGP Team, their quest to bag a third event title in a row was undone as soon as the final in Sydney began as they claimed a third-place finish.

The Kiwis looked well-positioned in the starting box as the clock ticked down to start the race, but got their execution wrong and crossed the starting line early and were hit with an on course side (OCS) penalty.

They then came in close quarters with the Australians but were able to get out of the way, which ultimately might have hurt the Kiwis more as the Australians were also hit with an OCS penalty.

That meant both teams had to drop to the back of the fleet, gifting Denmark the lead at the first marker. Australia recovered faster than New Zealand, who were left sailing in dirty air for much of the race and hoping for one of the other teams to make a mistake.

That didn’t happen, though Tom Slingsby and the Australian team sailed a superb race after their terrible start to claim their first event win of the season and extend their lead atop the season standings.

The Australians now hold an eight-point advantage over the Kiwis in the race to the grand final in San Francisco in July, where the top three teams at the end of the season will race for a US$2 million prize.

It was a tough way to end a solid weekend of racing from the New Zealand crew, who were unfazed by a return to sailing in decent breeze after a couple of light-air events in the last two regattas.

Notching up a third, fifth and first on the opening day of racing, New Zealand sat third on the leaderboard heading into Sunday’s final two fleet races – trailing Australia and Denmark by two points.

Sunday’s racing saw more of the same from the New Zealand crew, with a strong start in the event’s fourth fleet race seeing them finish second, before a rather tame performance in the final fleet race where they finished sixth.

They didn’t need to send it in that last race, though. The three teams that led going into the day remained in the podium spots, though Germany ticked off a significant milestone with their first SailGP win in race four.

The league will now turn its attention to its second event in New Zealand with the fleet headed to race on Lyttelton Harbour on the weekend of March 23.

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