SailGP Season 3 - Bermuda Recap

Well what a way to launch a new team into a sports series, third place in the opening event of SailGP season 3 and the first event for our new team, Canada.

It has been a huge six months since I first got involved with the Canadians. Back in November there was our team founder Fred Pye and a couple of others just starting to put pen to paper. As it was my third start up team I had a fair idea of how I wanted things to run and got right into the crew recruiting process. The plan was to first build everyone’s knowledge on foiling and the F50,  then up-skill them in foiling before working on the specific skills of sailing an F50. The tools: Numerous documents and discussions, a GC32 catamaran and the F50 simulator. 

For a driver (skipper) you really need to know and trust your crew as each person plays a huge roll in sailing these boats safely. A real challenge for me was I knew no Canadian sailors and had six months to get a squad ready to drive the F50 safely and competitively. Of course Covid was disruptive in trying to do everything as planned but I first got to meet a selected few in January and we started to build from there. 

To date we have been through three simulator sessions and two GC32 camps trialing the people we highlighted as having the potential skills to race the F50. What I was looking for was firstly their natural ability and feel, how fast people learnt and most importantly how people worked within a team.

We arrived in Bermuda one month before the event. SailGP is a monster of a project and it is surprising how little time there is to actually sail. The first 10 days of training were structured around learning the essentials : tacking and gybing,  turning upwind and downwind. We had varying weather conditions which also resulted in varying boat set ups. 

There are five different wing and foil configuration’s in SailGP and we managed to use them all during these days. 

Each configuration results in quite different styles of sailing the boat. Given the little time you have to train, maximising your time and learning with the not so common configurations is also a big priority. It may be six months before we see the 29m wing and light air foils again. In addition to this daily adjustment, we were also rotating crew daily to broaden the teams knowledge of the boat and give me a chance to see how people respond when sailing an F50 at high speeds. 

It is really hard to gauge each persons exact skills and expertise until you have sailed with them on the F50, so this was a key part to me picking my team. This meant that whilst the boat configuration was changing daily, so too was our crew and people’s positions onboard. The bonus to this was we were expanding our groups knowledge and also specific skill sets onboard. The downfall, time was being taken away from the eventual candidate and time is king in SailGP. 

One of the things that impressed me the most was we could jump on an F50, with a brand new group and we were able to foil tack and gybe in our first session. The boats are constantly getting refined by SailGP Technologies which is making them easier to sail for debutants. The hard part is gaining the experience that the top teams have and closing that gap of knowledge and skill. 

Once the first phase was complete and we had picked our race team, we were into the last six days of training. This was focused on becoming more consistent with our tacks and gybes, working on the harder maneuvers and also looking at sailing around a race track. What the race track adds is pressure. Pressure to perform your maneuvers inside the boundaries without the perfect set up. This is key, as you are mostly maneuvering in traffic during racing and it is rare you’re in a steady state environment to nail your tacks and gybes. Scrambling well is a good asset to have in your pocket. 

Practice race day arrived before we knew it and with 20 hours of F50 sailing under our belt we were as prepared as we were able to be. Luckily for us we were able to call on the experience of Chris Draper on the wing which has been a huge help in our learning process and safety onboard. 

To our surprise we ended up winning one of the practice races and got some great race learning under our belt too. 

Racing 

Our plan was to come in without high expectations, make sure we focused solely on learning and enjoy the experience. Well what happened next was not what I expected. 

We got off the start line in the first two races in great shape. Sailed really well and consistently around the course making great tactical decisions and managed to start the season with a 2nd place in race one and a 1st place in race two. Race three we jumped the gun at the start but clawed our way back to a 5th. Sitting atop the leader board on day one was not what we expected!! 

Race day two was a similar process. Lying in first place overnight, our focus didn’t sway from going out there to learn and gain valuable experience. Race one we started poorly and found ourselves near the back. After another monstrous effort we were scrapping for third when we messed up our bear away. A nose dive followed and we found ourselves at the back again. We recovered one position but we were disappointed with the mistakes we made, albeit not un-expected from a new team. 

We went into the final fleet race with a nice buffer to 4th so fleet management was key. We started well again and got near the front with our closest rivals behind. We managed them well, sailing conservatively to secure our spot in the final. 

The final is a unique race. The fleet drops from 9 down to the top three for a podium shootout. The tactics change completely here and experience in this style is again quite key, something we clearly lack (for now). We got off the line in a great position but just couldn’t hold off AUS at M1 to round second. We attacked the Aussies from here and went all in for the win. They did a solid job of matching all our moves (which is expected) and sailed on to win. By attacking AUS we let GBR back into the race, allowing a split and lost out to them on the final downwind to finish third overall in our first ever event. 

It is a funny feeling loosing a final. Obviously an incredible achievement to make the podium in the first place but knowing you had a shot at winning and not laying down your best performance leaves a feeling of “the glass half full” in the moment. 

Upon reflection it was a mammoth performance from the team in their first event and something I am really proud of. 

It’s been six months of hard work and dedication to learning which was well rewarded during the weekends races. 

We are under no illusion that we are racing against the best in the world and know we have so much to learn to catch up to them. We are more motivated by the result to dig deep into the data and video from our session in Bermuda to make sure we can take another step forwards in Chicago. 

26 hours of F50 sailing under our belt, 9,974 hours remaining until we’re experts!!

Phil Robertson - SailGP Canada Driver