With just four events left of the Rolex SailGP Championship’s 2025 Season, Emirates GBR Driver Dylan Fletcher gives his thoughts on the road to the Grand Final in Abu Dhabi on 29-30 November.
Emirates GBR currently sits in third place on the season leaderboard, and the team needs to remain in the top three to have a chance of becoming the 2025 Season Champions, and securing the $2m prize pot that comes with it.
SailGP is unlike other sports, as although teams are competing to score points throughout the season, the all-important Grand Final is decided on a winner-takes-all race between the top three teams across the season. It means that although a team could be way ahead of the rest of the fleet on points, they may lose out if they do not secure the win in the final race. This is what we saw in the 2024 Season Grand Final, when underdogs Spain swooped into the top three at the very last moment to enter the final race and secure the win, despite New Zealand having the most points across the season.
Fletcher said: “The goal since we started this season has been to be in that Grand Final race in Abu Dhabi. We have been focused on delivering consistent results to get into the top three at the end of the season.”
Emirates GBR started the season off strong, with three podium results, including one win, in the first three events of the season, which were also Fletcher’s first three events as Driver for Emirates GBR. The crew then hit a stumbling block when the US events came around, but they managed to come back fighting at their home event in Portsmouth in July and had a miraculous recovery from a potentially season-ending crash in Sassnitz last month.
“Sassnitz was a big turning point,” Fletcher said.
“After the crash with the Americans, if we weren’t able to repair the F50, that would have cost us a lot of points. There’s no redress in SailGP like normal sailing, so we would have probably got one point for that event as opposed to the eight points we actually finished with, if we didn’t manage to repair the boat and get back on the start line for day two. We managed to get back into the top three after that result in Sassnitz, so we’re really thankful and appreciate all the hard work from the shore team and tech team to get us racing on that Sunday.”
Looking ahead to the last four events of the season, starting off with the ROCKWOOL France Sail Grand Prix in Saint Tropez this weekend, Fletcher said he anticipated them being “a bit of a mix”.
“We’ve seen some big breeze in Saint Tropez before but also some light win, so hopefully we get more strong wind and back on the 19-metre wings. Them we move to Geneva the following weekend, we think that may be pretty light but let’s find out. Cadiz on 3-4 October should be a fantastic venue and then Abu Dhabi and the end of the year for the Grand Final.”
SailGP returns with the ROCKWOOL France Sail Grand Prix in Saint Tropex on 13-14 September. UK viewers can watch the action live on TNT Sports.